“Can We Do a Not-All-in-English Drama for Kids?”: Translingual Practices in a Taiwanese EFL Play

Abstract

Translingual practices have been observed in English as a foreign language (EFL) instruction in Taiwan even though monolingual orientations are still highly prevalent in Taiwanese EFL education. This paper reports on a study focusing on an annual play performed by the graduating class of a university English department in Taiwan. Despite the long-standing expectation that the play should be English-only, these students deviated from the precedent by incorporating Mandarin Chinese in the play. Through a case study informed by ethnographic perspectives, I analyzed the students’ script, script notes, and rehearsals for translingual practices and interviewed the scriptwriters and faculty supervisors for their perceptions of the play. The findings show that students’ enacted translingual practices through bilingual and multimodal resources to most appropriately achieve the performative and communicative goals for each situated context. Furthermore, students invent ways of justifying the decision to include Chinese and creating a “translanguaging space” through the performance. I conclude the paper with pedagogical implications about the rich potential for the use of plays in EFL instruction.