Correlation factors of translanguaging practices on English as a Foreign Language Contexts: the perception of Teachers

Abstract

Teaching English in second language contexts seems to have succeeded in implementing only target-language policy allowed during class time. However, the problem persists in teaching English in foreign language contexts where English is not the official and/or first language in those countries. Such situations kept the question unanswered; whether the first language of the target learners should be used during class times in the form of translanguaging or not. While few studies have investigated this issue thoroughly; however very a few of them examined in depth analysis from different perspectives such as: how different factors paly various roles on this issue, how those factors correlate to each other, and how they relate to translanguaging in particular. This study investigates the correlations between translanguaging practices in English as a foreign language context during class time from teachers’ perspectives. Correlation, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and regression analyses showed that there was significant correlation between translanguaging practices and other examined independent variables including gender, same background between teachers and learners’ and first language; whereas no significant correlation was found regarding the teaching experience. The study recommends evaluating learners’ levels even if the focus of the study was on teachers’ perceptions for future research.