Transitioning From L1 Medium of Instruction to L2 English Medium Instruction: The Role of Translanguaging in Contributing to EFL Students’ Language Learning Motivation

ABSTRACT Research on English‐Medium‐Instruction (EMI) highlights inadequate support for students transitioning from L1‐medium‐instruction to EMI. To date, little research has focused on how L2 students’ adaptation to an EMI environment influences their L2 learning motivation (LLM). Translanguaging has shown positive effects on boosting students’ LLM, but its advantages for EMI students’ LLM have been less explored. Considering the complex and dynamic nature of LLM, this study draws on a reconceptualised framework of the L2 Motivational Self‐System in order to examine the interaction between students’ translanguaging learning experiences in an EMI context and students’ LLM. Specifically, this study will explore (1) how EMI teacher's creation of translanguaging spaces in EMI classroom interactions shapes students’ translanguaging learning experience and contributes to students’ LLM, and (2) how teachers and students make sense of translanguaging practices in EMI classrooms. This paper argues that the creation of a translanguaging space in EMI classrooms can play a role in enhancing students’ LLM and facilitating their transition to a new EMI environment. The findings will have implications for the advancement of translanguaging as a pedagogy, strategies to enhance students’ LLM, and language support initiatives as students’ transition from L1‐Medium‐Instruction to L2 EMI contexts.