Teacher translation as proactive and retroactive other-initiation of repair in L2 classrooms: a translanguaging perspective

Abstract

Although conversation analysis (CA) and classroom codeswitching research have already documented teachers’ first language (L1) use (translation) as a powerful repair resource in second language (L2) classrooms, prior studies have underestimated the fine-grained and sequential analysis of teacher translation that is explicitly framed as repair from a translanguaging perspective. This study addresses this gap by examining how teachers use translation as other-initiation of repair (OIR) in L2 classrooms. Drawing on the tools of CA and taking translanguaging as an analytical perspective, eight hours of video-recorded data, collected from two different classrooms with two different teachers in a preparatory school at a state university in Türkiye, were analyzed. Although the dichotomy between proactive and retroactive repairs has been specifically developed for self-repairs, the present study shows that teacher translation as OIR can also have proactive and retroactive functions in L2 classrooms. Some implications for L2 teacher education are presented, advocating for a strategic integration of L1 use as OIR in shared L1 classrooms to promote student engagement, comprehension, and linguistic accuracy.