A Study On EFL Learners’ Translanguaging In Senior High School Classroom Peer Interaction

The issue of language use has always been controversial in the field of foreign language instruction.Translanguaging,a current hot topic in the field of multilingual education,explains the nature of language communication and language learning by cutting across officiallynamed language boundaries,and relates language use and acquisition to learners’ cognitive development,social practices and socio-cultural environments in which they live,which provides us a new window in understanding the complexity of multilingual communication and learning.Research on learners’ translanguaging has grown enormously in the past 5 years and has expanded to include studies on learners’ translanguaging in classroom peer interaction.However,previous studies have been largely carried out in content and language integration learning(CLIL)in college or primary school,little has been known about EFL learners’ translanguaging practice in Chinese instructional context of peer interaction in senior high school.Guided by translanguaging theory,this study,through qualitative analysis on the data collected by classroom observation,stimulated recall and semi-structured focus group interview,intended to capture the key features and roles of translanguaging practice carried out by 45 EFL students from Grade Three in classroom peer interaction,and reveal the predominant factors that influence learners’ translanguaging,so as to provide some pedagogical implications for EFL classroom instruction.Three research questions are addressed as follows:(1)What are the key features of EFL learners’ translanguaging in senior high school classroom peer interaction?(2)What are the main roles of EFL learners’ translanguaging in senior high school classroom peer interaction?(3)What are the main factors that influence EFL learners’ translanguaging in senior high school classroom peer interaction?The major findings are as follows.First,EFL learners’ translanguaging in classroom peer interaction has two key features in the realization of linguistic forms and discursive process.On the one hand,learners’ translanguaging was realized in the predominant form of Chinese syntactic structure piecing together English words,in company with the tendency of individual’s self-regulation in language use.On the other hand,the process of translanguaging practice was accomplished with multimodal and multisensory resources available.Second,learners’ translanguaging largely fulfilled six essential roles: seeking help,checking comprehension,negotiating vocabulary,constructing knowledge,emphasizing ideas,facilitating communication to meet customized communicative needs.Third,learners’ translanguaging was typically affected by learners’ internal factors as well external environmental factors in the classroom.The former was generally embodied in learners’ individual language preference and their willingness to communicate,while the latter was demonstrated in three main elements: peer influence,teacher influence and classroom contextual resources available.This study strengthens the idea that learners’ translanguaging is a dynamic discursive practice,naturally occurring in instructional peer interaction.The findings above show that learners’ translanguaging is vulnerable to individual factors and contextualized scenarios it occurs,but it has great potential in facilitating learners’ engagement in peer interaction.With proper instructional regulations,such as encouraging and scaffolding learners to use all the resources in their linguistic repertoire in peer interaction,learners’ translanguaging is expected to be conducive to improve the pedagogical efficiency of peer interaction in foreign language classroom instruction.