Translanguaging in Hong Kong English Medium Instruction Classrooms: A Linguistic Ethnographic Study of Classroom Interaction and Teachers' Reflections

The latest British Council report suggests that there are approximately 9000 English-Medium-Instruction
(EMI) programmes in the world (Dearden, 2014). In EMI, English-as-a-Second-Language students will
learn all/some subjects through English. Recently, such a practice is challenged by applied linguists who
argue that the knowledge of other languages that the learners already have plays a crucial role in
learning and that translanguaging can facilitate content learning. Translanguaging refers to the
exploitation of multiple languages and semiotic resources in the multilinguals' repertoires. Yet there is
limited research on translanguaging as a pedagogy in content classrooms, nor on EMI teachers'
reflections on their translanguaging practices. This study will conduct a 4-month linguistic ethnographic
investigation in Hong Kong EMI secondary geography and history classrooms. Methodologically, this
study will integrate Multimodal Conversation Analysis (MCA) with Interpretative Phenomenological
Analysis. MCA is different from conventional Conversation Analysis since MCA focuses on the multimodal
dimension of talk-in-interaction. This unique combination involves observing participant's pedagogical
practices over time as well as understanding the teachers' reflections on classroom practices. This study
will explore how translanguaging adopts specific interactional features to achieve pedagogical goals at
particular moments in the lessons and how teachers' understandings of their translanguaging practices
are articulated through interviews. The findings can offer an empirical basis for developing
translanguaging as an alternative approach to current EMI policy and practice and discovering the
classroom conditions required for the translanguaging practices to succeed. This allows teachers to
employ translanguaging to achieve their pedagogical goals, bridge communication gaps and empower
the learners.