TRANSLANGUAGING IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROOMS IN UZBEKISTAN: UZBEK, RUSSIAN, AND ENGLISH AS PEDAGOGICAL RESOURCES
Keywords:
translanguaging; English language teaching; multilingual education; Uzbek; Russian; English; pedagogical scaffolding.Abstract
Uzbekistan’s educational environment is multilingual: learners may use Uzbek, Russian, and English across academic and everyday contexts. Nevertheless, English language teaching has often been influenced by monolingual assumptions that treat the use of learners’ other languages as interference. This conceptual paper examines translanguaging as a planned pedagogical approach that draws on students’ complete linguistic repertoires while retaining English as the primary target language. The analysis synthesizes foundational scholarship on multilingual pedagogy, official and institutional sources concerning language education in Uzbekistan, and a bounded reflective vignette based on the author’s educational experience in Andijan and Tashkent. The paper identifies five principal functions of pedagogical translanguaging: clarifying complex concepts, developing metalinguistic awareness, reducing language-related anxiety, supporting classroom participation, and strengthening academic literacy. It also discusses practical strategies for vocabulary instruction, grammar comparison, collaborative discussion, reading, and academic writing. The analysis emphasizes that translanguaging is most effective when it is purposeful, limited, inclusive, and followed by meaningful English-language production. The paper concludes that teacher education and curriculum development in Uzbekistan should equip teachers to make principled decisions about when multilingual support facilitates learning and when learners need sustained interaction in English.
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