Translanguaging knowledge mobilised for theorising: a case study of Chinese bilingual postgraduate researchers in Australia

To challenge the entrenched monolingual and Anglophone oriented postgraduate research education and academic discourse, this paper reports a case study of eight Chinese bilingual postgraduate researchers studying at Australian universities and 59 postgraduate theses written in English. Theoretically driven by the arguments on translanguaging, we first argue for the potential and power of translanguaging theorising which features the entire linguistic-epistemic repertoire of bilingual postgraduate researchers premised on their translanguaging instinct. We then identify three categories of the translanguaging knowledge that bilingual postgraduate researchers actually use and may prove useful but often neglected or undervalued in doing research. Highlighting translanguaging knowledge, their constituents and how they may be applied in academic activities, we hope to motivate and enable further discussions to create academic spaces where translanguaging knowledge is widely recognised and constantly used as legitimate resources for academic theorising, thereby fostering an inclusive academic discourse.