Multilingual practices, ideologies and identities : Asian international students’ language socialization experiences in Hong Kong

Multilingualism is becoming the norm in international universities. While English is often chosen as a medium of instruction, multilingual practices are commonplace both inside and outside the university classroom. This paper investigates Asian international students’ language experiences and language ideologies in an English-medium university in Hong Kong, with particular attention to how their language experiences shape and impact their identity construction and how they position themselves and others in relation to their language ideologies pertaining to the use of English as a lingua franca and multilingual resources. Informed by insights from language socialization theory and sociocultural linguistic approaches to identity construction, the present paper draws on narratives of Asian international students from diverse national backgrounds in understanding how their language experiences, language ideologies and language-related identities interrelate with each other. The findings revealed that these Asian international students valued the use of English as a lingua franca for academic and social integration and conceptualized English as the default language for communication on campus with local and other international students. It was also found that these international students engaged in a range of multilingual practices and drew on their multilingual competences and resources in order to construct their identities and establish relationships with local and other international students. However, while they acknowledged multilingualism as the linguistic realities at university, they seemed to insist on the monolingual use of English in the classroom in order not to be disadvantaged in their academic studies. Furthermore, their emphasis on the global status of English and the role of English as the official medium of instruction at university discouraged their agentive attempts to acquire the local language(s) and reinforced the normalization of their monolingual mindsets. A number of international students also perceived local students’ use of non-English resources negatively as exclusionary and discriminatory practices.