Evolving classroom language use: how translanguaging practices emerged in bilingual preservice teachers

This study investigates how translanguaging practices emerged and evolved among bilingual preservice English language teachers during a three-month teaching practicum with young emergent bilinguals in Brunei primary schools. Framed within teacher language awareness (TLA), it examines how teachers’ awareness of classroom language use developed organically in a context where teachers and learners share a home language that is central to interaction yet absent from the formal curriculum. Drawing on written reflection journals and selected stimulated recall interviews, the analysis traces shifts in how and why 45 preservice teachers engaged in translanguaging, based on their own reflections regarding whether their practices were planned or reactive to classroom situations. Findings reveal that teachers became increasingly conscious of their language choices, navigating tensions between identities, institutional expectations and learner needs. They gradually shifted from reactive, intuitive responses to more intentional, strategic use of their multilingual repertoires. Five themes emerged from the data: repositioning teacher identity, responding to learner needs, affirming learner identities, negotiating language policy and developing through reflective practice. These themes illustrate the situated and evolving nature of teachers’ language decision-making. The study highlights how preservice teachers begin to develop professional competence in multilingual settings and support learners’ access to academic language.