From ‘Sir’ to ‘Laoshi’: Emotional Labour and Identity Negotiation of Novice Chinese‐Language Teachers Through Translanguaging

ABSTRACT Translanguaging research has extensively examined how multilingual resources support learner participation and meaning‐making, yet less is known about how these resources shape teachers' professional work. This study draws on interview‐based narrative inquiry to examine how two novice Chinese‐language teachers in Ghana mobilised multilingual resources alongside embodied and material forms of mediation in their classrooms. The findings show that translanguaging functioned as a mediating professional practice through which novice teachers sustained participation, managed interactional and emotional demands, negotiated professional recognition and adapted teaching to local material and cultural conditions. Their practices were selective and context‐sensitive, with English commonly supporting explanation and classroom pacing, Twi carrying particular relational value and embodied or material resources helping to address instructional constraints. In their accounts, reflection on these experiences contributed to revised pedagogical assumptions and more situated forms of professional judgement. The study conceptualises translanguaging as part of teachers' professional work and shows how it connects emotional labour, identity negotiation and professional learning in multilingual classrooms. It extends translanguaging research by foregrounding teachers' developing judgement and professional experience.