Pedagogical translanguaging has been extensively researched over the past decade. Yet, little is known about the attitudes of students towards this practice. Students constitute an integral part of classroom interactions and their learning process is significantly affected by teachers’ classroom discourse. This action research (AR) study, situated in a Chinese university Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) reading classroom and aided by lesson recordings and two sets of questionnaires, explores the translanguaging strategies employed by the teacher as well as the students’ attitudes to such strategies. Through incorporating feedback collected from students regarding the teacher’s modifications of language use, the study has demonstrated how the teacher mobilizes her full linguistic resources, in the form of translanguaging, to achieve pedagogical outcomes, which eventually leads to the establishment of a mutually beneficial classroom ecology. The study also indicates that advanced EFL learners, highly motivated to improve language proficiency and acquire subject content unanimously reject the traditional monolingual approach to teaching. The findings call for further research into the impact of pedagogical translanguaging on students’ learning process in multilingual classrooms.

Pedagogical translanguaging has emerged as an important strategy facilitating the sustainable use of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in educational settings. This mixed-method study, conducted in an EMI finance classroom at an international school in Shanghai, China, investigates the translanguaging practices of students in classroom interactions as well as their attitudes toward translanguaging as a communicative and pedagogical strategy. Drawing on video-assisted classroom observations and semistructured interviews, this study reveals that the participants’ translanguaging practices are motivated by ease of communication, facilitated by contextual resources, and reflect their strategic maneuvering of the linguistic resources in their repertoires. The data also suggest that the participants are generally positive about translanguaging as an aid in comprehension and for the enhancement of content learning. Some participants, however, expressed reservations about the acceptance of translanguaging as a standard, formal linguistic choice. The findings suggest that EMI teachers should recognize the linguistic resources of students in their entirety and incorporate them into classroom activities to promote biliteracy and the learning of academic content.

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Abstract. Research into pedagogical translanguaging in second/foreign language education has largely been focused on the interplay between two languages, one of which is usually English. Little attention has been paid to the practice of trilingual translanguaging (translanguaging between three languages), and how this can be helpful in the acquisition of a third language. This study, conducted in two Spanish as a third language classrooms in a Chinese university, aims to explore teachers’ translanguaging practices as well as the teachers’ and students’ attitudes to these practices. Analysis of data collected through audio-assisted classroom observation, interviews, and questionnaires reveals that teachers proactively and flexibly mobilize their multilingual resources in classroom talk. Students in general express positive attitudes towards teachers’ translanguaging practices, and express a wish to experience a greater amount of bilingual translanguaging between English (L2) and Spanish (L3). Meanwhile, having access to the views of L3 learners on teachers’ classroom talk proves to be a crucial component in the understanding of how L3 teaching and learning can take place in the most effective way. This study calls for further research into translanguaging practice in multilingual classrooms and its impact on students’ learning.

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