Working with Translanguaging and Transknowledging in EAP Academic Writing: A Work-in-Progress Report from an MA Education Module

Abstract

This Work-in-Progress paper reports on the early stages of a systematic practitioner inquiry investigating translanguaging and transknowledging within English for Academic Purposes (EAP) academic writing. Despite growing recognition of multilingual and epistemically diverse student cohorts in higher education, EAP writing pedagogy often continues to assume English-only processing and narrowly defined academic ways of knowing, limiting opportunities for both multilingual and English-dominant students to draw on their full resources during learning. 

The project is being implemented across two semesters within a standalone, in-sessional MA Education academic writing module at the University of Reading and introduces a preliminary conceptual framework, the Multilingual Pedagogy for Academic Literacies Framework (MPALF). The project explores how the integration of a range of pedagogical activities in the classroom can mobilise students’ linguistic and epistemic repertoires while maintaining English-medium output expectations. A student-partnership model supports the adaptation of pedagogical activities initially trialed in Semester 1 for delivery in Semester 2. 

This paper presents descriptive baseline findings from an end-of-Semester 1 questionnaire, indicating multiple forms of engagement with translanguaging and transknowledging among both multilingual and English-dominant students. These findings point to the importance of clearly articulating process–product boundaries in assessment-adjacent EAP contexts. They establish students’ starting points and inform subsequent pedagogical development, with cautious within-cohort comparison planned over time. The paper positions this contribution as a developmental step towards a fuller research article in 2026.