Sustaining Translanguaging Pedagogies: Teacher‐Learners’ Approaches Toward L2 Motivational Development in the Thai EFL Context

Abstract

Although translanguaging research in applied linguistics has investigated the use of the first language and multilingualism in classroom‐based settings, few studies have illustrated how English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers enact and sustain translanguaging pedagogies in their second language (L2) teaching in the Thai EFL context. This paper reports on how four teacher‐learners (TLs) on an international teaching practicum integrated translanguaging into their teaching praxis while engaging in professional development to make sense of translanguaging pedagogies. Audio‐recorded dialogues between the authors and TLs were analyzed using interpretive phenomenological analysis. The analysis revealed how TLs’ teaching praxis (1) made sense of translanguaging, (2) negotiated pedagogical and relational boundaries of L1 use, and (3) built co‐learning spaces and engagement. Drawing on these findings, we argue sustained professional dialogue facilitates dialogic spaces where TLs can position and interrogate their teaching knowledge, linguistic identities, and accumulated learning and teaching experiences. These spaces encourage more nuanced understandings of translanguaging and prompt TLs to critically evaluate and potentially reconfigure their pedagogical stances.