Students’ and teachers’ attitude towards translanguaging: an inter university study in Dhaka

Abstract

An age old question whether or not native language should be used in second language classroom is still unanswered. On the basis of this thought, this research aimed to figure out students’ and teachers’ attitude towards translanguaging from Bangladeshi context. It mainly focused on tertiary level students and their teachers, for which 156 students and 10 teachers of 7 privately-run universities of Dhaka participated in the data collection procedure. Lev Vygotsky’s socio cultural theory and the concept of zone of proximal development (ZPD) were used to analyze the data.Findings showed that translanguaging might be useful to understand meaning of unknown words, to provide assistance to weak students, and to boost students’ confidence level. This study also highlighted how contextual need would suggest teachers when to use the native tongue alongside the target language.