Toward linguistic justice and inclusion for multilingual learners: Implications of selective translanguaging in English-medium instruction classrooms

English-medium instruction (EMI) mainly mandates teaching all subjects in English only, but evidence shows teachers and students use local languages alongside English, commonly known as translanguaging. This has been proposed as a transformative pedagogy, especially for ethnic/Indigenous children, but research on its impact on the lived experiences of ethnic minority students in EMI multilingual classrooms is lacking. This paper fills the gap by studying the discursive use of translanguaging in EMI classrooms in a multilingual school in Nepal. Drawing on an ethnographic study in an EMI school located in a multilingual ethnic minority community where mother tongues (i.e., Bhojpuri) other than Nepali were spoken, this paper reports on interviews, focus group discussions, and classroom observations in Grades 6 and 9 over 4 months. Data analysis reveals that both teachers and students recognized a need to negotiate the English-only policy to accommodate their limited English proficiency and used Nepali but not their mother tongues as a supplementary language. While English-Nepali translanguaging seemed to facilitate a better delivery and understanding of content knowledge, this selective, excluding practice did not guarantee equity and equality due to excluding students’ mother tongues (i.e., Bhojpuri) in content classes and school language policy. Our findings highlight how such “selective translanguaging” practices and their related ideologies stigmatize mother tongues, causing linguistic injustice for ethnic minority students. The study proposes “inclusive translanguaging,” countering unequal language ideologies and embracing historically marginalized languages, cultures, and identities. •1.Selective translanguaging reproduces the language ideology of elite bilingualism.•2.Translanguaging doesn't always level power hierarchies or combat social inequities.•3.Caution against thin inclusion of languages without questioning power dynamics.•4.Adoption of inclusive translanguaging to counter unequal language ideologies.