‘Using all English is not always meaningful’: Stakeholders’ perspectives on the use of and attitudes towards translanguaging at a Chinese university

• Published in: Lingua Vol. 247; p. 102959
• Main Authors: Fang, Fan, Liu, Yang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01-11-2020; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Attitude; Attitudes; Chinese languages; Chinese university; College students; English as a foreign language; English as a medium of instruction; English as a second language; English proficiency; Ideology; Language policy; Learning; Multilingualism; Second language instruction; Second language learning; Second language teachers; Sociolinguistics; Student attitudes; Teacher attitudes; Teaching; Translanguaging; China; Translanguaging; Multilingualism; English as a medium of instruction; Chinese university; Attitude; English as a foreign language
• ISSN: 0024-3841; 1872-6135
• DOI: 10.1016/j.lingua.2020.102959

•Teachers in EMI and EFL classes in a Chinese university display various translanguaging practices.•Most teachers recognise and adopt translanguaging in content teaching.•Students generally hold neutral to positive attitudes towards translanguaging practices.•Students express their learning needs of using translanguaging for scaffolding.
With multilingualism drawing increasing attention from sociolinguistic scholars in the past two decades, the traditional monolingual ideology in language teaching has been challenged. As a new paradigm in multilingualism, translanguaging values multilingual users’ integrated use of their full linguistic resources, and it offers a new perspective on second language teaching and learning. By employing a mixed-methods approach, including classroom observations, semi-structured interviews, and a questionnaire, the study presented in this paper investigated both teachers’ and students’ use of and attitudes towards translanguaging. The findings show that, in general, the students hold a neutral-to-positive attitude towards translanguaging practices. Moreover, although the teachers have different attitudes and practices, most of them recognise the effectiveness of translanguaging for content learning in order to deepen understanding, create class rapport, and achieve better learning for students with lower English-language proficiency. The resistance towards the implementation of translanguaging, including language policy, monolingual ideology and overuse of first language (L1), were discussed. This paper concludes by presenting the implications of the study’s findings for language teaching and learning with a key point regarding the need to develop systematic and contextualised translanguaging pedagogical strategies. Furthermore, this paper argues that it is important for teachers and students to broaden their perceptions and assume a multilingual perspective in language learning and teaching.