Use of Translanguaging in EMI Classroom: Perceptions of Teachers at School Level in Nepal

This study attempted to address the perceptions of teachers on the translanguaging as a medium of instruction and how translanguaging facilitates in EMI classes at school level. This study would be very relevant for the secondary level teachers to address the issues of EMI in multilingual classroom. Hermeneutic phenomenological research design was adopted to analyze the lived experiences of the participants in EMI program in secondary level in the context of Kathmandu metropolitan city. The lived experiences of eight teachers from four schools were collected to find out the subjective and multiple realities of the EMI classes in community schools. In-depth-interview was employed the lived experiences as data from teachers of science, mathematics and social studies in this study to address the research objectives of this study. The findings of this study were exclusion of learners’ L1 in EMI class, excessive use of Nepali in EMI class, lack of the use of linguistic repertoire of learners’ L1 in EMI class, use of code mixing, code switching and translation as techniques in EMI class, and lack of workshop and training of ICT for teachers. It is concluded that translanguaging is essential to run EMI policy smoothly in non-English classes. There should be workshops and trainings on translanguaging to make the EMI policy of the Government of Nepal successful in secondary school level in Nepal.