Translanguaging and power in academic writing discourse: the case of a Bangladeshi university

ABSTRACT This study explored the role of translanguaging pedagogies in navigating bilingual students’ tensions and struggles in an academic writing class of an English medium private university in Bangladesh. Data were collected through classroom observation, a pedagogical intervention, a focus group discussion with six students and a semi-structured interview with the class teacher. The analysis of observation data revealed that the gate-keeping encounters precipitated by the English-only policy affected student engagement and class participation. In contrast, the intervention designed through several translanguaging strategies enhanced students’ metalinguistic, metacognitive and sociolinguistic awareness, developed multicompetence, and facilitated full participation rate in an academic writing task. Irrespective of these benefits, participants expressed mixed reactions toward accepting translanguaging as a regular practice and a policy in writing instruction that might challenge language separation traditions in academic writing, English-only biases, and expressed views about the potential for cross-contamination of Bangla language and linguistic nationalism in Bangladesh.