Translanguaging theorising: mobilising Chinese international postgraduate researchers’ bilingual capabilities in Australian Universities

Abstract

To investigate whether and how international postgraduate researchers’ bilingual capabilities may facilitate their postgraduate research in particular theorising, this qualitative study adopts the theoretical lens of the relationship between translanguaging and research theorising, and analyses data that were collected through semi-structured interviews from both postgraduate researchers and research supervisors and postgraduate theses from Australian universities. Thematic analyses have identified and distilled the translanguaging theorising practices where Chinese postgraduate researchers mobilised an expansive integrated intellectual repertoire for theorising through translanguaging. Their translanguaging theorising practices are exemplified through three research scenarios, where these postgraduate researchers have engaged in translanguaging practices for a) expanding intellectual resources, b) theorising the research process, and c) hybridising theoretical dimensions. We argue that such translanguaging theorising of bilingual postgraduate researchers can then create a translanguaging space for theorising that facilitate the development of academic skills, the enrichment of data, the comprehension and refinement of theoretical perspectives and tools for original contribution to research. By so doing supervisors may assist bilingual postgraduate researchers grow into independent bilingual researchers.