PERCEPTIONS ON TRANSLANGUAGING FROM EFL TEACHERS WITH DIFFERENT LINGUISTIC BACKGROUNDS IN KAZAKHSTAN

Abstract

Perceptions on Translanguaging from EFL Teachers with Different Linguistic Backgrounds in Kazakhstan Due to integration into world economy and education, Kazakhstan established the trilingual educational policy (Kazakh, Russian, and English) which made the English language obligatory to learn at local schools. English has been taught through a monolingual approach which excludes translanguaging from classroom practices. Significantly, recent studies have revealed that translanguaging is used by English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers who hold ambiguous perceptions of translanguaging. However, there is little research conducted to examine how EFL teachers with different linguistic backgrounds perceive and use translanguaging practices. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to investigate Russian and Kazakh-speaking EFL teachers’ perceptions and the way how translanguaging is used in their teaching. Moreover, this study explored how teaching materials reflect the use of translanguaging. A qualitative research approach was employed to amass data through a series of individual semi-structured interviews with five Russian and five Kazakh-speaking EFL teachers from state schools to address the following research questions: 1. What are Russian and Kazakh-speaking EFL teachers’ perceptions of translanguaging? 2. How do teachers with different linguistic backgrounds use translanguaging in their teaching? 3. How do teaching materials reflect translanguaging use? Macaro’s (2001) teachers’ position theory and Garcia and Kleyn’s (2016) teachers’ design were adopted as the conceptual frame to analyse the collected data. The findings revealed that the majority of all participants hold mixed perceptions of translanguaging which range from negative to positive. Regardless of mixed perceptions, all EFL teachers were found to use translanguaging in their teaching. In addition, the study showed that Russian-speaking teachers are more negative towards translanguaging, whereas Kazakh-speaking teachers tend to perceive translanguaging as a beneficial pedagogical tool. Finally, document analysis of teaching materials indicated that there is the scarce presence of planned translanguaging pedagogy. With the above in mind, it is recommended to conduct professional development courses for EFL teachers, curriculum designers, and policymakers on the benefits of translanguaging in education.