Translanguaging as a Mediator to Motivate, Support, and Engage Students in a Chinese‐Medium Instruction Program

ABSTRACT A growing body of literature highlights the benefits of translanguaging pedagogy in multilingual classrooms. However, its implementation in Chinese‐as‐a‐medium‐of‐instruction (CMI) contexts and its impact on student motivation to learn this language remain underexplored. This study examines how translanguaging was enacted in a short‐term CMI summer program in the United States to support and motivate novice‐level students learning Chinese, incorporating perspectives from both the teacher and students. Using multimodal conversation analysis, I analyzed classroom interactions and triangulated findings with ethnographic data, including field notes and transcripts from one‐on‐one interviews with the teacher and eight students. Guided by the teacher's own metaphor of “1 + 1 = 2,” which she used to describe learning as the integration of students’ prior knowledge with new content, the findings demonstrate that translanguaging serves as a mediator in enhancing motivation, building confidence, and making learning and writing Chinese characters more accessible and engaging. Intentional instructional design, such as backward design, connected classroom learning to real‐world applications, culminating in a community performance that provided students with a clear sense of purpose. This study underscores the potential of translanguaging pedagogy as a bridge between students’ prior knowledge and new learning, developing motivation, confidence, and an appreciation for cultural and linguistic diversity, particularly in the context of learning Chinese. Pedagogical recommendations are provided for implementing these strategies in academic settings to enhance student engagement and learning outcomes.