EMI and translanguaging: student language use in an Italian English-taught programme

Italian universities are striving to enhance their internationalization policies through the implementation of English-Medium Instruction (Costa & Coleman 2013) and the University of Padova is no exception, with a total of 49 fully English-taught programmes (ETPs) now on offer. Yet this phenomenon is problematic, with ongoing concerns about guaranteeing quality (Beccaria 2015; Wilkinson 2013) and ensuring the role and status of the local language, in this case Italian, along with its academic culture (Motta 2016; Phillipson 2006). Yet many of the discussions around EMI in Italy fail to take account of its relationship with multilingualism, focusing instead on the implications of teaching and learning in a non-native language. This chapter will attempt to address this gap by looking at EMI in the context of the multilingual university and investigating the impact that this has on student language practices in the classroom. Studies have shown that, even if not officially encouraged, the practice of translanguaging may be adopted in EMI amongst student populations (see for example Goodman 2017; Guarda forthcoming). Translanguaging in this context refers to “any practices that draw on an individual’s linguistics and semiotic repertoire” (Mazak 2017: 5), covering not only code-switching but also cases in which, for example, students speak their native language while writing texts in English. The aim of this article is thus to explore the extent to which students make use of translanguaging during EMI classes, for example during class discussion or collaborative tasks, and their perceptions of their own language use. It will focus on one ETP at the University of Padova, a bachelor’s degree in Psychological Science, which was first introduced in the 2015-2016 academic year. To collect data, an online questionnaire was administered to two cohorts of students, receiving 66 answers, and a quantitative and qualitative thematic analysis was then conducted. Overall the students’ answers appear to indicate that the use of two or more languages can help them in verbalizing their content knowledge and may thus enhance their learning process. At the same time, there was great sensitivity to the issue of inclusion, with students always careful that their language choices did not exclude any peers form the interaction. My analysis aims to uncover some of the motivations behind language choices, relating these to the concept of translanguaging agency. It will conclude by reflecting on how translanguaging in EMI relates to issues of diversity in multilingual university settings.