Teachers' Perceptions and Practices of Translanguaging in Thai EFL Classroom

Abstract

Thai EFL teachers are increasingly utilizing their L1 (Thai) and target language (English) to teach and assist their students in their content learning and English language learning in EMI classrooms. Despite Thai EFL teachers' classroom translanguaging practice, empirical research on the issue is still limited in Thailand. This study therefore investigated classroom translanguaging practices and perceptions of Thai EFL teachers in Northeast Thailand. Convenient and purposively sampling methods were used to select teachers at primary school level (N = 48) to participate in the study. Data was collected using an online questionnaire, and a semi-structured interview. Descriptive statistics (e.g. mean and percentage) were employed to analyze the quantitative questionnaire data while qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the qualitative interview data. The results from the data analysis revealed that the teachers incorporated the translanguaging teaching strategy in their EMI classrooms as most of the Thai primary EFL teachers positively believed in the use of translanguaging for teaching and learning in EMI classes (83.67%). This perception was confirmed by their language practice, as the teachers frequently and sometimes used students' language resources (including English and Thai) in different classroom situations to assist the learners to learn and foster classroom interaction and participation. Despite the strict English-only monolingual policy stipulated for EMI classes, however, the teachers affirmed that the translanguaging practice is helpful for teaching and learning, and thus, should be incorporated into EMI classroom language use. The teachers further reported that even though there are challenges with adopting such an approach, still, there are more benefits in utilizing students’ L1 than just using the English-only approach. The implications of this practice and recommendation for future studies are also discussed.

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