A systematic review of teachers’ translanguaging pedagogies in East Asian tertiary EMI contexts: stance, design, and shifts

This systematic review examines translanguaging pedagogy in East Asian higher education (2013–2024) through the lens of translanguaging stance, design, and shifts. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines are used for transparency, followed by a strategic extraction and coding system to explore emergent themes. A total of 23 studies on translanguaging pedagogy in East Asian English-medium-instruction settings published between January 2013 and May 2024 were obtained from ERIC, LLBA, Web of Science, and ProQuest databases. Our critical review of these studies revealed that instructors hold generally positive stances towards translanguaging pedagogy in terms of its academic utility and socioemotional value, but tensions with university language policies and some scepticism also raise concerns regarding translanguaging use. Many instructors actively planned and implemented translingual strategies, materials, and tasks in their classes, especially to contextualise course content. Instructors actively used reactive translanguaging shifts even with negative translanguaging stances, suggesting a complex policy-practice relationship. This review contributes methodologically through adapting a pedagogical framework into an analytical tool for examining literature. The findings contribute to theory by confirming persistent policy-practice mismatch. Practically, this review demonstrates a need for context-sensitive language policies to legitimise active translanguaging pedagogies in higher education.