Enhancing business English proficiency through translanguaging: a CLIL approach to teaching all four language skills

This research principally intends to explore the effectiveness of the translanguaging-based CLIL approach on undergraduate students in terms of improving Business English proficiency in reading, writing, listening, and speaking (Nikula & Moore, 2019; García & Li, 2014). The results of the research indicated statistical significance across all four language skills, with participants gaining more in listening and speaking due to the interactive and collaborative nature of the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) curriculum (Cauli, 2021; Iswarya & Sundarsingh, 2022). The strategic use of native languages, for example, to re-explain business vocabulary, however, created a gateway for meaning, interest, and beliefs in the business vocabulary (Yuzlu & Dikilitaş, 2021). Translanguaging was claimed to lighten participants' cognitive load, enhance their understandings, and enable them to reach a deeper level in the contents dealing with business (Li, 2018). Among others, the implications of the study make a case for the pedagogical significance of translanguaging within multilingual classrooms of professional and academic CLIL settings (Lin, 2019). Educators are invited to consider translanguaging strategies that transcend linguistic barriers and advance equity in multilingual contexts (Bonacina-Pugh et al., 2021), while policymakers are called to reconsider the development of language education policies that should be inclusive of the full linguistic repertoire of learners (García, 2009; Sah & Kubota, 2022). Results emphasise training for the teachers and preparation of resources to implement the translanguaging and CLIL philosophy accordingly, hence providing a transformative framework that fosters Business English proficiency and 21st-century skills in globalised educational contexts (Yang, 2015; Llanes & Cots, 2020).