The recent shift in the field of applied language studies has shown that multilingualism has benefits when used for academic purposes. The study aimed to find out students’ perceptions about the use of translanguaging to understand academic concepts. The study used five first-year South African medical students at a South African university who participated in a focus group discussion. The focus group discussion aimed to find out if the use of translanguaging enhances students’ comprehension of texts. Participants affirm that with translanguaging, understanding of difficult academic concepts in English can be enhanced. Findings from this study prompt me to assert that multilingualism is a useful asset that can be leveraged by using translanguaging in multilingual classrooms to enhance reading comprehension. What is required is for lecturers to tap into students’ linguistic resources to enhance their understanding of concepts.

中文翻译：

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南非多语种学生在小组讨论中对使用翻译的理解

应用语言研究领域的最新变化表明，多语制在用于学术目的时会带来好处。该研究旨在找出学生对使用跨语言理解学术概念的看法。该研究使用了南非大学的五名一年级南非医学生，他们参加了焦点小组讨论。焦点小组讨论的目的是找出使用跨语言翻译是否可以增强学生对文本的理解。与会者确认，通过翻译，可以提高对英语中困难的学术概念的理解。这项研究的发现促使我断言，多语种是一项有用的资产，可以通过在多语种教室中使用跨语言来提高阅读理解力来加以利用。