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TRANSLANGUAGING IN ENGLISH AS A MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION (EMI) CONTENT CLASSROOMS: UNFOLDING THE TEACHERS’ NARRATIVES
(1) Janta Multiple Campus, Tribhuvan University, Nepal
(*) Corresponding Author
Abstract
Translanguaging has been practiced in multilingual educational settings by teachers for several purposes. In the field of teaching and learning, it has gained significant attention not only by teachers but also by researchers for its potential to address diversity, create equality, and promote social justice. It has been used by content teachers such as science and mathematics purposefully in the EMI setting. However, their experiences of using translanguaging and its pedagogical benefits have been underexplored, particularly in the context of Nepalese EMI science and mathematics classrooms. The study aims to unfold the narratives/experiences of secondary-level science and mathematics teachers teaching in multilingual EMI public schools in Sunsari, Nepal, along with the reasons for using the pedagogical approach. Using in-depth interviews and field notes as research tools, I explored and analyzed the content of teachers' experiences of using translanguaging, who were purposively selected as a sample. The collected information was recorded, transcribed, coded, categorized, and thematically analyzed. The study found that translanguaging is useful to enhance comprehension, enable co-learning, increase learner engagement, and foster inclusivity by challenging conventional monolingual ideologies. The study implies that EMI content teachers like science and mathematics would better use students’ linguistic and cultural knowledge as a resource in their teaching for better engagement, deeper understanding, and empowerment.
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/ijiet.v10i2.14291
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