9 Student Translanguaging Practices in the EMI Classroom: A Study of Italian Higher Education

Abstract

This chapter reports on a study of student translanguaging practices in English-medium instruction (EMI) at an Italian university. Translanguaging is intended here as the strategic use that multilingual speakers make of their entire linguistic repertoire so as to facilitate the effective learning of content. Meanwhile, EMI is defined as the adoption of English to teach academic content in countries where the first language for communication is not English. The data analysed for this chapter have been collected as part of a wider research project, which aims to look at students' experiences of EMI and their language use during EMI lessons at the University of Padova. For this chapter, the authors analysed a selection of EMI classes where students were active participants in group work or oral presentations, in which the spontaneous use of translanguaging practices could potentially be observed. After discussing the communicative functions of student translanguaging practices in the observed lessons, the authors conclude by reflecting on the extent to which these practices might be determined by the local Italian Higher Education (HE) context and whether there should be greater attempts to legitimise and foster translanguaging in EMI.

Translanguaging in English-medium instruction (EMI): Examining English literature content classrooms

“…Fluid use of language, as seen in Extracts 4 and 6, for instance, acted as an engagement strategy on the part of the teacher through pedagogical translanguaging, linking the shared language outside the classroom with the classroom, rather than separating the two languages . Similar functions related to the "social side of translanguaging" (Chang, 2019, p. 33) are also reported by Dalziel and Guarda (2021) in their study that views translanguaging practices as opportunities "to enhance the affective atmosphere among speakers and thus create a safe place for everyone to express their ideas" (Dalziel & Guarda, 2021, p. 138) by building personal relations with the students via the shared language outside the classroom.…”

“…Furthermore, these fluid language use practices serve as negotiation of meaning, discussion of content, reflection, and leveraging linguistic repertoires. Other studies also reported such observations that examined translanguaging in EMI contexts (e.g., Dalziel & Guarda, 2021;Sobkowiak, 2022). Translanguaging practices functioned as scaffolding, as seen in Extract 5, as the students engaged in meaning-making processes where Turkish helped the student retrieve lexical items in English.…”

Towards a Sustainable Classroom Ecology: Translanguaging in English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in a Finance Course at an International School in Shanghai

“…Through analyses of classroom discourse among teachers, different translanguaging strategies emerged [31,34,47] and specific pedagogical purposes such as bridging outside knowledge and colearning were highlighted [14,49]. Even the limited number of studies that did prioritize student contributions in classroom interactions showed more interest in categorizing students' translanguaging practices according to classroom activities [41,58]. The present study aimed to understand the translanguaging practices of students from the viewpoint of their motivations instead of emphasizing pedagogical functions in micro-teaching contexts.…”

Japanese Professors’ Experiences in Teaching Sport for Development in Online English-Medium Courses

“…This inclusion of the students’ first language can be considered a form of translanguaging, in which learners’ (and instructors) use all available linguistic resources available to them in order to make sense of and learn new content. From a translanguaging perspective, use of the students’ multiple languages is seen not as limiting or constraining English-medium instruction, but as offering a number of affordances, including scaffolding for less proficient students, encouraging transfer of academic skills, engaging students in deeper learning, easing task management, and strengthening student cooperation (Adamson & Fujimoto-Adamson, 2021; Dalziel & Guarda, 2021; Goodman et al, 2021; Luckett & Hurst-Harosh, 2021).…”