Translingual Identity of Postgraduate International Students in Australia

Translingual identity, as part of the translingual paradigm, is a concept that encompasses one’s hybrid language background, language practices, as well as sociocultural, ethno-racial, and religious backgrounds and represents them as elements that work in unison in its mobile and transformative construction. This chapter argues how transformative nature of translingual identity leads to the negotiation between the heritage legacy of cultural rituals and languages as well as those embedded within the host environment. Numerous migrant communities in a culturally and linguistically diverse Australian society are faced with a sociocultural and linguistic negotiation – saving the old while adapting to the new. As such, this chapter looks into international students’ construction of translingual identity as newly arrived migrants to Australia, and their sociolinguistic and cultural adaptation into the host community, as well as negotiation of multiple obstacles that they face in their integration process. Transtextual data analyses show how their linguistic integration is characterized by complex processes of negotiation between heritage and host language and culture, expansion of their repertoires, and initial cultural shock informed by the transition from academic English to everyday English. Ultimately, the findings in this chapter portray how translingual identity of international students is characterized by the continuous negotiation between the heritage attachments and new reality in terms of language and culture, and how in their process of adaptation, they still employ strategies and coping mechanisms that entail familiarity to preserve their well-being which is often disrupted with their migration. This research expands the literature on translingual identities, showing how linguistic and cultural integration of migrants does not entail a complete assimilation to the ways of life in the host community. Their integration is rather characterized by a negotiation of linguistic and cultural aspects of their translingual identity.