“To See a World in a Page of the Textbook”: Translanguaging Practices in the Use of English as a Foreign Language Teaching Materials

ABSTRACT This study examines the translanguaging practices of Chinese high school teachers of English as a foreign language in delivering cultural content through pedagogical materials. The data were triangulated through classroom observations, semi‐structured interviews, and documentary analyses. The findings reveal that locally produced textbooks and contextualized instruction challenged the monolingual approach and facilitated translanguaging. Generalized cultural content often created a disconnect between the textbook and students’ lived experiences. Teachers addressed this gap using translanguaging practices with supplementary semiotic resources. By positioning materials as interactive resources, translanguaging bridges the gap between textbooks and users. It enables teachers to recognize students’ linguistic repertoires to foster multilingual and intercultural competence. The influences of teachers’ language ideologies and contextualized cultural content were also discussed.