Translanguaging in Aviation ESP Blended MOOC Flipped Classrooms: ESP Teachers’ Perceptions

The aim of the present study was to investigate Aviation English (AE, hereafter) language teachers’ perceptions about translanguaging in AE classes. Translanguaging is a language practice through which language learners use their L1 linguistic knowledge for meaning-making purposes in their L2. The participants were ten subject teachers teaching EAP courses to pilot students and flight engineers at Army Aviation Training Center located in Isfahan, Iran. In order to investigate the participants’ perceptions about translanguaging, a questionnaire adopted from Yuvayapan) 2019) was employed. In order to answer the research questions, the questionnaire was administered among the teachers teaching AE materials, and the participants were taught online using Edmodo network. The results revealed that the majority of AE language teachers were not interested in encouraging students to use their mother tongue in answering their questions. It was also found that using mother tongue in AE classes is encouraged to promote help to peers during activities. The results also revealed that more than half of the AE teachers did not boost learners’ use of Persian to help peers in activities and did not explain problems irrelevant to the content. However, they acknowledged the importance of translanguaging in these particular situations. In answering their questions, the majority of AE language teachers were not interested in encouraging students to use their mother tongue. Furthermore, some participants believed that Persian can be used to explain vocabulary in AE language classes. The results have some implications for ESP language teachers and material developers.