Exploring Chinese Primary School Students'Cognitive Needs For Translanguaging In EFL Classroom:A Case Study

Despite a growing number of empirical studies on the functions of translanguaging in different contexts in recent years,an issue yet to be investigated is students' internal needs for their mixed language uses in educational settings.In order to know why some young learners still have translingual practices in "English-immersion" program,this thesis conducts a case study of 35 Chinese primary school students' cognitive needs for translanguaging in English classrooms where speaking Chinese is officially not endorsed.Data include one-semester classroom observation with video recordings,field notes,and interviews with the teacher and students.Scenes containing translanguaging practices have been deeply described and compared and the analysis revealed that driven by unknown and known information,the children naturally alternate between Chinese and English out of two main needs:1)to solve problems such as comprehending learning content,task requirements,and producing complete sentences in target language;2)to express themselves,including answering teacher's questions,correcting or helping others,stating their understanding of language knowledge,and describing their ability or specific situations.Features of the two types of translanguaging are also compared and summarized.The findings can help us re-evaluate the English-only instruction policy in EFL classrooms,and contribute to the existing literature by re-examining students' flexible language practices from a cognitive perspective and provide teachers the guidance for language use in class.