Language Use and Identity Negotiation: International Students’ Experiences in an EMI University in Multilingual Hong Kong

This chapter examines two international students’ experiences of language use and identity negotiation in an English-medium-instruction (EMI) university in multilingual Hong Kong, with particular attention to the relationship between their language use and identity construction in situated contexts. In-depth interviews were conducted with two international students from different racial/ethnic backgrounds to elicit narratives of their lived experiences. The findings illustrate how international students’ language use and identity construction experiences can be complex, dynamic, and fluid and vary considerably across contexts. Based on the analysis, I argue that international students’ language use can be closely intertwined with their identity construction, leading to their inclusion/exclusion and empowerment/marginalisation in situated contexts. The chapter also illustrates how language ideologies (especially native-speaker and raciolinguistic ideologies) mediate the relationship between international students’ language use and identity construction. In particular, raciolinguistic ideologies appear to have impacted on how the two international students’ language practices and/or language proficiencies shape their identities (and others’ perceptions of their identities) in a very different manner because of their different racial/ethnic backgrounds. Overall, the chapter calls for more attention to the complex interaction between international students’ language use, identity negotiation, and language ideology in gaining a fuller understanding of international students’ experiences.

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