Abstract:
Growing up with two or more languages is the norm in many global contexts. Because of globalisation and increasing migration, schools around the world are becoming more multilingual and multicultural than ever before (Hornberger & Link, 2012). Due to the exposure not only to multiple languages but also to a range of multimodal and multisensory resources in everyday life, the linguistic capabilities and cultural experiences of children and young people across the world have become ‘increasingly diverse and dynamic’ (D’warte, 2018: 2). Young bilinguals and multilinguals possess translingual competencies that allow them to draw on multiple resources and deploy them with flexibility and purpose (Li Wei, 2014). This practice of translanguaging is increasingly recognised as the discursive norm for bilinguals and multilinguals and is largely accepted as a necessary process for the development of learners’ linguistic repertoires (Palmer et al., 2014). Schools play a significant role in children’s linguistic development. Although the potential for one language to support and reinforce the other has long been established (Cummins, 1979), educators still struggle to find ways in which children’s multiliteracy skills can be sustained and supported. By embracing children’s linguistic repertoires and by viewing language as a resource, teachers can support multilingual learners to engage more fully in their learning (Flynn et al., 2019; García et al., 2011). When school policies regard children’s home languages as problematic and discourage their use, there is a danger that the children may be deprived of the benefits of multilingualism. This could limit their language development (McMillan & Rivers, 2011), foster negative attitudes towards their home languages (Zúñiga, 2016), affect the formation of positive identities and can even lead to language loss (Rivers, 2014). Studies that have examined practices of translanguaging have presented a range of geographical and linguistic contexts. However, there is a notable absence of studies that have explored translanguaging in South Asia, despite this being one of the most multilingual and multicultural regions of the world. Much of the research on translanguaging has also been conducted within educational institutions. Fewer studies have focused on children’s languaging strategies outside the school context. Additionally, translanguaging studies have typically focused on bilinguals, with inadequate attention given to contexts incorporating more than two languages. This chapter seeks to address these gaps and to document the translanguaging practices of four children from the Maldives as they engaged in a series of storytelling tasks in the home context. Children in the Maldives are exposed to three languages from a young age: Dhivehi, Arabic and English. However, due to a school system that has adopted English-medium instruction (EMI) as the norm, English has become increasingly dominant in young people’s language practices (Mohamed, 2019). The following questions guided the study: (1) How do children utilise their linguistic resources when creating and telling stories to each other? (2) How are children’s narrations affected by placing limitations on the languages they could use? This study builds on the existing understandings of multilingual children’s peer interactions outside school, and makes connections to how EMI school policies may affect their language use.