DefinePK

Abstract

Based on Translanguaging Space as a theoretical framework, this study reports subject content teachers’ language practices in multilingual classrooms in the universities of Balochistan, Pakistan. The study is conducted amid circumstances where English as a Medium of Instruction policy troubles subject content teachers and learners in teaching and learning and, thus, hinders the process of understanding. Overall, 09 classes in three selected universities were observed on convenient basis using non-participant classroom observation as a data collection tool. Data were analyzed at conversation analysis level which revealed instructors’ deviation from ‘one-size-fits-all’ English medium of instructions (EMI) orthodoxy and their reliance on translanguaging in classroom communication. Whereas translingual practices enabled teachers to smoothly shuttle between languages, they empowered learners’ metacognitive levels by strengthening their funds of content knowledge. The implications of this research include advocacy for revising state-sponsored English-only hegemonic policy, licensing pedagogical translanguaging in classroom teaching irrespective of the academic level and recognition of local languages in the country’s language-in-education policy.