Translanguaging or code-switching?

Abstract

In this chapter, the authors argue that EMI does not mean English-only instruction and that code-switching and translanguaging practices are a natural feature of multilingual communication, and serve numerous important functions in the EMI classroom. Drawing on research examining code-switching in the classroom, extending back to early frameworks in the 1980s, Sahan and Rose then look at more recent frameworks used to research the functions of different language use in content language classrooms. Noting that the majority of this research has investigated code-switching, it is then argued that the fluidity of language use in EMI classes may be better characterised as translanguaging practices, and that new understanding of functions and how to record them are needed. Given the inherently multilingual nature of the EMI classroom, translanguaging captures how teachers and students move freely across language boundaries. This is illustrated by drawing upon examples in the existing literature as well as from the lead author's own empirical research on EMI practices at universities in Turkey, which has led to a new framework for understanding the function of language use in EMI settings.