With multilingualism as the backdrop, this study was based on pre-service teachers who are studying to become English teachers in South Africa and Brazil. A comparison on the similarities and differences to the answers given by the students from Brazil and South Africa was conducted.
English is one of the most complex languages to learn and to teach it is even more challenging. When teaching English and it is not your home language (L1), then the task becomes more daunting. With multilingualism as the backdrop, this study was based on pre-service teachers who are studying to become English teachers in South Africa and Brazil. Since, English is not their L1 these pre-service teachers face challenges when dealing with the English language in writing. For this qualitative study conducted on pre-service student teachers in the two countries a questionnaire had to be completed in writing in English. A comparison on the similarities and differences to the answers given by the students from Brazil and South Africa was conducted. The focus of this study will be on what students believe stands in their way when they must write in a language that is not their L1 as well as the challenges they face when writing an academic text in English. Being mindful of this, this study will consider the way in which translanguaging affects these students writing. This paper will also be addressing the way in which these pre-service teachers use their L1 when they are writing an academic text. The findings of this study suggest that these pre-service teachers L1 affects their academic writing in a way that they are either aware or unaware of. One of the recommendations for this study is that these pre-service students can use their L1 to strengthen their academic writing. Bearing this in mind, this method may assist our future English teachers in helping our multilingual learners to see their L1 as a strength when writing.
