Background

Ireland has become linguistically diverse in recent decades due to ongoing immigration. Between 2012 and 2022, nearly 400,000 people moved to Ireland, and by 2022, over 751,000 residents indicated that speaking a language other than English or Irish at home (Central Statistics Office, 2023). The arrival of Ukrainian families brings about 17,000 Ukrainian pupils into the system by 2023 (Department of Education, 2023). As a result, plurilingual learners are now a central part of everyday schooling.

Although programmes like Languages Connect, more foreign language assistants and Polish and Lithuanian curriculum options indicate people are becoming more aware of diversity (Department of Education and Skills, 2019), classroom practice remains influenced by an English- and Irish-only tradition. State examinations reinforce this practice, leaving little room for students to draw on their home languages in learning (Ó Duibhir, 2018). Research shows that teachers often feel underprepared in supporting newcomer students (Smyth et al., 2009), and many plurilingual learners feel their languages are undervalued in school (García & Li, 2014).

Research in Ireland highlights the complex consequences of these monolingual structures. Byrne (2010) shows that schools with many newcomer learners face pressures within a monolingual assessment system. Kirwan (2016) demonstrates the potential of plurilingual approaches supported by the European Language Portfolio and CEFR benchmarks.

Importantly, teacher education literature from other multilingual contexts also reinforces the need for explicit preparation. Hansen-Pauly (2014), writing from the Luxembourg context, argues that even highly proficient student teachers often lack the professional linguistic awareness needed to support students’ learning in multilingual classrooms. She emphasises that subject teachers must understand how language shapes knowledge construction, how learners draw on their full repertoires and how interaction, scaffolding and mediation influence learning processes.

Theoretical Framework

This study is grounded in Cummins’ Common Underlying Proficiency and Interdependence Hypothesis, which explains how skills transfer across languages and why learners require support to develop academic language (Cummins, 2000). His distinction between Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) is particularly relevant, as EAL learners’ conversational fluency is often misinterpreted as full academic proficiency (Cummins, 2008).

The Companion Volume to the CEFR (2020) views learners' languages as elements of a single, flexible repertoire and recognises translanguaging as a form of pedagogical scaffolding. This aligns with the view that plurilingual pedagogy requires using students’ linguistic resources in learning. Within the framework of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), translanguaging aligns with models such as the CLIL Triptych and the 4Cs framework (Coyle et al., 2005; 2010), which emphasise the integration of content, communication, cognition and culture. Hansen-Pauly’s (2014) concept of the “language-sensitive teacher” further informs the study, showing the need for teachers to notice, analyse and use language intentionally to support subject learning.

Research Questions

Addressing the limited research on translanguaging in Irish post-primary education (Ó Duibhir, 2018), this study focuses on second-year student teachers in the Professional Master of Education programme and asks:

1. How useful do student teachers perceive translanguaging strategies within the CLIL framework in subject content classrooms?

2. What are the barriers and enablers to using translanguaging in subject content classrooms?
3. What strategies do student teachers use to implement translanguaging, and what resources are needed to support this in initial teacher education?

International Relevance

Multilingual classrooms are becoming worldwide, and many education systems face the same tensions between traditional monolingual structures and diverse learner needs. Wales offers an example of national-level integration of translanguaging through the work of Thomas and colleagues (2022), showing how system-wide commitment can support classroom practice. Insights from the Irish context will therefore contribute to international discussions on multilingual learning and the preparation of future teachers.

This study adopts a mixed-methods research design to explore how second-year student teachers in the Professional Master of Education (PME) programme understand and implement translanguaging strategies within the CLIL framework. Drawing on Creswell and Plano Clark’s (2017) mixed-methods principles and Bryman’s (2016) guidelines for rigorous data integration, the study combines quantitative and qualitative tools, including surveys, workshops, self-observation, focus groups, and interviews. The research is organised into two phases: a pilot study and a main study. All participants are second-year student teachers in the PME programme at Maynooth University in Ireland. As part of their school placement, they taught in post-primary schools for the first three days each week. Phase 1: Pilot Study The pilot involved 23 second-year PME student teachers enrolled in the Advanced Methods CLIL module. Twenty of them completed a preliminary version of the survey, designed to assess the preparedness of student teachers in supporting plurilingual learners and EAL learners, and how they think the initial education programme supports them, on 6th November 2025. Following this, participants attended a one-hour workshop introducing key theoretical concepts about the translanguaging and CLIL on 13th November. The purpose of the pilot phase was to assess the clarity and structure of the survey items and workshop activities, enabling refinement before the implementation of the main study. Phase 2: Main Study The revised survey was then distributed to all second-year PME student teachers on 28th November, resulting in 22 responses. All students will participate in a one-hour workshop, which introduces practical translanguaging strategies suitable for post-primary classrooms in February 2026. From this cohort, six to eight volunteer participants will be recruited in a ten-week intervention during their school placement. Throughout the intervention period, these participants will implement translanguaging strategies in their subject teaching. They will maintain self-observation logs documenting their reflections, challenges when using these strategies. To complement these individual reflections, three focus group discussions will be conducted. These sessions will create opportunities for sharing their experiences and peer support. At the conclusion of the placement, the volunteer participants will participate in a semi-structured interview, allowing for an in-depth exploration of their experiences of using translanguaging strategies. A post-intervention survey will also be administered to capture any changes in beliefs, confidence, and classroom practices. This mixed-methods design enables triangulation of data, supporting an understanding of how student teachers engage with translanguaging pedagogies in real classroom contexts.

Preliminary Findings and Expected Outcomes The preliminary survey findings received from the 20 student teachers enrolled in the Advanced Methods CLIL module show that PME second-year student teachers generally hold positive attitudes towards translanguaging and CLIL and demonstrate a great openness to recognising and valuing learners’ home languages in the post-primary subject classroom. However, their confidence and actual classroom practices are still developing, and do not yet fully match their positive attitudes. At the same time, they expressed a strong desire to learn how to integrate language support into their subject teaching. The study aims to expand the field of translanguaging research by providing empirical evidence from the Irish post-primary school context, an area where research remains limited. This study will also provide insights into the perceived advantages and obstacles of applying translanguaging within the CLIL framework in post-primary subject content classrooms, including structural limitations, assessment demands, and insufficient professional preparation. From the student teachers’ perspectives, this research addresses a significant gap in the initial teacher literature. By bridging the translanguaging theory and classroom practice, this study aims to provide evidence-based tools for teacher education, including practical translanguaging strategies, inclusive classroom approaches and pedagogical examples. These tools are expected to support both the student teachers and the in-service teachers in implementing translanguaging strategies within the CLIL framework. Ultimately, the study seeks to enhance the student teachers’ capacity to draw on both the learners’ linguistic and cultural repertoires to scaffold the content and language learning of plurilingual and EAL learners, promoting more inclusive and effective subject learning across post-primary education.

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