Educational experiences in the context of english medium instruction: translanguaging in the international baccalaureate diploma programme

Abstract

Although EMI International Baccalaureate contexts are characterized by high degrees of linguistic diversity, prevailing monolingual ideologies continue to structure both instructional norms and assessment expectations. Such ideologies often obscure the cognitive and epistemic work required of multilingual learners, who must simultaneously engage with complex disciplinary content and navigate heightened linguistic demands. Consequently, learners’ multilingual resources remain systematically underleveraged, and the pedagogical potential of translanguaging is constrained by institutional policies that privilege English as the sole legitimate medium of academic expression. This study therefore addresses the misalignment between students’ multilingual meaning-making practices and the restrictive language regimes that shape their educational trajectories. This article examines translanguaging as a learning practice in English-Medium Instruction (EMI) International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB DP) classrooms. Using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight IB DP graduates from different multilingual schools. The analysis revealed superordinate themes like cognitive strategies, emotional security and community, identity and linguistic capital negotiations, institutional policy, monolingual ideologies and practices of resistance, language-mediated assessment and the cost of time for language. The results show a cyclical trajectory of meaning construction—from L1 conceptual stabilization to L2 disciplinary expression—which reduces semantic loss, supports Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) development, and maintains participation in high-stakes tasks. Identified institutional tensions, such as English-only norms, linguistic load of assessment often limit translanguaging despite its pedagogical value. The study’s findings underscore the need for institutional re-evaluation of language policies within EMI IB contexts, particularly with respect to the pedagogical legitimacy of translanguaging. Recognizing translanguaging as a cognitively generative practice would enable educators to support conceptual consolidation in the L1 while facilitating more precise disciplinary articulation in the L2. Such an approach could mitigate semantic loss, enhance CALP development, and reduce the inequitable linguistic burden placed on multilingual students during high-stakes assessments. Furthermore, the results suggest that teacher professional development should incorporate theoretically grounded translanguaging pedagogies, and that assessment bodies may need to reconsider linguistic complexity as a potential confounding variable in the evaluation of subject-matter knowledge.