TRANSLANGUAGING PRACTICES OF ARABIC-SPEAKING INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS IN TÜRKİYE: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL CASE STUDY

Date

2026-7-3

Author

Özgenç, Yaren Buse

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Globally, university classrooms are increasingly diverse due to internationalization. In Türkiye, EMI universities require high L2 proficiency, so many international students enter EFL preparatory programs. However, these EFL contexts often enforce English-only rules, conflicting with the multilingual realities students bring to class. Within this context, this phenomenological case study examined the lived translanguaging experiences of 10 Arabic-speaking students at a foundation university in Ankara, how they made sense of these experiences, and how instructors and Turkish classmates interpreted them. Drawing from Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory and Translanguaging Theory, data were gathered over eight weeks using classroom audio recordings, semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and the researcher's journal, and analyzed through hybrid Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis and Thematic Analysis.The results revealed distinct themes corresponding to the three research questions. First, in terms of lived experience, translanguaging served as a cognitive and regulatory resource, functioned as a hybridizing resource, and offered social-pedagogical scaffolding. Second, students' sense-making revealed a conflict between their actual practice and their ideal selves, while some viewed translanguaging as a safe house, and others as an act of solidarity. Third, instructors and Turkish peers interpreted these practices as a psychological and emotional coping mechanism and a pedagogical and cognitive tool; they also noted the paradox of translanguaging: despite its advantages, a concern about overreliance on the L1 was expressed. The study shows that translanguaging is an educational asset rather than a weakness, highlighting teachers' need to balance bilingual support and target-language output for inclusive EFL environments.

Subject Keywords

Translanguaging, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, Sociocultural Theory, English as a Foreign Language, Arabic-speaking Students

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/119736

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis