Translanguaging Practices in Kazakh as an L2: Insights from Multilingual Classroom Pedagogy

Abstract

The article examines translanguaging practices in teaching Kazakh to Turkic-speaking students as part of a qualitative study from a psycholinguistic perspective. The relevance of the work lies in the growing interest in translanguaging as an alternative to the monolingual educational model and the insufficient development of its cognitive mechanisms in the context of teaching Kazakh. The purpose of the study is to analyze how translinguistic strategies manifest in the process of oral speech formation and relate to the peculiarities of language processing and affective learning factors. The methodological basis consisted of a qualitative design. The data were obtained through semi-structured interviews with students from Turkmenistan who are studying Kazakh. The analysis was carried out using thematic analysis, which enabled the identification of stable semantic models in descriptions of linguistic experience. Special attention was paid to internal translation strategies, the role of intermediate languages, subjectively perceived cognitive load, and the level of speech anxiety. The results show that at the initial stage of learning, students often form thoughts in their native language, then translate them into Kazakh. Kazakh is used as the medium of instruction as a result of the trinity languages: As the language is mastered, there is a transition to a more direct understanding and formation of an utterance without relying on internal translation, which may indicate a gradual automation of language processing. Using a native or intermediate language is also associated with reduced anxiety and increased confidence in oral communication. Thus, translanguaging is considered a dynamic psycholinguistic process that reflects the peculiarities of students' multilingual cognitive organization.