From “Striving to Survive” to “Striving to Thrive”: A Narrative Inquiry Into a Student's Motivational Development via Translanguaging in EAP and EMI Contexts

ABSTRACT While English‐medium instruction (EMI) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses are designed to promote language and content learning, their prevailing English‐only approaches often undermine students’ learning motivation. Against this backdrop, translanguaging has gained recognition as an effective pedagogical practice to support learning, yet its potential to support motivation in EMI and EAP contexts remains underexplored. Therefore, this study investigates how translanguaging pedagogy facilitates the motivational development of a student positioned as having less institutionally‐valued English in an EMI and EAP context by tracing the evolving satisfaction of his basic psychological needs (BPN). Following a narrative inquiry approach, data were collected from learner diaries, classroom video recordings, and interviews. The findings illustrate the student's transformation from an anxious and demotivated learner “striving to survive” to an increasingly agentive and engaged learner “striving to thrive.” The analysis unpacks how translanguaging served as a motivational practice, fueling the learner's transformation by satisfying fundamental needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. The study contributes to current discussions on EMI and EAP course design by emphasizing the motivational value of translanguaging pedagogy and its implications for inclusive language education policy.