Understanding Chinese High School Students Attitudes Toward Translanguaging in English Classrooms

Translanguaging has moved from a niche concept to a lively point of debate in language education, and it still feels like a space with plenty left to explore. Much of the existing work has looked at translanguaging in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms through teachers eyes, often in university settings. But what about adolescentsstudents who are navigating English learning while also managing the everyday pressures of high school? This study turns to that group and examines how high school learners view translanguaging in their EFL classes. Drawing on questionnaire data from 70 high school students, the findings suggest that many students already recognize translanguaging when it happens and, in most cases, respond to it positively. They tend to feel comfortable with their own translanguaging and are also receptive when teachers weave multiple languages into instruction. More importantly, students commonly associate translanguaging with tangible learning gains, especially when it comes to picking up grammar patterns and expanding vocabularyareas where learners often stall if they rely on English-only input. Students attitudes also mattered in a predictive sense: those who viewed translanguaging more favorably were more likely to judge it as beneficial for their English learning overall. Taken together, the study offers practical guidance for teachers who want to use translanguaging in ways that feel supportive rather than distracting, points to several productive directions for research in secondary-school contexts, and encourages students to see translanguaging not as cheating, but as a legitimate learning strategy and pedagogy.