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Multimodal or multilingual? Native English teachers’ engagement with translanguaging in Hong Kong TESOL classrooms

  • Lianjiang Jiang , Michelle Mingyue Gu EMAIL logo and Fan Fang ORCID logo
Published/Copyright: July 21, 2022
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Applied Linguistics Review
From the journal Applied Linguistics Review Volume 15 Issue 4

Abstract

Although the potential of translanguaging within ESL/EFL classroom contexts to promote students’ linguistic learning has been well-documented, most studies have focused on ESL/EFL teachers (whose L1 is not English) and their students’ ideologies and experiences, with little attention paid to the experiences and perspectives of native English teachers (NETs) working in the Global South and postcolonial areas. This study examined 11 native English teachers’ engagement with translanguaging in Hong Kong TESOL classrooms. Data were gathered through in-depth semi-structured individual interviews and video recordings of classroom interactions. A recursive qualitative analysis elicited a taxonomy of NET teachers’ engagement with translanguaging, comprising resistant, ambivalent, and reductionistic approaches. The findings also demonstrate that ambivalent engagement with translanguaging turned out to be adopted the most among the NET participants. The findings call for examining two new translanguaging forms through NET teachers who have worked under a linguistically policed discourse, i.e., the underground and disguised translanguaging, and multimodal translanguaging without involving students’ L1. The findings indicate that multimodality can be used as a bridge to create a translanguaging space, and that creating a translanguaging space through multimodality appears to be more politically neutral for NET teachers.

Keywords: Hong Kong; multimodality; native English teacher; teacher engagement; translanguaging
Corresponding author: Michelle Mingyue Gu, Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, P. R. China, E-mail:

Funding source: Small-scale research project with the reference number of R2220, funded by the Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

Award Identifier / Grant number: R2220

Funding source: CRAC project with the reference number of 04A31, funded by the Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

Award Identifier / Grant number: 04A31

  1. Research funding: Small-scale research project with the reference number of R2220, funded by the Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, and CRAC project with the reference number of 04A31, funded by the Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.

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Received: 2022-06-01
Accepted: 2022-07-06
Published Online: 2022-07-21
Published in Print: 2024-07-26

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Special Issue: Power, Linguistic Discrimination and Inequality in English Language Teaching and Learning (ELTL): Reflection and Reform for Applied Linguistics from the Global South; Guest Editors: Fan Gabriel Fang and Sender Dovchin
  3. Editorial
  4. Reflection and reform of applied linguistics from the Global South: power and inequality in English users from the Global South
  5. Research Articles
  6. Translingual English discrimination: loss of academic sense of belonging, the hiring order of things, and students from the Global South
  7. Applied linguistics from the Global South: way forward to linguistic equality and social justice
  8. English high-stakes testing and constructing the ‘international’ in Kazakhstan and Mongolia
  9. The mundanity of translanguaging and Aboriginal identity in Australia
  10. Multimodal or multilingual? Native English teachers’ engagement with translanguaging in Hong Kong TESOL classrooms
  11. Epistemic injustice and neoliberal imaginations in English as a medium of instruction (EMI) policy
  12. Commentary
  13. Transidiomatic favela: language resources and embodied resistance in Brazilian and South African peripheries
  14. Special Issue: Translanguaging Outside the Centre: Perspectives from Chinese Language Teaching; Guest Editor: Danping Wang
  15. Editorial
  16. Translanguaging outside the centre: perspectives from Chinese language teaching
  17. Research Articles
  18. Translanguaging as a decolonising approach: students’ perspectives towards integrating Indigenous epistemology in language teaching
  19. Translanguaging as sociolinguistic infrastructuring to foster epistemic justice in international Chinese-medium-instruction degree programs in China
  20. Translanguaging as a pedagogy: exploring the use of teachers’ and students’ bilingual repertoires in Chinese language education
  21. A think-aloud method of investigating translanguaging strategies in learning Chinese characters
  22. Translanguaging pedagogies in developing morphological awareness: the case of Japanese students learning Chinese in China
  23. Facilitating learners’ participation through classroom translanguaging: comparing a translanguaging classroom and a monolingual classroom in Chinese language teaching
  24. A multimodal analysis of the online translanguaging practices of international students studying Chinese in a Chinese university
  25. Special Issue: Research Synthesis in Language Learning and Teaching; Guest Editors: Sin Wang Chong, Melissa Bond and Hamish Chalmers
  26. Editorial
  27. Opening the methodological black box of research synthesis in language education: where are we now and where are we heading?
  28. Research Article
  29. A typology of secondary research in Applied Linguistics
  30. Review Articles
  31. A scientometric analysis of applied linguistics research (1970–2022): methodology and future directions
  32. A systematic review of meta-analyses in second language research: current practices, issues, and recommendations
  33. Research Article
  34. Topics, publication patterns, and reporting quality in systematic reviews in language education. Lessons from the international database of education systematic reviews (IDESR)
  35. Review Article
  36. Bilingual education in China: a qualitative synthesis of research on models and perceptions
  37. Regular Issue Articles
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https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2022-0062
Keywords for this article
Hong Kong; multimodality; native English teacher; teacher engagement; translanguaging

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Special Issue: Power, Linguistic Discrimination and Inequality in English Language Teaching and Learning (ELTL): Reflection and Reform for Applied Linguistics from the Global South; Guest Editors: Fan Gabriel Fang and Sender Dovchin
  3. Editorial
  4. Reflection and reform of applied linguistics from the Global South: power and inequality in English users from the Global South
  5. Research Articles
  6. Translingual English discrimination: loss of academic sense of belonging, the hiring order of things, and students from the Global South
  7. Applied linguistics from the Global South: way forward to linguistic equality and social justice
  8. English high-stakes testing and constructing the ‘international’ in Kazakhstan and Mongolia
  9. The mundanity of translanguaging and Aboriginal identity in Australia
  10. Multimodal or multilingual? Native English teachers’ engagement with translanguaging in Hong Kong TESOL classrooms
  11. Epistemic injustice and neoliberal imaginations in English as a medium of instruction (EMI) policy
  12. Commentary
  13. Transidiomatic favela: language resources and embodied resistance in Brazilian and South African peripheries
  14. Special Issue: Translanguaging Outside the Centre: Perspectives from Chinese Language Teaching; Guest Editor: Danping Wang
  15. Editorial
  16. Translanguaging outside the centre: perspectives from Chinese language teaching
  17. Research Articles
  18. Translanguaging as a decolonising approach: students’ perspectives towards integrating Indigenous epistemology in language teaching
  19. Translanguaging as sociolinguistic infrastructuring to foster epistemic justice in international Chinese-medium-instruction degree programs in China
  20. Translanguaging as a pedagogy: exploring the use of teachers’ and students’ bilingual repertoires in Chinese language education
  21. A think-aloud method of investigating translanguaging strategies in learning Chinese characters
  22. Translanguaging pedagogies in developing morphological awareness: the case of Japanese students learning Chinese in China
  23. Facilitating learners’ participation through classroom translanguaging: comparing a translanguaging classroom and a monolingual classroom in Chinese language teaching
  24. A multimodal analysis of the online translanguaging practices of international students studying Chinese in a Chinese university
  25. Special Issue: Research Synthesis in Language Learning and Teaching; Guest Editors: Sin Wang Chong, Melissa Bond and Hamish Chalmers
  26. Editorial
  27. Opening the methodological black box of research synthesis in language education: where are we now and where are we heading?
  28. Research Article
  29. A typology of secondary research in Applied Linguistics
  30. Review Articles
  31. A scientometric analysis of applied linguistics research (1970–2022): methodology and future directions
  32. A systematic review of meta-analyses in second language research: current practices, issues, and recommendations
  33. Research Article
  34. Topics, publication patterns, and reporting quality in systematic reviews in language education. Lessons from the international database of education systematic reviews (IDESR)
  35. Review Article
  36. Bilingual education in China: a qualitative synthesis of research on models and perceptions
  37. Regular Issue Articles
  38. An interactional approach to speech acts for applied linguistics
  39. “Church is like a mini Korea”: the potential of migrant religious organisations for promoting heritage language maintenance
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