Unequal translanguaging: the affordances and limitations of a translanguaging space for alleviating students’ foreign language anxiety in language classrooms

Abstract Foreign Language Anxiety refers to the emotional response experienced when learning or using a second language (L2) in a classroom setting. Research on ethnic minority (EM) students in Hong Kong (HK) indicates that they face difficulties in learning Chinese-as-an-Additional-Language (CAL), and the lack of adequate Chinese language education is often seen as a contributing factor to their anxiety, hindering their integration into HK society. However, there is a scarcity of studies exploring how teachers can foster a positive classroom environment to reduce students’ L2 anxiety in L2 classrooms. To fill this gap, this study employs translanguaging as an analytical framework to explore how creating emotionally secure translanguaging spaces can help mitigate EM students’ anxiety in learning CAL. The classroom interaction data will be analysed through Multimodal Conversation Analysis, and this data will be corroborated with findings from video-stimulated recall interviews, analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, to understand teachers’ and students’ perspectives on translanguaging practices in CAL classrooms. The study posits that establishing a secure translanguaging environment in CAL classrooms can potentially ease EM students’ anxiety related to learning CAL. Nevertheless, the teachers’ reliance on certain linguistic resources for scaffolding EM students’ CAL learning could potentially limit the transformative power of the translanguaging space as teachers do not fully tap into the students’ entire linguistic repertoire for scaffolding students’ CAL learning and reducing their anxiety.