Translanguaging in EFL classrooms: Teachers’ perceptions and practices

Abstract

The belief that the native language practices of individuals improve their competence in a foreign language gave rise to a number of bilingual language pedagogies, one of which is translanguaging. This term does not merely refer to switching between two languages, on the contrary, it involves a systematic use of two languages in a particular language teaching activity. In this study, English language teachers’ perceptions of translanguaging were examined through a questionnaire. Classroom observations were done to examine for what purposes they apply the use of L1 in their teaching and semi-structured interviews were done to figure out the reasons of the differences between their perceptions and actual use of L1. The participants of the study were English language teachers (EFL) who work at state and private schools in Turkey. The Likert-type items in the questionnaire were analyzed quantitatively using descriptive statistics and the data gathered from open-ended questions in the questionnaire, classroom observations and semi-structured interviews were exposed to structural-coding analysis. The results showed that EFL teachers’ perceptions were not akin to their practices. Although they held positive views about translanguaging in some particular situations, they did not frequently employ this pedagogy due to the expectations of their institutions, colleagues and parents of their students. © 2019 JLLS and the Authors - Published by JLLS.