ABSTRACT

While other languages can be used in English-medium instruction (EMI) classrooms, little research has been conducted on the alignment of the use of these languages with the objectives of EMI policy and how bi/multilingual practices such as translanguaging respond to the sociopolitics of EMI classrooms. This case study examined both teachers’ and students’ language use in EMI classrooms in a multilingual public school in Nepal with minority students whose mother tongues were not Nepali. A critical discourse analysis of two content-area-subject classrooms showed that only Nepali and English translanguaging among students and teachers was identified and mother tongues were consistently excluded. While translanguaging in the two dominant languages could potentially create a flexible space for teaching/learning content knowledge, further interviews with teachers and administrators and a focus-group discussion with students revealed that stakeholders’ socially constructed linguistic hierarchy had led to the exclusion of the legitimate place of students’ mother tongues in their seemingly ‘ordinary’ translingual practices. The study also notes content-area teachers' pedagogic under-preparedness to use translanguaging effectively and justly in EMI classrooms, suggesting the need to reconsider the uncritical recommendation of translanguaging without reflecting on local realities and systemic barriers.

摘要

虽然其他语言可以在英语授课 (EMI) 课堂中使用，但很少有研究将这些语言的使用与 EMI 政策的目标保持一致，以及跨语言等双语/多语实践如何应对社会政治EMI 教室。本案例研究考察了尼泊尔一所多语种公立学校的 EMI 课堂中教师和学生的语言使用情况，其中少数族裔学生的母语不是尼泊尔语。对两个内容领域学科课堂的批判性话语分析表明，仅确定了学生和教师之间的尼泊尔语和英语跨语言，而母语始终被排除在外。虽然以两种主要语言进行跨语言翻译可能会为教学/学习内容知识创造一个灵活的空间，对教师和管理人员的进一步采访以及与学生的焦点小组讨论表明，利益相关者社会建构的语言等级导致学生母语在他们看似“普通”的跨语言实践中的合法地位被排除在外。该研究还指出，内容领域的教师在 EMI 课堂中有效和公正地使用跨语言的教学准备不足，这表明有必要在不考虑当地现实和系统性障碍的情况下重新考虑对跨语言的不加批判的建议。