The Educational Review, USA Article Recommendation | Translingual Writing: New Boundaries of Language Expression in the Globalized Era

“When a person writes in a second or third language, are they really ‘making mistakes,’ or are they creating a new form of expression?” “As English has long dominated international academic and cultural communication, should we still evaluate all writers according to a single linguistic standard?” These questions are once again entering the center of discussions in linguistics, writing studies, and intercultural communication.

Yalan Li from the School of Foreign Languages and Literature at Wuhan University conducted a systematic review of empirical research on translingual writing from 2021 to 2025 in the paper “A Review of Empirical Research on Translingual Writing (2021-2025),” published in The Educational Review, USA. The article broadens the research perspective beyond “language error correction” to encompass linguistic resources, identity construction, cultural negotiation, and writing practices, offering a new perspective for understanding language expression in the context of globalization.

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Translingual Writing: “Language Mixing” or Innovation in Expression?

For a long time, learner writing has often been evaluated within a relatively standardized framework: Is the language accurate? Is the grammar correct? Is the vocabulary idiomatic? But is real-world language use really so clearly divided? In today’s increasingly multilingual and multicultural world, writers may naturally draw on different languages, cultural experiences, and semiotic resources during the writing process. Translingual writing focuses not simply on determining “which language is the correct answer,” but on examining how writers flexibly employ multiple linguistic resources to construct meaning. This suggests that what is often regarded as “language mixing” may not simply be a deviation that needs to be corrected, but may also represent an active process through which writers construct meaning.

From “Error Correction” to “Understanding”: What Is Changing in Writing Research?

In the past, second-language writing research tended to focus more heavily on linguistic accuracy and error types. However, empirical studies over the past five years have gradually revealed another picture: researchers have begun paying greater attention to how writers select linguistic resources, how they express identity, how they negotiate cultural differences, and how different languages jointly contribute to meaning-making. This reflects, in essence, a shift in the research paradigm. If we focus only on grammatical errors, we may see a writer who is “not standard enough”; but if we place the writer within an authentic linguistic environment, we may instead see a language user who is actively drawing on multiple resources and continuously negotiating meaning. Therefore, what truly deserves attention in translingual writing research is not whether one “writes like a native speaker,” but how writers use language to accomplish their communicative purposes.

In the Globalized Era, Do We Still Need a “Single Standard”?

The development of social media, international education, transnational research, and digital communication has made multilingual communication increasingly common. A student may use English in the classroom, Chinese at home, and a mixture of several languages on social media; an international researcher may also need to navigate different linguistic conventions and cultural contexts in academic communication. This poses new challenges to the traditional model of “one language–one culture–one norm.” The value of translingual writing research lies precisely here. It reminds us that languages are not closed containers but rather sets of resources that can be continuously mobilized, combined, and reconstructed. Writers do not always mechanically switch between different languages; instead, they may create new pathways of expression through interaction among languages.

But Translingual Writing Is Not Without Challenges

Of course, rethinking translingual writing does not mean that traditional linguistic norms have lost their significance. How can we respect linguistic conventions while recognizing linguistic diversity? How can we distinguish creative translingual practices from linguistic problems that simply impede comprehension? How should different educational systems evaluate translingual writers? These questions still require further empirical research. Particularly with the rapid development of AI writing tools, when AI can automatically correct grammar, standardize vocabulary, and even adjust texts to make them sound “more like a native speaker,” we may need to think more carefully: if everyone’s writing is ultimately optimized toward similar linguistic styles, will the individuality and cultural diversity embedded in language expression also gradually disappear?

The Future of Translingual Writing: From “Standard Answers” to “Diverse Expression”

What “A Review of Empirical Research on Translingual Writing (2021–2025)” presents is not merely the development trajectory of a field of linguistic research, but also a reflection of the changes taking place in the global linguistic landscape. In the future, writing research may no longer focus solely on identifying the “most correct” form of linguistic expression, but may pay greater attention to the identities, cultures, power relations, technologies, and social contexts underlying language use. Truly mature language education may not be about making everyone write in the same way, but about helping writers develop richer linguistic resources and understand how to express their ideas effectively in different contexts. The boundaries of language have never been fixed. When different languages meet, interact, and recombine, new forms of expression emerge. Perhaps what translingual writing truly changes is not only “how we write,” but also how we understand language itself. So here is the question: In the future of AI-assisted writing and global multilingual communication, do you think “writing like a native speaker” should still be regarded as the highest standard of excellent writing?

The study was published in The Educational Review, USA

How to cite this paper

Yalan Li. (2026). A Review of Empirical Research on Translingual Writing (2021-2025). The Educational Review, USA, 10(5), 290-297.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/er.2026.05.006

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