Speaker
Description
This study investigates student-related factors influencing teachers’ translanguaging decisions in Vietnamese EFL university classrooms. While previous studies have mainly examined translanguaging practices, perceptions, and pedagogical functions, limited attention has been paid to how specific student-related classroom factors shape teachers’ decisions to use translanguaging during classroom interaction.
Drawing on Borg’s concept of teacher cognition, this study examines how teachers interpret student-related classroom needs and respond through translanguaging. Informed by previous translanguaging research, the study explores these factors through three interconnected analytical dimensions, including cognitive, affective, and interactional. The study adopts a qualitative case study design, involving semi-structured interviews with 10 English teachers who teach English-major students at a Vietnamese university. The data were analyzed thematically to identify recurring patterns in how student-related factors influenced teachers’ interpretations of classroom situations and their decisions to use translanguaging.
Findings show that teachers’ translanguaging decisions functioned as responsive pedagogical strategies addressing three interconnected dimensions of student-related classroom difficulties. Cognitive factors included students’ limited vocabulary knowledge, low grammatical competence, and difficulties understanding specialized terminology and instructions. Affective factors involved language anxiety, low self-confidence, and fear of making mistakes. Interactional factors emerged from students’ difficulties maintaining peer discussions and participating actively in English-medium classroom interaction. In response to these challenges, teachers used translanguaging to support comprehension, reduce emotional pressure, and sustain classroom interaction while maintaining target language exposure. These findings contribute to a more systematic understanding of how cognitive, affective, and interactional student-related factors shape teachers’ translanguaging decisions in Vietnamese EFL higher education classrooms.
Biography
Huỳnh Ngọc Thúy An is currently a teaching assistant at Nong Lam University, Vietnam. She recently completed a Master’s degree in TESOL. Her academic work has explored technology-assisted language learning, collaborative writing, classroom discourse, and language pedagogy in EFL contexts. More recently, her research has focused on teacher cognition and the pedagogical applications of translanguaging in Vietnamese university classrooms. She is particularly interested in examining how student-related factors influence teachers’ instructional language choices and classroom interaction in higher education settings. She can be reached via email at an.huynhngocthuy@hcmuaf.edu.vn.
| Affiliate type | University |
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