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@Linguist_CIOL DECEMBER/JANUARY The Linguist 25 REVIEWS Translanguaging is a fairly recent phenomenon arising from globalisation, the mass movement of people and the development of major cities where the languages spoken can be counted in the dozens – if not hundreds. The growth of mixed marriages has brought different and sometimes contrasting cultures closer together, and that in turn has led to a rapid rise in the number of young people who have been brought up with a foot in more than one culture – the son of an Anglo- Finnish couple marrying the daughter of an Anglo-Mexican couple, for example. According to Mike Baynham and Tong King Lee, this can lead to an element of disorientation, whereby the speaker of a language may have a perfect accent and knowledge of grammar but be out of touch with the cultural context. This reminds me of an Anglo-French student who confused £2.50 with 2.5lb, and another who thought Margaret Thatcher was president (though she may have given that impression herself). While this does mean that a massive store of language skills is being built up in the UK (one that goes well beyond the standard range of languages taught at school), it can cause practical difficulties, particularly with literacy in languages that use a non-Roman alphabet and accuracy in those with contrasting male and female inflections. As you might expect, Translanguaging and Translation compares translation, which tends to be formalised and regulated, and based on training and practice, with translanguaging, which looks at the many ways in which languages can blend, meld or have an impact on each other, especially where individual speakers have varying ranges of fluency in the languages they use. People select the language in which they feel most comfortable or can express themselves best. However, there are areas, such as formal speech, technical language and written style, where a speaker will switch between languages, sometimes even in the same sentence. Repertoire – i.e. the way in which a language is drawn on for a particular purpose – is an interesting concept, which will be found increasingly in multicultural and multilingual societies, especially in major urban areas with a transient population. Much of the book is couched in specialised language, which might discourage the general reader, but the Socratic dialogue at the beginning, and the examples from Anglo-Chinese encounters and the varieties of Global English, provide interesting insights into the topic. Transnational Literacy Autobiographies as Translingual Writing is a useful complement to Baynham and Lee's book, as it is based firmly on the experience of students with mixed linguistic backgrounds. Suresh Canagarajah reflects not only on his own memories as an overseas student learning to cope with new learning and teaching methods, but also on his work with students who speak a wide range of languages. The second half of the book is made up of "literacy autobiographies" with a focus on Chinese. Students in China are trained to present essays in a way that is totally different to practice in the West. One student even sees parallels between the American focus on structure and the 'eight-legged essay' used to select government officials under the Ming and Qing dynasties. The author's students write critically and honestly about their personal experiences of writing courses in the US, which will be of particular interest to teachers of a range of subjects, and may well cause them to reflect on their own attitudes when teaching students with an international background. Tim Connell FCIL Translation and translanguaging Mike Baynham & Tong King Lee Routledge 2019, 199 pp; ISBN 9781138067042 Paperback £29.99 Transnational Literacy Autobiographies as Translingual Writing Suresh Canagarajah Routledge 2019, 281 pp; ISBN 9780367201838 Paperback £36.99 A 1 T 2 G 3 T 4 C 5 H 6 E 7 S C U D O A 8 G O R A S H N D B U V C 9 U B A T 10 A L I S M A N R H A C N C 11 A T A 12 L A N T 13 O R A H C B R 14 U A 15 T 16 T A R G 17 O S S I P 18 S A D J 19 M O A 20 L L E L U I A M 21 A L I M M L N I A S 22 U P I N E I 23 O D I N E D C P A I D Crossword solution Puzzle, page 30