Towards necessities and challenges of implementing translanguaging pedagogy in secondary EFL education in China

Translanguaging pedagogy has drawn increasing attention from language educators worldwide, and its underlying ideologies and pedagogical affordances and challenges have been strongly debated. In this article, the researchers examined the perceptions of a cohort of pre-service teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) at a teachers’ university in inland China to explore the necessities and challenges of implementing translanguaging pedagogy in secondary EFL education. Drawing upon data from interviews, focus group interviews, group discussion, reflective essays, and classroom observation, researchers found that these pre-service teachers readily accept the concept of translanguaging pedagogy, which demonstrates their usage-based and decolonial stance towards English education. However, most participants’ understanding of translanguaging pedagogy remains spontaneous rather than at the strategic level. Participants report challenges to this pedagogy, particularly from the high-stake, examination-oriented EFL education system and stakeholders’ pervasive monolingual ideology. The article concludes with a call to reform the examination-oriented EFL education system toward a usage-based and holistic language education to initiate policies to legitimize translanguaging pedagogy, and to design a systematic translanguaging-oriented curriculum, activities, and assessment for EFL education.