Teaching English pragmatics in multilingual Europe: non-native teachers’ cognition, translingual practices, and ideological negotiation

Abstract

Abstract This study explores how non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) across Europe develop professional knowledge of L2 pragmatics, use translingual strategies, and negotiate their pedagogical roles amid shifting language ideologies. Data comprised teachers’ written reflections collected through an open-ended online questionnaire completed by 20 English language teachers from diverse linguistic and educational backgrounds. Thematic analysis indicated that participants possessed substantial metapragmatic awareness rooted in their multilingual experiences while continuing to face challenges associated with native-speakerist ideologies, limited institutional support for pragmatics instruction, and the teaching of culturally sensitive pragmatic features such as humour, sarcasm, and indirectness. Teachers reported using cross-linguistic comparison, translation, and cultural norm contrast as pedagogical resources to support learners’ pragmatic development. Their accounts also revealed tensions between translingual classroom practices and persistent monolingual assumptions. Overall, the findings provide insight into how multilingual teachers draw on their linguistic repertoires to support pragmatics teaching and intercultural communication while negotiating competing language ideologies in contemporary European classrooms.