Researching translanguaging in EMI classrooms

Abstract

There is a growing interest in the field of translanguaging in EMI classrooms and the majority of the studies tend to employ functional discourse analysis and ethnographic observations to understand the nature of translanguaging practices in EMI classrooms. However, there is a lack of studies which explicate the detailed processes of how translanguaging practices are realised in EMI classrooms for promoting content and language learning. This chapter explores the possibility of combining Multimodal Conversation Analysis (MCA) and an ethnographic approach in order to better understand how translanguaging practices are realised in EMI classrooms and how translanguaging can facilitate content and language learning in an EMI context. Preliminary analysis from my feasibility trial, which is carried out in Hong Kong EMI secondary mathematics lessons, will be employed to illustrate the arguments. This chapter will argue that MCA can be used to discover the complex multilingual and multimodal resources employed by the interactants in co-constructing meanings through translanguaging in EMI classroom interactions. Moreover, using an ethnographic approach to complement the MCA analysis can potentially allow translanguaging researchers to understand how the wider sociocultural contexts and the identities of the participants play a role in affecting the participants' own translanguaging practices.