L1 ATTRITION’S STANCE WITHIN MULTICOMPETENCE: TRANSLINGUAL AND TRANS-SEMIOTIC FLOWS IN EDUCATIONAL CONTEXTS

Abstract

All multilinguals are subjected to alteration in their L1 oral production, because they do not use it or due to the influence of other dominant languages. Besides, the language acquisition trajectory is featured by segregation, especially in educational contexts, where due to globalization, the foreign language is increasingly gaining relevance. This also provokes reservations about the danger of multilinguals not attaining adequate communicative skills in the L1. Moreover, the construction of meaning seems to be characterised by the interchange of different modes that flow in social intercommunication. The present review of previous research on translanguaging and multimodality makes us comprehend the relationship between the two concepts within the multicompetence perspective. This describes language as a multisensory and multimodal semiotic system associated with other recognizable cognitive systems that cannot be separated. The concept of translanguaging suggests the integration of various languages in discourse. Furthermore, from the multicompetence perspective, the use of different languages is understood as an acculturation process. This fact, together with the impact of other languages on the L1, may underlie attrition. The supposition that multilingualism relates to the speakers’ whole mind explains how development also occurs within their entire linguistic repertoire. Thus, translanguaging can be understood as a benefit for minoritised languages not isolating them from others. The present study tries to shed light on how our translingual instinct as part of multimodality, within the multicompetence perspective, may endow the teaching and learning processes, and in particular L1 communicative skills, with the richness of the whole communicative repertoire.