Exploring the Perceived Attitudes, Motivation, and Influencing Factors of Translanguaging Among Teachers of Chinese as an Additional Language From an Activity Theory Lens

ABSTRACT

Teachers’ perceptions of translanguaging have been garnering incremental scholarship in recent years. However, little attention has been paid to the perceptions of translanguaging among teachers of Chinese as an additional language (CAL). To address this gap, the present study, theoretically enlightened by activity theory, investigated the perceptions of translanguaging of CAL teachers. Data were collected via a questionnaire survey of 174 CAL teachers, followed by semi‐structured interviews with nine CAL teachers. Results revealed that the CAL teachers were ambivalent in their attitudes toward translanguaging as a pedagogy, with both positive and negative attitudes. They were mainly motivated to draw on translanguaging in CAL classes for the purpose of facilitating their lectures, explaining language points, and assisting classroom interactions. Additionally, their translanguaging appeared to emerge from the ongoing interplay of subject‐mediated, tool‐mediated, rule‐mediated, community‐mediated, and labor‐of‐division‐mediated factors. These findings imply that CAL teachers need to embrace translanguaging for the sustainable teaching of Chinese to speakers of other languages.