Although previous research has explored motivation and learning strategies in second language acquisition, few studies have specifically examined how multilingual, as opposed to merely bilingual, backgrounds influence the process of learning German as an additional language. Moreover, the role of career-oriented motivation in sustaining student engagement remains underexplored, particularly in contexts where German is learned for professional advancement rather than migration or academic mobility. To address these gaps, this study investigates the dynamic interplay between multilingualism, motivation, and learning strategies among university students in Indonesia enrolled in a German language program. Adopting a convergent mixedmethods design, the research collected quantitative and qualitative data from 182 respondents through an online questionnaire combining Likert-scale items and openended responses across three semester cohorts. Quantitative analyses using Kruskal– Wallis, Spearman, and Pearson tests revealed that multilingual backgrounds did not directly enhance German proficiency; however, digital multilingual practices were significantly associated with greater autonomous engagement in German learning. Thematic analysis of qualitative data further identified flexible learning strategies that integrated audio-visual media, social interaction, cross-linguistic reflection, and the emerging use of AI-based tools such as chatbots for independent speaking practice. Career awareness emerged as a significant motivational factor shaping students’ engagement, indicating that career-oriented goals are pivotal in sustaining their commitment to developing German language competence. These findings highlight the importance of leveraging multilingual and digital literacies to design more purposeful, career-relevant approaches to learning German as a foreign language.
In the field of foreign language education, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has emerged as a highly promising and innovative method, gaining broad support from educational authorities throughout the European Union. As a result, the current study focused on examining the perceptions of CLIL implementation among primary and secondary school teachers in Poland. Data were collected through an adhoc questionnaire, gathering responses from 135 in-service teachers working in English bilingual schools across Poland. The findings highlight concerns about inadequate teacher training programmes, ineffective textbook design, and crucial issues such as students’ diverse English proficiency levels and larger class sizes, which may potentially hinder the development of the CLIL programme. The study further highlights that promoting a collaborative culture among educators is essential, not only to ease workload but also to create a supportive atmosphere for resource development. Moreover, recognising the pivotal role of experienced teachers with advanced English proficiency underscores the need for strategic investments in professional development. These findings emphasise the importance of making careful and knowledgeable educational choices to ensure the effectiveness of the CLIL programme.
Following the Treaty of Trianon, the Hungarian language developed a number of regional varieties, which differ primarily in their lexicon. To help harmonise these varieties, an educational terminology database is currently being developed with the support of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA). In the first year of the project, 849 terms from Hungary’s Act CXC of 2011 on National Public Education were translated into English as well as into the official languages of Hungary’s seven neighbouring countries (Austria, Croatia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine). Additionally, country-specific educational terms were translated into Hungarian, and regional dialect expressions (loanwords) related to education were collected. Based on this developing database, the present study explores the main conceptual differences between the Hungarian and Ukrainian public education systems. These differences appear in areas such as institution names, grading systems, and school subject names. The collection of region-specific educational terms links terminological work with sociolinguistic research and has contributed to the development of the Termini Online Hungarian Dictionary and Database, the largest online corpus of loanwords from cross-border Hungarian minority language varieties. The degree of equivalence between the source- and target-language terms ranged from complete to partial or functional equivalence. In cases where no direct equivalents existed, term candidates and paraphrases were developed. The database addresses terminological challenges in the field of Hungarian minority education in the Carpathian Basin, while also serving as a valuable tool for translators, teachers, parents, and students planning to pursue studies abroad. Among the important outcomes of the research are the identification of 126 functionally equivalent terms between the educational systems of Hungary and Ukraine, the creation of 142 new terms in cases where no equivalents were found in the target language, and the systematic collection of 100 country-specific (Ukrainian) and 70 region-specific educational terms (loanwords). These results highlight both the diversity of educational terminology and the necessity of addressing gaps through targeted terminological work.
This article presents a comprehensive review of the scientific literature on native and non-native teachers of Spanish as a foreign language (SFL). While research on English language teaching professionals has undergone significant development in recent decades, the SFL field still lacks a comprehensive review. The primary aim of this study is to provide a quantitative and qualitative analysis of 53 open-access publications produced between 2000 and 2024, with the objective of highlighting thematic and methodological trends, as well as geographical and chronological aspects. The findings of this research indicate a limited body of scientific production on the subject, a clear predominance of field studies focusing on learners’ perceptions, and the persistence of stereotypes that negatively impact teaching equity in the field of Spanish as a foreign language. On the other hand, the analysis reveals a wide geographical distribution encompassing more than twenty countries, with the United States, Spain, and Japan standing out, confirming the topic’s international scope. Furthermore, Spanish remains the primary language of publication in this field, with one-fourth of the studies written in English, mainly in the U.S. context. Overall, this review underscores the urgent need to broaden and consolidate research on native and non-native Spanish language teachers, promoting more diverse and critical approaches that expand and develop current trends existing in the field. Strengthening this line of research is essential to advance toward a more equitable and pluralistic approach to language teaching.
Since the 1990s, the promotion of multilingualism and plurilingualism on both the societal and the individual level is one of the most important objectives of European language policies. Nevertheless, despite broad political support, the implementation of guiding policies remains difficult and inconsistent across European countries. Recent studies, e.g., from the Special Eurobarometer: Europeans and their languages (European Commission, 2024), reveal that fewer than one-third of Europeans can communicate in at least two additional languages, even though attitudes towards languages and multilingualism are generally positive. This indicates a discrepancy between theory and practice, meaning that language policy is not yet sufficiently implemented in Europe. With this in mind, the contribution examines the role of Applied Linguistics in fostering the implementation of language policies in society, with a special emphasis on the importance of knowledge transfer beyond academia. Using the example of the project Französisch und mehr – Sprachenlernen im Saarland (French and more –language learning in Saarland), we present a qualitative case study that investigates in how far research-driven initiatives can promote plurilingualism and contribute to changing people’s attitudes towards language learning. The case study relies on project documentation, participation in public engagement activities, qualitative feedback from stakeholders and participants as well as a quantitative needs analysis in the health care sector combined with the development and evaluation of a job-specific language course. Our results demonstrate how Applied Linguistics and knowledge transfer can raise awareness of the societal value of multilingualism, especially in contexts marked by linguistic diversity and cross-border interaction.
This classroom-based study explores how CEFR-aligned mediation tasks can be incorporated into an A2 Czech-as-a-second-language university course for Erasmus+ students. Drawing on plurilingual and action-oriented perspectives (Council of Europe, 2020; Piccardo & North, 2019), it examines task feasibility and learner engagement across three activities: text mediation, mediation of concepts, and crosslinguistic mediation. Data from a reflective teacher-researcher diary and post-task questionnaires (n = 9) suggest that all three tasks were manageable at A2 and were experienced as meaningful. Learners reported increased willingness to participate, greater confidence in interaction, and heightened awareness of how to draw on their plurilingual repertoires to support communication. The analysis also identified pedagogical affordances and constraints related to task design, classroom interaction, and learner support at the A2 level. The study shows that mediation tasks can legitimize learners’ full linguistic repertoires in classroom interaction even at lower proficiency levels and offers practice-oriented insights for mediation-focused teaching in early-stage L2 instruction.
The lexical system of any language evolves under the influence of various extralinguistic factors, including the dynamics of social development, communicative demands, and the cognitive and cultural characteristics of its speakers. An important problem of modern linguistics is the study of the directions of evolution of the lexical subsystem under conditions of social and political stress. The war, as an extreme communicative situation, has intensified processes of linguistic renewal, particularly euphemization, which this study identifies as a salient feature of the contemporary Ukrainian military sociolect. It is this lexical layer, which reflects the reactions of society to the traumatic reality, that is chosen as the subject of the study. The method of theoretical analysis (to outline the nature and functions of euphemization), methods of systematization and classification (to group euphemisms by structural and semantic features), as well as the interpretive method (to identify semantic shifts and stylistic functions of the studied units) are used in the work. Depending on the semantic and stylistic parameters and the type of connection with the euphemized lexeme, the following groups are distinguished: witty expressions without a direct semantic connection but with a bright emotional connotation (бавовна, аналоговнєт, затридні); metaphorized commonly used lexemes (дискотека, пташка); lexemes derived from the names of movie characters (кіборги, аватар, орки); conventional markers of military slang (мінусувати, нуль, піксель); derivatives of proper names (джевелінити, чорнобаїти, макронити); phraseological constructions or reinterpreted expressions (клеїти шольца, привид Києва, бандерівське смузі); words formed by contamination of two lexemes (русня, рашисти, путлер); lexemes based on borrowed morphemes with a neutralized emotional charge (сепари, мультик). The generalization of the research results allows us to assert that the euphemization of the Ukrainian military sociolect is the evidence of the inner strength, dignity and linguistic creativity of the Ukrainian society. The rejection of vocabulary with excessively negative connotations in favor of ironic, neutral or humorous nominations plays an important role in the formation of a stable psycholinguistic reaction to aggressive reality. A significant part of the newly created words is already penetrating other European languages, representing the Ukrainian linguistic vision of war in the global communication space and expanding the creative potential of the military sociolects of these languages.
In bilingual or multilingual education, where English is taught as a foreign language (EFL), students often depend on their first language (L1) to enhance communication and learning. The strategic deployment of L1, known as translanguaging, functions as a communicative tool to achieve particular instructional goals. This study examines students’ perceptions of translanguaging practices in EFL classes, with particular emphasis on their views of the teachers’ translanguaging practices and their own utilization of translanguaging during class activities. Data were collected with a Google Forms questionnaire on a four-point Likert scale. One hundred forty-three students completed the questionnaire, ten of whom voluntarily participated in the follow-up interview to provide greater depth to their initial responses. The questionnaire examined two main aspects: students’ views on the teacher’s use of the L1 and their personal usage of L1 in the learning process, categorized into thematic areas pertaining to classroom discourse. The results indicated a significant occurrence of translanguaging among the teachers, who predominantly employed it to convey instructions and elucidate intricate lesson material. From the students’ perspective, translanguaging constituted an essential tool for learning. They indicated a regular reliance on their L1 for translating foreign vocabulary, making structural comparisons between English and their L1, discussing course material, and understanding complex concepts. These findings highlight the educational significance of translanguaging in EFL contexts, indicating that learners recognize its effectiveness in improving understanding and engagement. The prevalent use of translanguaging underscores its function as a cognitive and communicative framework that aids learners in overcoming language and conceptual obstacles.
Since the publication of the Companion Volume to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2020), plurilingual and pluricultural competences have been recognized as central elements of communicative foreign language proficiency. Their promotion is therefore increasingly becoming a focal point of methodological and didactic approaches in foreign language teaching. This article presents the results of a study conducted between 2023 and 2025 among German and French as foreign language teachers in Lithuanian schools. The collected data reflect respondents’ attitudes and experiences regarding the promotion of individual plurilingualism and pluricultural awareness, as well as their use of specific multilingual teaching practices in German and French classes. This contribution adds to the ongoing discourse on the implementation of plurilingual and pluricultural competences and their didactic implications in school-based foreign language education.
The present article studies the visibility of a nearly extinct language Tjwao (Khoe-Kwadi) in the linguistic landscape (LL) of the rural district of Tsholotsho –an area historically associated with the Tjwa in Zimbabwe. The analysis of the physical, functional, and multilingual characteristics of the signage reveals the following hierarchy of visibility: English is more conspicuous in the signage than Ndebele and Tjwao, which are, in turn, more prominent than Kalanga and other African languages. Shona is absent in the signage contrary to the LLs of the cities of Harare, Bulawayo, and Masvingo previously examined in literature. The considerable visibility of Tjwao is viewed as ‘sustained’ stemming from statal and local interventions related to linguistic/cultural activism, education, and health. In contrast, Tjwao is absent from the signage pertaining to daily community life. Overall, the near extinction of a language – such as Tjwao – does not necessarily imply erasure from its LL.
The acquisition of discourse markers (DMs) by undergraduate students of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) constitutes a research problem that has not been thoroughly investigated from the vantage point of sustainable practices associated with the explicit and implicit modes of instruction. In the article, we present a quantitative study aimed at uncovering whether the acquisition of DMs would be sustainable within the period of one semester. To this end, the material of the study involves a corpus of descriptive essays written by a group of ESP undergraduates whose first language (L1) is Ukrainian and another foreign language is Russian (hereafter referred to as participants). One part of the corpus was written by the participants during the explicit mode of instruction, whereas another part was written during the implicit mode. The corpus was analysed using the software program AntConc (Anthony, 2022) to examine possible changes in the frequency of DMs over time. The quantitative investigation of the participants’ essays revealed the following key findings: while the explicit mode of instruction was associated with a substantial increase in the frequency of the occurrence of DMs in the participants’ descriptive essays, the implicit mode of instruction led to an abrupt decrease in the frequency of DMs as well as the narrowing of their repertoire. The findings, the novelty of the study and the pedagogical implications that arise from the findings are further discussed in the article.
In recent global practice, innovations in language teaching / learning go hand in hand not only with the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), but also with the development of Emotional Intelligence (EI), with an emphasis on the integration of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) into the language teaching/learning process, and a shift from a four-skill model of language skills (listening, reading, speaking, and writing) to a four-communication mode model (reception, production, interaction, and mediation) (Council of Europe, 2020). SEL encompasses five broad and interconnected domains of competences: self-knowledge, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making, which can be learned in a variety of subject areas, with students of different ages and in different cultural contexts (Durlak et al., 2024). Various methodologies can be used for developing SEL competences, for example the innovative and increasingly popular teaching method – mediation, which the CEFR defines as the ability to help people understand each other, a complex text, an idea, or a cultural aspect when they cannot communicate or understand for various reasons. In order to investigate how mediation strategies in the English language classes can facilitate socially and emotionally enhanced language learning, the present research focuses primarily on the concept of SEL and the analysis of previous research on the enhancement of SEL competences in the educational settings, presenting a large-scale study of emotional intelligence among the Lithuanian youth. The introductory part also introduces the concept of mediation, the main mediation activities and strategies, and their potential application in language teaching / learning. In order to analyse the attitudes of students (N = 58) of Vytautas Magnus University Institute of Foreign Languages (VMU UKI) towards the use of mediation as a new method in the English language classroom and to improve their mediation and SEL competences, a study was conducted. The sample consisted of 58 students, 20 of whom were studying General English at B1 level and 38 of whom were studying Academic English at C1/C2 level according to CEFR. This study also presents a self-assessment analysis of the English language learners to assess their improvement in mediation and SEL competences. A quantitative research methodology and short semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore the needs, experiences and improved competences of the research participants. The results showed a positive correlation between the use of mediation strategies in the English language classes and the learners’ improved mediation and SEL competences. Based on the insights gained from the study, the paper provides practical recommendations for the use of mediation strategies in the English language classes and the development of learners’ socio-emotional competences.
The connection between translation and censorship is one of the most inspiring subjects for the academic analysis that not only covers linguistic or cultural problems but sheds more light on important political issues as well. The current article focuses on the practical application of Soviet censorship techniques to the translation of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” into Lithuanian. This canonical oeuvre of American literature was translated into the Lithuanian language and published in 1951. The aim of this article is to cast an attentive look at the theoretical considerations on the existing interconnection between the realms of translation and politics since these phenomena are seldom assessed in detail. After making an overview of different academic sources, it is possible to claim that Nicole Doerr’s (2018) basic premise on the prevalent existence of political translation is quite well-justified. The phenomenon of censorship, in turn, still happens to be sustained by the fear of authors and translators due to the potentially negative political evaluation of the dominant themes of certain literary works. The empirical part of the article is devoted to the examination of the Soviet censorship operating in practice in order to explain in what ways the translation of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” into Lithuanian has failed to properly convey religious beliefs of the writer, which are closely linked to various fragments of the Bible. The hostility of the Soviet political elite towards essential Christian concepts was always systematic and consistent. However, the authentic practice of faith eventually turned into the essential obstacle to the political ambitions of the Communists to create a new Soviet man while diminishing the variety of existing attitudes and destroying the worldview based on religion.
The growing global outreach of the EU, intensified immigration, and increasing linguistic and cultural diversity have significantly affected the European higher education (HE) landscape. As HE institutions become more multilingual and multicultural, educators are expected to develop competences in linguistic sensitivity and plurilingual practices. This study addresses two research questions: do Lithuanian HE teachers consider themselves prepared to implement the plurilingual approach in their teaching, and do teacher education programs in Lithuania equip educators to work in multilingual and multicultural settings? The research was conducted in two stages. Firstly, the data of 67 Lithuanian HE language and EMI teachers responding to the questionnaire-based survey (developed by the APATCHE project team) were analyzed. Secondly, a preliminary screening of university courses was carried out across three teacher education programs (Initial Teacher Education, Continuous Professional Development, and BA/MA Philology programs) in two major teacher education centers in Lithuania: Vilnius University (VU) and Vytautas Magnus University (VMU). The findings suggest that Lithuanian HE is making progress toward greater linguistic and cultural inclusiveness. Teachers demonstrated a favorable orientation toward plurilingual practices, as reflected in their self-assessments. However, the curriculum analysis revealed that current and prospective language teachers are being insufficiently prepared for the challenges of multilingual classrooms. These results highlight the need to reconceptualize teacher training programs and expand opportunities for in-service and continuous language program teachers to acquire competences to meet the challenges of multilingual and multicultural classrooms.
This paper reviews multiple cross-national empirical studies and proposes a comparative analytical framework for the economic value of multilingualism in the Lithuanian labour market. The study draws on the concepts of human capital theory, language economics and communication efficiency models. By synthesising the main findings on multilingual labour markets, the paper shows how wage differentials related to language skills can be analysed using different statistical methods. The study uses an illustrative simulated data set based on the PIAAC methodology. The data indicate that individuals with proficiency in the national language (host-country) skills can expect an average wage premium of 18.8%. The findings of the study suggest that to strengthen the workforce in Lithuania, it would be beneficial to integrate language policy with educational and employment systems. The statistical results presented in this paper are based on a simulated dataset modelled on the PIAAC framework and do not represent empirical findings from real Lithuanian labour force data. Additionally, the proposed analytical model provides a novel perspective and addresses a specific gap in existing research on the economics of multilingualism in Lithuania. The framework highlights policy levers such as transparent language requirements, targeted L2 support, and recognition of minority language capital—that can operationalise sustainable multilingualism, i.e., maintain linguistic diversity while improving equitable labour-market access in Lithuania.
One of the key aspects of exploring language identity in multicultural and multilingual environments is the transition from one’s native language to shared languages. This transition refers to the shift between languages that individuals experience within both everyday interactions and professional settings. However, this transition process remains underexplored despite its complexities. The present study seeks to address this gap by investigating the effects of language transitions on academics, especially those working in non-language disciplines. It aims to explore the complexities of language identity through the narrative of an engineering professor with over 30 years of academic experience in Indonesia, England, and Malaysia. Adopting a qualitative narrative inquiry approach, the researchers employed semi-structured interviews to examine the professor’s personal and professional journey, capturing detailed accounts of his experiences with Indonesian, English, and Malay. Key findings reveal that language adaptation extends beyond proficiency, encompassing emotional, cultural, and professional dimensions. The professor’s transition from vernacular languages to Indonesian, and later to English and Malay, highlights the challenges and strategies involved in balancing professional obligations with the imperative of cultural preservation. Immersion in English-speaking environments has significantly shaped his self-perception and communication styles, while returning to his hometown introduced complexities in reconciling global and local identities. The findings suggest a need for greater sensitivity to the broader implications of language transitions, particularly among academics outside language-focused disciplines, thereby contributing to a deeper understanding of language identity in diverse academic contexts.
As an outlet in the field of multilingual studies, Sustainable Multilingualism (ISSN: 2335-2019; eISSN: 2335-2027) has contributed significantly to research on language diversity, education, and policy. Since its establishment in 2012, the journal has provided a platform for scholarship that addresses the complex dynamics of multilingualism in both local and global contexts. This bibliometric study examines the first 25 volumes of Sustainable Multilingualism (2012–2024) to evaluate its thematic evolution, authorship patterns, institutional and geographic reach, and citation performance. The corpus comprises 249 peer-reviewed research articles, which were analyzed using manual coding and bibliometric tools, including Excel and VOSviewer. The findings reveal that annual article output stabilized at ten per issue after 2016, reflecting consistent editorial capacity. Thematically, early volumes focused on identity, language policy, and rights, while more recent issues highlight digital multilingualism, English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI), and artificial intelligence in education. Lithuania, Türkiye, Latvia, Spain, and Poland emerge as leading contributors, with author affiliations spanning more than 40 countries. However, contributions remain unevenly distributed, with a strong European concentration and limited or no participation from the Middle East (excluding Türkiye and Iran), Oceania, Southeast Asia, South Asia, East Asia, Africa, South America, the Caribbean, and Central Asia. Citation metrics demonstrate a modest but growing impact: the journal’s CiteScore increased to 0.9 in 2024, its SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) rose to 0.211, and its h5-index reached 10, reflecting a steady integration into global scholarly discourse. Frequently cited and downloaded articles highlight the journal’s impact on multilingual education, migration studies, and research on endangered languages. The study concludes that while Sustainable Multilingualism has achieved international visibility and sustained scholarly contributions, expanding representation to include underrepresented regions would enhance diversity and further increase global engagement. Building on the findings, some recommendations are also included to guide the journal’s editorial strategy and future growth.
This study evaluates the applicability of Spolsky’s tripartite model of language policy, consisting of language beliefs, practices, and management across three different minority contexts in Europe. The research respectively targets Algerians in France, Hungarians in the UK, and Turks in Hungary. The first study centres around the national and community level, while the second and third studies focus on the family domain. For the case of Algerians in France, the study investigates language management by analysing governmental top-down language policies and probes language beliefs and practices among first-generation immigrants using a questionnaire. The second study shifts to the familial domain, using a questionnaire based on Spolsky’s tripartite model to explore bilingualism efforts among Hungarian-speaking mothers in the UK. Meanwhile, the Turkish context in Hungary utilizes both semi-structured in-depth interviews as well as a short questionnaire to examine Turkish families’ language management, beliefs and practices. The studies present varying results, with Algerians strongly upholding Arabic against the weight of French monolingual policies and the societal demands for using French. Moreover, Hungarian families’ efforts to meticulously cultivate bilingualism among their children are undermined by external pressures in education, leading to a more fluid bilingual experience. By contrast, the results showcase the shift of Turkish immigrants towards Hungarian due to intermarriages and the lack of institutional support. Although the findings underscore Spolsky’s model adaptability in depicting language policy dimensions across different contexts, it falls short of accounting for layers of complexity pertaining to the impact and role of external socio-political and economic factors. Furthermore, the model partially grasps the dynamic nature of multilingual identity construction. As such, these insights call for a rigorous investigation of these complexities in order to arrive at a better understanding of the fluid and ever-evolving nature of language policy as well as producing more context-sensitive policies.
This article analyzes manifestations of multilingualism, focusing on their aesthetic and thematic functions in Akvilina Cicėnaitė’s autofictional novel Anglų kalbos žodynas [A Dictionary of English] (2022), which employs numerous languages, most frequently English, in a predominantly Lithuanian text to explore the migrant experience. The novel follows a Lithuanian writer and her French-Canadian husband on a road trip across Australia, in which both currently reside, and constantly find themselves in a state of translation between languages, different realities, and cultures. Each chapter of the novel is titled with an English word, forming a dictionary-like structure which frames the narrator’s meditative reflections. The research problem of the article is how multilingualism is made evident in Cicėnaitė’s text and what literary functions it performs in the novel. The analysis draws on theoretical propositions about literary multilingualism by Rainier Grutman (2006, 2024), Till Dembeck (2020), Werner Helmich (2016), Marianna Deganutti (2022), and others, as well as about the functions of multilingualism in fiction by Till Dembeck and Anne Uhrmacher (2016), András Horn (1981), Markus Huss (2021) and others. Central to the analysis is their emphasis on the constructedness of multilingual configurations in literary texts and the two functions, aesthetic and thematic (“experienced” multilingualism), literary multilingualism performs. First, the analysis explores how the novel’s narrative structure is supplemented with multilingual structures, which transform the text into a carefully organized multilingual textual space and enhance the exploration of the migrant’s condition. Then the analysis discusses the instances of “experienced” multilingualism, which root the narrative in specific social and cultural realia of multicultural and multilingual Australia. The article links the analysis of multilingual manifestations in Cicėnaitė’s text to the writer’s exploration of the experience of displacement, the condition of the migrant figure, and her efforts to find a relevant artistic expression for it.
In the context of globalization, the effective transmission of culture through translation has become a pressing concern, particularly in literary works where culture-loaded terms present significant challenges. This study investigates the translation strategies applied to culture-loaded terms in Chronicle of a Blood Merchant by Yu Hua, focusing on the English version translated by Andrew F. Jones. Based on ecotranslatology’s “three-dimensional” transformation theory—including linguistic, communicative, and cultural dimensions—this study explores the following question: How does the translator employ adaptive translation strategies for different categories of culture-loaded terms in Chronicle of a Blood Merchant to achieve dynamic balance across the three dimensions? A qualitative analysis of eight representative examples, categorized according to Nida’s classification of culture-loaded terms, reveals that different translation methods such as literal translation, free translation, and explanatory paraphrasing are selectively employed to negotiate cultural specificity. While the translator demonstrates a strong tendency toward communicative effectiveness and linguistic fluency, some cultural depth is inevitably compromised. The study argues for a more integrated approach to strategy selection under eco-translatology, one that maintains cultural integrity without undermining readability. Through analysis, this study reveals translators’ strategic preferences across different culture-loaded terms and examines their implications for cultural transmission, offering insights into the balance of linguistic, communicative and cultural dimensions.
