“I think I am bilingual, but…”: Teachers’ practices of and student’ attitudes toward translanguaging in a Chinese intercultural communication class

Abstract

AbstractTranslanguaging encourages active and integrated usage of varied languages and other resources and exploitation of students’ whole linguistic repertories and cultural resources in teaching and learning. Zooming into an intercultural communication class in an English‐as‐a‐medium‐of‐instruction (EMI) fashion, the present study intends to discuss the teacher's pedagogical translanguaging practices used in class, the possible influences of these practices on students’ intercultural communication competence (ICC) and students’ attitudes toward these translanguaging practices by adopting a mixed‐method approach of in‐class observation, questionnaires, and semi‐structured interviews. The findings suggest that translanguaging was practiced to serve various purposes in class, namely concept explanation, engagement check, context knowledge reorientation, and maintenance of classroom relationships; the teacher's translanguaging practices could help to promote students’ ICC; students demonstrated positive attitudes toward translanguaging utilized by teachers, while some were concerned about the students’ use of translanguaging in the EMI class where the monolingual ideology was expected to be dominant. Therefore, students’ awareness of translanguaging and multilingualism should be fostered to make full use of their bilingual and multilingual advantages, which will further contribute to cultivating their ICC.