Translanguaging in ESL Reading Comprehension: Lived Experiences of Vietnamese Learners

Translanguaging has become a popular and transformative approach in multilingual education, highlighting how learners navigate second-language reading comprehension. It provides a space or dynamic for students to access, negotiate, and construct meaning within Vietnamese ESL programs where English is taught alongside a strong first-language literacy. While current research mainly focuses on teachers’ beliefs, instructional design, or the cognitive aspects of translanguaging, less attention has been paid to the processes students themselves use and to how translanguaging is employed (or not) in mediating reading comprehension. This paper aims to address this gap by exploring how Grade 9 Vietnamese students make meaning in an English classroom that promotes translanguaging. Using Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory and García and Wei’s Translanguaging Theory, this qualitative study employed a descriptive phenomenological approach. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with ten students who regularly engaged with translanguaging in ESL classes. The data were analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s six-phase thematic analysis to identify key statements, interpret their significance, and develop thematic groups. Findings suggest that translanguaging is not merely a compensatory linguistic strategy. Instead, it functions as a form of epistemic agency, a scaffold for social and academic negotiation, and a tool for emotional regulation. Participants described using Vietnamese to clarify meaning, articulate detailed thoughts to peers, and manage emotional challenges related to text difficulty and language anxiety. Three main themes emerged: Translanguaging as Epistemic Agency, Translanguaging as Socio-Academic Negotiation, and Translanguaging as Emotional Navigation. Together, these themes contributed to the development of the Translanguaging Literacy Engagement Framework (TLEF), illustrating how bilingual learners strategically use their home language resources to support reading comprehension. The study offers implications for ESL practice, curriculum development, and teacher training, emphasizing that translanguaging extends beyond a mere strategy to embody a cultural, cognitive, and emotional continuum rooted in historical and social contexts. From learners’ perspectives, meaning-making among bilingual individuals is seen as a fundamental basis for inclusive and responsive language education policies in Vietnam and beyond.