Cameroon – ‘the African confusion of tongues’ - and language education. An insider’s reflection on translanguaging and research

Part of the SOAS Linguistics Research Seminar series

Speaker: Eric Ekembe (Visiting Associate Professor, University of Warwick) 

Research on multilingualism seems to posit reparative justice and give more credit to the colonial languages in ways that appear to be more performative than existential. Multilingual communities existed before the ‘civilising mission’, and given the injustice created by colonial languages, it is possible that (trans)languaging practices be mostly examined in reference to colonial languages. 

Drawing from present-day language practices in Cameroon, Eric Ekembe interrogates erstwhile conceptualisation of translingual practices in an attempt to further explore the depth of the situation. He argues that language(-in-)education policies drawn from translanguaging research may tend to perpetuate the same colonial practices that led to the systemic injustice that current research appears to be addressing.  

Attendance

This event is hybrid: on campus and on Teams (details below).

• Meeting ID: 349 990 373 528 226 7
• Passcode: wF6vB9Nw