Translanguaging or code-switching?

Recent popularity of “translanguaging” as a concept referring to bilingual practices has challenged the appropriateness of “code-switching” – the term that has been most influential in studies of bilingualism and language mixing. Reassessing the literature on Cantonese-English mixing in Hong Kong, this paper suggests that the kind of spontaneous code-switching in peer talk, largely intra-sentential (or intra-clausal) and intra-turn, can indeed be recast as translanguaging, where speakers transcend language boundaries between Cantonese and English for the purpose of meaning-making. Nevertheless, Hong Kong speakers do constantly draw language boundaries by marking words as English or Cantonese, both in metalinguistic judgment and in real-time language production. Revisiting an unpublished dataset of radio talk, this paper further illustrates a number of sequences in which Cantonese speakers may “languagise” the code-switched words or expressions as “English”. It is concluded that, in a Conversation-Analytic understanding, the difference between “translanguaging” and “code-switching” boils down to “languagising”, and the contrast between the two notions may have been overstated.

20:30 BRUXSELS TALKS

On the 23rd of January 2020, a radio talk show of the future, 20:30 Bruxsels Talks, took place in Brussels. With fictional guests and artists from the year 2030, it discussed how the transition to a climate-proof city had happened since 2019. The body of this article is the script of this fiction piece, produced by BrusselAVenir and BNA-BBOT. In the introduction we explain the relationship between the field of futures studies and fiction, we frame 20:30 Bruxsels Talks within futures studies, and highlight the potential of fiction for knowledge creation and dissemination. By publishing the script, we hope to inspire researchers, changemakers and artists to explore fiction as a method, as a format and as a space, to trigger conversation and imagination, and engage citizens to take up a role in shaping the cities they live in. Note: This article should be read in conjunction with “20:30 Bruxsels Talks: Fiction as a Method, Fiction as a Format, Fiction as a Space,” written by the same author team and published in this issue.

Granville Bantock (1868-1946)

This volume is the first published study to bring together a variety of materials which represent the life and works of Sir Granville Bantock (1868-1946), British composer, arranger, editor, music department administrator, competitive singing promoter and adjudicator, world traveler, lover of life, literature and philosophy, radio talk presenter, champion of works of other rising British composers over his own, husband and father. His works alone total over 600, yet many remain in manuscript housed for access at the Cadbury Special Collections Library on the campus of the University of Birmingham. The reader will find citations of reviews of his music, reviews of performances during his lifetime and beyond as well as reviews of recordings both then in now in contemporary and modern newspapers and journals. Commercial and archival recordings are noted and locations given. Manuscripts that remain extant are identified and located. Up to and including 10 representative national and international live performances are noted for each work with names and venues provided. Within the Works section of the book are subcategories by medium for which they were composed for easy identification with minimal information the reader has at hand prior to opening the volume. The sketchbooks are also detailed with what materials are contained in each. Within the Bibliography section are citations of obituaries, writings by GB, dissertations, and pertinent files at: the BBC, Worcestershire Archive, Liverpool Record Office and Trinity Laban Conservatoire to name a few.

Does Music Help to Stay Focus on the Road?

Attention in the physiological definition in one of several simultaneous occurrences of ideas takes ownership of the mind which means removing certain stuff to cope efficiently with others. Particular attention is required in driving in order to maintain track of the driver's vigilance to prevent the road accident. In this study, the driver's attention is analyzed by their driving performance from both the amplitude and accident rating of Electroencephalographic (EEG). The subjects were stimulated with radio talk, instrumental music and no sound (silent) in three separate recordings. It was found that drivers encounter much fewer accidents while listening to the radio talk compared to the music and worse driving score when driving in silence. This finding could be used as a foundation to develop tips or methodology to avoid the attention deficit while driving.

IMPROVING STUDENTS' SPEAKING ABILITY USING RADIO TALK SHOW PROGRAMME

Media provide students and teachers with creative as well as practical ideas and enable them to meet various interests and needs, hence, this study analysed the implementation of using media particularly radio programme to improve students’ speaking ability. This study employed descriptive qualitative approach and there were 42 students of senior high school involved in this study. The results indicate that the implementation of media (radio talk show programme) assists students to improve their speaking ability; it can be one of methods in teaching and learning process especially in speaking class; and the influence of media (radio talk show programme) could encourages and motivates students to pull out their best of communication skill particularly in using English.

“Ludwig Wittgenstein” – A BBC radio talk by Elizabeth Anscombe in May 1953

Presented here is the transcript of a BBC radio broadcast by Elizabeth Anscombe that was recorded in May 1953 – the month when Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations appeared in England for the first time. In her radio talk, Anscombe provides some biographical and philosophical background for reading the Philosophical Investigations. She addresses the importance of the Tractatus and of the literary qualities of Wittgenstein’s writing. Anscombe warns that it would be fruitless to adopt slogans from Wittgenstein without insight. She also calls it a misunderstanding to think that Wittgenstein had championed something like the Ordinary Language Philosophy as it was practised at the time of the recording.