EXPLORING TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF TRANSLANGUAGING AND TECHNOLOGY IN ENGLISH- MEDIUM STEM CLASSROOMS IN KAZAKHSTANI SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Abstract

This study examines the role of translanguaging and technology in English-medium STEM (EMI-STEM) classrooms in Kazakhstan, where multilingual education is expanding rapidly. As EMI becomes a national priority in secondary schools, teachers face challenges related to students’ diverse language backgrounds, unequal access to digital tools, and lack of institutional guidance on multilingual pedagogy. This study argues that while translanguaging and technology are both commonly used by teachers in EMI-STEM classrooms in Kazakhstan, they are rarely integrated in a cohesive pedagogical approach. Their separation, both in practice and in policy, limits their full potential to enhance student engagement, deepen content understanding, and support equitable multilingual education. To analyze this disconnect, the study applies the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework, adapted to include translanguaging, as a lens to examine how teachers balance language, technology, and content in multilingual STEM settings. The study is guided by the following questions: (1) How do teachers experience EMI-STEM teaching in multilingual contexts? (2) What challenges and opportunities do they encounter? (3) How do they use translanguaging and technology to promote student engagement to improve academic outcomes? Using a qualitative phenomenological design, the study involved 6 private secondary school STEM teachers across four schools in Astana: a STEM-focused school, a tech-focused school, an IB school, and an international school. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and classroom observations, then analyzed using thematic coding. The findings reveal that while teachers often rely on translanguaging to scaffold STEM content and support student understanding, this practice remains informal and is not reflected in policy or assessment practices, which remain largely monolingual. Technology is widely used to support content delivery and student engagement, but it is rarely aligned with multilingual teaching practices. The study offers practical implications for EMI-STEM policy, teacher training, and curriculum design. Additionally, it contributes theoretically by suggesting that explicitly embedding translanguaging within the TPACK model would strengthen its relevance and applicability in multilingual education systems such as Kazakhstan’s.