Translanguaging or unequal languaging? Unfolding the plurilingual discourse of English medium instruction policy in Nepal’s public schools

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.

KEYWORDS:

• Translanguaging
• English medium instruction
• multilingualism
• classroom discourse
• inequalities
• Nepal

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pramod K. Sah

Pramod K. Sah is a PhD Candidate and Killam Scholar at the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia, Canada. His research areas include language planning and policy, English medium instruction, translanguaging, TESOL and social justice, and language ideology. His research has appeared in journals such as Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, International Multilingual Research Journal, Asia Pacific Journal of Education, Qualitative Report, among others, and various edited volumes.

Guofang Li

Guofang Li is a Professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Transnational/Global Perspectives of Language and Literacy Education of Children and Youth in the Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, Canada. Her program of research focuses on bilingualism and biliteracy development, pre- and in-service teacher education, and current language and educational policy and practice in globalized contexts.