High School Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices on Translanguaging

Abstract

Translanguaging has been getting a considerable amount of attention recently. It is the systematic and planned process of language switching and it is used for pedagogical purposes in the classroom. Especially, due to the insisting English-only policies and the rise of multilingualism has led translanguaging to be a bright area of research. Namely, the literature emphasized that foreign language can be scaffolded with native language and these two could be integrated. This notion gave birth to this study as well. This small-scale study aimed to provide a good grasp of the phenomenon of translanguaging and its relation to teachers’ cognitions and practices. The study took place in Bucak, located in Burdur, Turkiye. Four female high school teachers attended the study, all of whom have over 10 years of experience in the field. The data were collected via semi-structured interview. Afterwards, the data were transcribed and analyzed by way of qualitative content analysis. The findings illustrated that the teachers favored translanguaging. Particularly four teachers endorsed that it increases understanding and proclaimed to use it for teaching grammar, three of whom touched upon its function of alleviating stress, only one teacher sticked up for using it for building rapport and many more. Nevertheless, the mindsets of three teachers were not overlapping with their practices. The reason for this might be curriculum-based. Further details were given in the study.