From Monolingual Silence to Bilingual Confidence: Investigating Translanguaging Strategies in Middle School English Education

This quasi-experimental mixed-methods study investigates the impact of translanguaging pedagogy on the vocabulary knowledge, reading comprehension, and speaking fluency of Turkish and Syrian sixth-grade English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in a public middle school in Turkey. Sixty students were assigned to either a treatment group, which received instruction incorporating Turkish and Arabic alongside English, or a control group following English-only methods. Quantitative findings revealed significant improvements in all three domains for the treatment group, with Turkish students performing slightly better than their Syrian peers. Semi-structured interviews with 12 students indicated overwhelmingly positive perceptions of translanguaging, highlighting increased emotional comfort, cognitive clarity, and classroom engagement. The results suggest that translanguaging supports both linguistic development and sociocultural inclusion, particularly for refugee and linguistically marginalized learners. The study recommends integrating translanguaging into mainstream English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instruction to foster equity, confidence, and multilingual empowerment in diverse educational contexts.