Abstract Despite the increased international use of English-medium instruction in higher education, little attention has been given to the language-related experiences of international students in non-Anglophone settings where local or national languages are used for academic purposes. This study explores the language ideologies and practices of a cohort of international students studying in a CAP course. Based on a large ethnographic study, the findings demonstrate that (i) international students tend to see Chinese as burdensome and of low value in science and technology; (ii) they have little interest in, and low motivation for, the CAP course because of complex linguistic, pedagogical, institutional, ideological factors; (iii) they engage in multilingual practices for empowerment in the CAP classroom. The study emphasizes the need for dynamic, locally contextualized language policies and curriculum design to improve outcomes for international students, offering insights about CAP in higher education and South-South student mobility in China and beyond.
Dong et al. (Tue,) studied this question.