Navigating Ideological Tensions: Pre‐Service Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices of Translanguaging in ESL Classrooms

Abstract

This study examines how pre‐service teachers (PSTs) in Hong Kong developed beliefs about translanguaging and how they enacted and negotiated these beliefs during teaching practicums in English‐as‐a‐second‐language (ESL) classrooms. Drawing on reflective diaries and follow‐up interviews with nine PSTs, the study found that PSTs’ beliefs were shaped through ongoing negotiations among competing discourses encountered in teacher education programmes and practicum experiences. Although participants frequently drew on multilingual, multimodal, and semiotic resources to support comprehension and participation, their practices were largely oriented towards pragmatic instructional goals rather than the broader transformative aims associated with translanguaging pedagogy. Importantly, this discrepancy reflected not simply a failure of implementation but the ways in which PSTs exercised agency while navigating institutional constraints and contextual realities. The study contributes to research on translanguaging and teacher education by highlighting the complex relationship among teacher beliefs, classroom practices, and institutional contexts. It also underscores the need for teacher education programmes to support the development of a translanguaging stance and structured opportunities for PSTs to negotiate theory‐practice tensions in multilingual classrooms.