A Critical Evaluation of Using Translanguaging for Teaching Chinese in Sri Lanka: Native Language Repertoire vs. Language Ideology

Despite the dramatic shifts language teaching approaches have undergone over the globe in the recent past, pedagogy of second and foreign languages in Sri Lanka have largely remained resorted to traditional immersion education which accommodate limited consciousness towards the socio-linguistic and cultural dimensions of non-native learners and teachers.The present study is an evaluation of the prospects of employing translanguaging for teaching Chinese to Sri Lankan learners.The study is supported by empirical data of both qualitative and quantitative nature obtained from 65 informants in a higher education context in Sri Lanka.Findings of the study indicate that conservative monolingual approaches, largely triggered by hegemonic colonial ideologies and practices, are proven futile in modern-day Sri Lankan multilingual setting.The discrepancies of global textbooks coupled with absence of localized textbooks, minimal learner engagement triggered by total immersion and alienation within distant dominant cultural ideology of target language, have resulted in an indifference towards the dynamics of leaners' native language repertoire.Based on existing literature on similar settings, the study perceives that the potentials of tranglanguaging extends beyond mere linguistic competence and has the aptitude to promote learner autonomy, harmonious existence, inclusive learning and decolonized mindset.