Shizhou Yang & Manichar Aimdilokwong: Payap University, Thailand
Abstract
Translanguaging in popular music has attracted growing scholarly attention, yet how the practice is received by the people who produce and consume it remains largely unexamined. This survey-based study addresses that gap by examining the attitudes of 15 singers and 617 fans toward translanguaging in the Thai pop songs of CGM48, a Japanese-franchised idol group based in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand. Most singers welcomed the incorporation of multiple languages, including Japanese, English, Southern Thai, and Northern Thai, into their songs. They saw translanguaging as making the music more interesting, more distinctive, and more internationally accessible, and they stressed the symbolic weight of local varieties in constructing the group's Chiang Mai-based identity. Fans were similarly positive, valuing the distinctive sound, the stylistic play, and the cultural depth that multiple languages afford; the great majority also wanted to hear more Northern Thai in Thai pop. Read together, the two perspectives show how language ideology, identity construction, and audience reception jointly shape multilingual practice in popular cultural production.
Keywords: translanguaging; Thai pop songs; identity; dialects; attitudes
Suggested Citation:
Yang, S., & Aimdilokwong, M. (2026). An analysis of singers' and fans' attitudes toward translanguaging in pop songs. Applied Language Sciences, 2, 260111. https://doi.org/10.65553/ALS.260111
Author Biographies
Shizhou Yang, PhD, assistant professor, is an applied linguist, second language writer, writing teacher, and researcher. His current interests include translanguaging, Global South epistemologies, and decolonization. He has published three monographs through Routledge: Autobiographical Writing and Identity in EFL Education, Literacy Autobiographies from the Global South, and Decolonizing EFL Writing Education. His work has appeared in international journals such as System, L2 Journal, TESOL Journal, and International Journal of TESOL Studies. He currently teaches writing and research-related courses at Payap University in Thailand. He has also been serving as an associate editor for MEXTESOL Journal and reviews for multiple international journals.
Born and raised in Bangkok, Manichar Aimdilokwong, spent six years as a member of Chiang Mai's girl-group idol community, an experience that shaped her perspectives on multilingual creativity and audience engagement. She now works as an artist and influencer while continuing to explore the intersections of culture, music, and self-expression.
