Translingual practices for EAL writing education in non-EMI contexts

This study explored the impacts of translingual practices on English as an additional language (EAL) writing education in a non-English as a medium of instruction (non-EMI) context at a Chinese university. The findings highlighted the benefits of translingual practices in enhancing students’ comprehension, easing cognitive challenges, and fostering metalinguistic awareness. Students with limited English proficiency often turned to translingual practices for clearer content understanding. However, there was a growing concern among some EAL students that the heavy reliance on their mother tongue could limit their capability to connect with a wider, primarily English-speaking audience. The findings also revealed that students’ desire to achieve “native-like” fluency led some students to adopt a deficit approach to other language resources in their EAL writing. To address these issues, this study suggests implementing strategic translingual practices, which can be achieved by leveraging students’ full linguistic repertoire, teaching critical language awareness (CLA), and adopting a rhetorical approach to EAL writing education. This integrated approach can validate diverse linguistic backgrounds while ensuring effective communication tailored for various audiences. This study, thus, endorses an EAL writing pedagogy that embraces linguistic diversity and arms students with English norms and writing conventions to harness this diversity for more effective global communication.

Duke Scholars

Author Yachao Sun DKU Faculty