Conceptualising multilingual classrooms as a digital gamified translanguaging space: fostering language learning motivation and reducing foreign language anxiety in content and language learning

Research in computer-assisted-language-learning has shown that digital game-based learning can enhance L2 students’ motivation, improve students’ L2 proficiency, and alleviate L2 anxiety. However, few qualitative studies have conducted fine-grained analyses to examine how teachers strategically integrate online games as pedagogical tools to facilitate learning and sustain students’ motivation in content and language learning. Adopting a translanguaging lens, this study investigates empirical data from two distinct multilingual classroom settings: an English-Medium-Instruction Mathematics classroom and a Chinese-as-an-Additional-Language classroom. The paper explores how the creation of a digital gamified translanguaging space in these contexts can foster student motivation and reduce students’ anxiety in learning both subject matter and target languages. Methodologically, the study employs Multimodal Conversation Analysis to examine classroom interactions, triangulated with video-stimulated recall interviews with teachers and students that were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The paper introduces the notion of a digital gamified translanguaging space, emphasising how digital games create opportunities for teachers and students to fully leverage their linguistic repertoires while cultivating an engaging learning environment. It is argued that such a space enables teachers to deliver content and language instruction, promote active participation, sustain students’ motivation and alleviate students’ anxiety in learning new disciplinary and linguistic knowledge.