Publications

University-level internationalisation processes seem to be inextricably linked to the implementation of English-medium instruction (EMI) courses worldwide. In EMI contexts translanguaging comes to the fore, that is to say, the multiple discursive practices bilinguals use to make sense of their bilingual worlds (García, 2009). The use of translanguaging is thus becoming a highly topical issue, especially in those contexts where the foreign-language teaching tradition fosters the exclusion of the L1 in the English-medium class. This is the case of the Basque Country in Spain where the general trend has been to keep the languages in separate compartments. In this chapter we analyse the beliefs of teachers involved in English-medium instruction at tertiary level. The results reveal that there are different perspectives on this issue, although the majority of the participants are prone to exclude the L1 from their everyday teaching practices, as the L1 is thought to hinder the acquisition of the foreign language.