“Teacher, what does “epistemology” mean in Vietnamese?” An autoethnography of translanguaging in a Vietnamese EFL classroom

Abstract

Although translanguaging (TL) has been widely studied in multilingual education, most research has centered on English-Medium Instruction (EMI) contexts, non-English majors, or etic perspectives, leaving a lack of emic, autoethnographic accounts of TL in English-major classrooms. This study addresses that gap by investigating TL in research methodology courses within a Vietnamese tertiary English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context. Guided by social constructivism, this study employs an autoethnographic design, combined with a student focus group interview, to examine how an EFL teacher implemented TL practices and how students perceived and engaged with them. The findings reveal that TL facilitated comprehension, reduced anxiety, and encouraged participation, particularly when students encountered abstract concepts such as ontology and epistemology. The teacher’s narrative illustrates a pedagogical shift from an English-only orientation toward a more inclusive and strategic use of English and Vietnamese. This study contributes a lived perspective on how TL unfolds in a content-heavy EFL context. It concludes by recommending intentional, context-sensitive TL strategies, institutional recognition of TL as a legitimate practice, and the integration of TL training into teacher education programs, while also calling for further research into balancing L1 and L2 use in EFL content courses.