In English Language Teaching (ELT), awareness of multilingualism for learning can aid in developing programs that effectively enhance learners' communication in a linguistically and culturally diverse world. Embracing the linguistic landscape (LL) -- the language visible beyond the classroom that permeates daily living -- can provide students with…

This paper contributes to our conceptualization of linguistic identities in English as a lingua franca (ELF) communication by analyzing a group of multilingual international students' narrativized accounts of their ELF communication experiences in an international university in Hong Kong. The findings of the study indicate that despite their…

Despite some rises and falls in the numbers due to various reasons, including the political climate in the Trump era and the COVID-19 pandemic (Laws & Ammigan, 2020), each year universities in the United States host a large number of multilingual international students from different parts of the world. Based on their TOEFL scores, many are…

We start this coda with a discussion of the impact of the pandemic on higher education in our contexts. We then highlight the focus of this special issue, namely international students' language learning and intercultural encounters in Chinese universities. Reflecting on the relevant findings reported in this collection of studies, we relate…

With the number of international students growing rapidly within (international) higher education, more attention has been focused on the need to consider international students' experiences, particularly those from the global south, from more critical, ethical and qualitative perspectives. This paper examines how the lived experiences of three…

Although people may readily refer to Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S. as Anglophone countries, recent demographic and sociolinguistic profiles of these countries indicate that they are actually both Anglophone and multilingual, and in some of their cities, even more multilingual than Anglophone. Recent research also indicates…

Linguistic stereotyping research posits that native speaker favor standard variety speakers which results in discrimination against non-native speakers (Rubin 2002, Kang & Rubin, 2009). However, it may be possible to improve native speaker attitudes towards accented speech, and through that, accented speakers. Research on improving native…

Various examinations are administered at universities across the US as a means of assessing bilingual/multilingual international teaching assistants' (ITAs') proficiency in spoken English before they are permitted to teach. While such exams are taken by students in a range of academic disciplines, recent research suggests that communicative…

In view of the rapid growth of English-medium instruction (EMI) in higher education institutions (HEIs), we observe the need to account for the educational and linguistic consequences of HEIs' decision to 'Englishise' their curricula. Especially, EMI in Asian countries (e.g. China) are fuelled by state-level initiatives to internationalise the…

This article reports on a cross-institutional, mixed-methods research study designed to gather data on first year writers' language backgrounds at three North American universities. Researchers administered a language survey to 1,870 first year writing students and led follow-up focus groups with 32 participants. Researchers utilized three methods…

Study-abroad programs tend to assume that their destinations are culturally and linguistically homogenous. However, Western English-speaking destinations, particularly metropolitan cities, have become increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse. Considering such sociolinguistic changes in these destinations, this research examines how…

The trend toward internationalization on Canadian campuses has been simultaneously lauded as an opportunity for promoting campus diversity and criticized for creating a campus environment that is segregated along linguistic and ethnic lines. As a result of these tensions, students labelled as "international" have become the focus of…

This program profile describes how teachers and administrators have collaborated in the design and implementation of a number of linguistic, cultural, and transmodal pedagogical and curricular initiatives. Strategies that writing teachers can implement to best meet the needs of multilingual students across a range of institutional contexts are…

In the past decades, interests in L2 (English as a second language) students' language socialization in academic communities have increasingly grown since more and more L2 students have enrolled in universities in the Western world. Previous studies centered on L2 students' attempts to obtain academic discourses as well as linguistic and cultural…

North American universities depend on international teaching assistants (ITAs) as a substantial part of the teaching labor force, which has led to the idea of an 'ITA problem', a deficiency model which is framed as a divergence between ITAs' linguistic competence and undergraduates' and their parents' expectations. This outdated positioning of…