This study investigated more than 3600 online comments responding to an incident in 2019 where a controversial memo was sent to instruct Chinese graduate students at a US university not to speak Chinese in the department. A text analysis based on Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software showed that these comments included more negative-emotion…

This study investigated the intercultural inclusion of international students in Saudi universities, especially the language and culture barriers while interacting with local peers within and beyond classroom settings. Qualitative data gathered through interviews with 12 international students revealed that the Arabic language, shared human…

This ethnographic study reports four teenage Chinese EAL students' learning journey in a UK independent school. Due to linguistic barriers, they encountered significant challenges in their social lives and academic studies. The school arranged EAL lessons to improve students' English proficiency. However, participants were concerned that the EAL…

This article examines the language practices of Vietnamese students in Taiwan in relation to their social connectedness across different contact zones. Data were obtained from interviews with Vietnamese students of English-medium programmes in Taiwanese universities. Findings suggest that the students, in managing their English and Chinese in…

As a consequence of accelerating globalisation there has been an emphasis on developing international students' proficiency to communicate in a foreign language. However, willingness to communicate in a foreign language other than English is an issue less discussed. This case study is an attempt to clarify expats' experience of living in Denmark…

Language exchange refers to a learning partnership between two learners with different native languages who collaborate to help each other improve their proficiency in the other's language. The purpose of this study is to examine the ways in which language-exchange participants activate learner agency to construct opportunities for learning in…

This study aims to contrastively examine Korean and international students' experiences of taking subject courses at a Korean university. Focusing on the viewpoints of the students, rather than central authorities, we attempt to reveal how language use and cultural factors are interpenetrated in the praxis of English-medium instruction (EMI). The…

Increasingly students want to go abroad to study--to further their knowledge of English, experience a new culture and cultivate skills. Universities have been actively courting these students, sometimes without regard to their impact on responsibilities of heads of department, secretaries and support staff. Much is written on the intercultural…