Language and subject anxieties in EMI classrooms in Macau: A translanguaging perspective
This study investigates university students’ language anxiety and subject anxiety and the strategies they employ to alleviate such anxieties. Translanguaging is a dominant strategy in the English Medium Instruction (EMI) classroom in Macau. 61 undergraduate students in two EMI programs participated in the study. Both questionnaire and interview data were collected for understanding students’ learning difficulties and strategies in EMI learning. The study observes that translanguaging is an indispensable pedagogical tool to alleviate language and subject anxieties, giving strong support to subject learning in EMI classrooms. It highlights the importance of adopting flexible and inclusive teaching practices that recognize and leverage students’ language abilities for their overall academic development. This study contributes to the growing evidence of how translanguaging can be applied to differing learning contexts.