The role of translanguaging in ELF advice sessions for asylum seekers

This chapter explores the role of translanguaging in ELF advice practices at a UK charity supporting refugees and asylum seekers. Previous research has highlighted how multilingualism is an essential aspect of ELF (Jenkins 2015) and the role of multilingual resources has received increased attention in the latest conceptualizations and linguistic analysis. However, the contribution and nature of multilingualism in relation to ELF need to be further investigated. This study addresses the role of translanguaging in ELF high stakes environments, such as advice services for refugees and asylum seekers. In this chapter, I first explore the notion of translanguaging, and then explain the linguistic ethnographic approach taken to collect and analyze the data. The qualitative analysis of the data shows the complexity of advice practices in relation to the use of multilingual resources in ELF, and demonstrates how translanguaging can be used for at least three functions, i.e. pedagogical, explanatory and interpersonal.