Many of the skills and language conventions that we see in academia can serve as barriers to students, especially to those for whom English is not a first language. Translanguaging argues for a more inclusive approach to these conventions, and looks for ways in which we can take a more pluralistic view of what kinds of communication are seen as acceptable.

Kelly Webb-Davies joins us to talk through some of the core tenets of translanguaging, how it can help students and the role of technology in levelling the playing field. We also discuss some of the practicalities around translanguaging’s implementation in the classroom, recent developments in assessments, authorship and intelligibility, and a whole lot more.

Kelly delivered a webinar for TELSIG last year that also offers a clear and comprehensive introduction to translanguaging: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-600GB8w-WQ

Kelly Webb-Davies is a Lead Business Technologist at the Centre and her academic background is in linguistics, with degrees from the University of Western Australia and the University of Melbourne. Before joining Oxford, she lectured on phonetics and phonology at the University of Bangor and was a Trinity DipTESOL-qualified English for Academic Purposes tutor and Technology Enhanced Learning and Language Lead at Bangor University International College, where working with international students and responding to their specific needs informed her practice of integrating AI productively to assist with their academic and linguistic proficiency.

Her focus is thoughtfully integrating AI into higher education in ways that enhance communication, reduce bias, and expand access to knowledge. She is particularly interested in how AI can be used to address the unique challenges of groups facing linguistic barriers and neurodivergence, creating more inclusive and accessible educational environments. She advocates for a balanced approach that maintains human involvement and fosters critical thinking alongside AI implementation and her work explores innovative ways to incorporate this philosophy into pedagogical and assessment design, ensuring that AI tools complement and enrich education.

Deanne Cobb-Zygadlo has been an EAP tutor at Nazarbayev University since 2015. She is the co-coordinator of the Technology-Enhanced Learning Special Interest Group (TELSIG) with BALEAP, which is the accreditation organization for the NU Foundation Year Program. She is also a member of the ENAI (European Network for Academic Integrity) Policies Working Group.

Lee, J.W., (2016) Beyond Translingual Writing. College English. Available at https://www.jstor.org/stable/44805916

Jacob, S., Tate, T., and Warschauer, M., (2025). Emergent AI-assisted discourse: a case study of a second language writer authoring with ChatGPT. De Gruyter Brill. Available at: https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/jccall-2024-0011/html

Tan, S. (2024) Translanguaging in second language writing processes. Linguistics and Education. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0898589824000664?via%3Dihub

Wei, L. (2022). Translanguaging as a political stance: implications for English language education. ELT Journal. Available at: https://academic.oup.com/eltj/article/76/2/172/6483197

Zhou, S., Zhao, S., Groves, M. (2022). Towards a digital bilingualism? Students’ use of machine translation in international higher education. Journal of English for Academic Purposes. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1475158522001138?via=ihub

00:00 Deanne takes over 01:46 Kelly Webb-Davies 03:11 What is translanguaging? 05:11 Breaking into academic English 08:11 Disrupting the hegemony 13:30 The origins of translanguaging and overlap with World Englishes 17:33 The art of simple communication 21:16 Judith Butler’s use of academese 27:00 Is translaguaging too woke? 32:20 Writing isn’t always thinking 35:45 Shifting the responsibility from the speaker to the listener 40:25 Increasing variety in assessment 48:00 Is it fair to ask students to deal with non-standard language? 54:01 Applying inclusivity to journal submission guidelines

This is the last in a three-part series exploring responses from the EAP community following three years of Chat GPT induced mayhem. We talk through adaptations in the classroom, transferability and AI skills in the workplace, how to prepare students for higher education, the lack of consistency both within and among universities, reducing students’ reliance on gen AI, the dangers of confirmation bias, the need for change, the future of assessment, and other topics.

Contributing to this conversation is Jim Merry from Nottingham Ningbo University in China and Dr Vic Wilson-Crane from Kaplan. Jim is at the EAP coal face working to adapt his teaching and course design to the realities of student gen AI use, while Vic’s role in the Centre for Learning Innovation and Quality has given her a bird's eye view of institutional responses from across higher education.

We also manage to get Deanne Cobb-Zygadlo's mic and echo cancellation working to get her view of the response from Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan. Are clear policies and declarations of use enough, or are more far-reaching changes needed for EAP and higher education to stay ahead of the curve?

Jim Merry is an EAP tutor at University of Nottingham Ningbo China. He has worked in EAP and test preparation for over twenty years. Jim is interested in syllabus design, and is currently trying to navigate how to integrate AI more meaningfully into his work.

Dr Victoria Wilson-Crane has worked in education, in a variety of settings, for over 25 years. Vic has worked for Kaplan, one of the world’s largest global educators, for eighteen years. She leads Kaplan International Pathways’ Centre for Learning Innovation and Quality, a team of educational experts and developers, responsible for directing quality assurance and innovative learning and assessment in the Kaplan Pathways colleges in the UK. Vic has a particular interest in employability: her doctoral studies explored transition from school to further education and employment. A keen lifelong learner herself, she is a Senior Fellow of the Staff and Educational Development Association and a Certified Member of the Association for Learning Technology.

Deanne Cobb-Zygadlo has been an EAP tutor at Nazarbayev University since 2015. She is the co-coordinator of the Technology-Enhanced Learning Special Interest Group (TELSIG) with BALEAP, which is the accreditation organization for the NU Foundation Year Program. She is also a member of the ENAI (European Network for Academic Integrity) Policies Working Group.

00:00 Intro to Vic Wilson-Crane

06:38 Changes brought about since COVID

07:11 Intro to Jim Merry

10:30 Intro to Deanne Cobb-Zygadlo

13:00 Educating students about the risk of AI dependency

17:55 difficulties in merging AI literacies with EAP

19:25 Developing transferable AI skills

22:10 The kindness curriculum

22:33 What do we lose when we modernise academic skills?

26:25 Student awareness of AI limitations

27:27 What do employers want?

33:26 Gen AI tells us what we want to hear.

35:45 The future of assessment

In part two of ‘are we still language teachers?’ I’m joined in the studio by Thuy Thai and Charles Lam from the University of Leeds. Thuy and Charles argue for the continued relevance of language proficiency in education and in the role of EAP. We also examine the broadening scope of ‘academic skills’ that has come to include AI literacy, and raising awareness among students about things like overreliance and ethical use.

We discuss Thuy’s research into green traffic lights, and give thoughts on the precedents and pitfalls of cognitive offloading, revisiting territory from earlier episodes with Danny Liu and Michael Gerlich. Thuy and Charles also give their take on the findings of the notorious MIT study.

Thuy Thai is a lecturer in English for Academic Purposes at the Language Centre, School of Languages, Cultures and Societies at the University of Leeds. She has a background in academic language instruction, test and assessment development and student support. She previously worked at Leeds Trinity University as a student achievement adviser, where she supported diverse student cohorts in navigating academic challenges and developing effective study strategies. Earlier in her career, she served as a test development researcher at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University-Hanoi. Alongside her research role, she also developed and taught EAP courses, helping students gain the academic language needed for success in Vietnam’s higher education.

Charles Lam is a Lecturer in English for Academic Purposes in the Language Centre, School of Languages, Cultures and Societies at University of Leeds. He graduated at Purdue University in the US. Prior to joining Leeds, he taught linguistics and EAP for several years in Hong Kong. His teaching interests lie in academic communications in STEM. Currently he co-leads Academic Literacies for Biological Sciences and Language for Engineering. His research includes corpus linguistics and digital humanities.

Kosmyna, N., Hauptmann, E., Yuan, Y. T., Situ, J., Liao, X. H., Beresnitzky, A. V., and Maes, P. (2025). Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task. arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.08872.