NAVIGATING IDEOLOGIES, EXERCISING AGENCY: TRANSLANGUAGING AMONG TERTIARY EFL LEARNERS IN BANGLADESH

In the shadow of monolithic English-only policies, a quiet revolution is unfolding in 

Bangladeshi university classrooms. This study reveals how tertiary EFL learners are not 

passive recipients of linguistic imperialism rather strategic architects of their own learning, 

systematically deploying translanguaging practices to navigate, resist, and reshape the 

constraining monolingual ideologies that permeate their education. Grounded in a critical 

realist-pragmatist philosophy, this study first quantified the translanguaging behaviors, 

beliefs, and perceived benefits of students through a survey, followed by interviews and focus 

group discussions to explore the lived experiences and agentive mechanisms behind the 

numbers. The findings demonstrate that translanguaging is a normative, cognitively-driven 

learning strategy, not a deficit. Statistical analysis confirmed its high prevalence and a 

significant preference for metalinguistic and knowledge-construction functions over social 

ones. Crucially, as students‟ English proficiency grew, their adherence to monolingual 

ideology weakened, and their reliance on strategic Bangla-English integration for cognitive 

clarity and emotional grounding intensified. Qualitatively, learners exhibited a sophisticated 

spectrum of agency, from covert “linguistic rebellion” to overt advocacy for a “bilingual 

cognitive model”, using Bangla as a “rehearsal space” and “internal processor” to deconstruct 

complex concepts before formal English output. Therefore, proficiency flourishes, it is 

argued, not through L1 suppression but through strategic L1-L2 integration, challenging the 

very foundations of monolingual pedagogy. Theoretically, this study advances 

translanguaging scholarship by introducing Cognitive-Linguistic Orchestration (CLO), a 

framework demonstrating how learners strategically deploy languages for specific cognitive 

functions while developing L2 proficiency. Nevertheless, to address the limitations of this 

study, future study can employ longitudinal classroom observations to trace the 

developmental trajectory of orchestration competence across proficiency levels. 

Consequently, this study recommends that institutional policies should formally integrate 

strategic translanguaging as a pedagogical resource to foster cognitive and content 

development while simultaneously advancing language proficiency and learner autonomy.

• Supervision