W Xu
Biographic Data
| ID | 7413 |
|---|---|
| NAME | W Xu |
| GIVEN NAMES | W |
| FAMILY NAME | Xu |
| SIGNATURE | XU W |
| AFFILIATIONS | Shanghai Jiao Tong University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1015-0240 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 50 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 144 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 50 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
What’s in a name? The politics of naming, power and symbolic violence in Chinese L2 classrooms
This article explores the socially and politically laden practices of assigning Chinese names to international students—a well-established yet under-researched phenomenon in China. Drawing on interview data with both 117 international students and 10 Chinese language teachers, I used a triad of concepts—linguistic hegemony, symbolic violence, and compliance/resistance—to explore why and how international students are given Chinese names, and how …
Superdiversity beyond the West: Market-driven symbiosis and migrant adaptation in Yiwu, China
Doing Thematic Analysis in the Age of Generative AI: Practices, Ethics and Reflexivity
While the extant research has provided a recipe for researchers to undertake thematic analysis (TA) in a theoretically and methodologically sound way, there has not yet been sufficient research to map out TA in the age of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI). Building on and refining my 2020 article Applying thematic analysis to education: A hybrid approach to interpreting data in practitioner research published in International Journal of…
Aging effects on control ability: An ERP study using the AX continuous performance task in middle-aged and older adults
The dual mechanisms of control model (DMC model) assumes that aging leads to decline in proactive control and reactive control abilities in various aspects of daily life. However, the methods adopted by previous ERP studies limit their capacity to provide in-depth information on the aging effects of neural processes, such as N2 (reactive control), P3b, and CNV (proactive control). This study aims to clarify the aging effects on proactive control …
Survive, thrive and transform: African international students’ lived experience of monolingual Chinese higher education
In addressing the two problems within the existing literature – an over-emphasis on English as the medium of instruction (EMI) in the internationalisation of higher education and the under-explored, yet important, ‘default’ common language for communication beyond university classrooms – this article presents findings of a qualitative study on African international students’ lived experience of surviving, thriving and transforming at a provincial…
Multilingualism in the governance of a ‘monolingual’ country: Micro language planning, dispute settlement and social governance in China
Emotionality, spatiality and relationality: Deciphering the emotional geographies of Chinese language education in Australia
While emotional geography is a burgeoning field in educational research, research on foreign languages education, and Chinese language education specifically, has largely ignored emotionality and space. We begin to rectify this situation through nuancing how students’ Chinese language learning experiences are (re)shaped by recurrent emotional and relational experiences in distinctive ways. More specifically, we focus on how emotional geographies …
(Non-)participation and identity negotiation: Sophie’s L2 learning and use experiences in China
This article reports on a single case study of a Nigerian female international student – Sophie’s changing second language (L2) learning and use experiences in China, with a specific focus on her negotiation of (non-)participation, competence and identity. Drawing upon the notion of ‘community of practice’ and poststructuralist theorising on identities in language learning, we provide a holistic and nuanced account of Sophie’s language learning t…
Translanguaging practices and language ideologies in adult migrants’ Chinese learning classrooms and beyond
The arrival of trade migrants in China has increased the demand for Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) education, and their superdiverse sociolinguistic profiles also present challenges to native Chinese-speaking teachers and their monolingual teaching approach. Compared to the research on foreign traders' mobility in China, fewer studies have explored their day-to-day language use and learning experiences. This research unpacks the complex real…
Inequalities of multilingualism and the role of capital(s) in low-end globalisation
They Prefer White People and American English: Racialized English Language Teaching, African English Teachers and Identity Insecurity in China
While issues of race and language, especially English language teaching (ELT), are increasingly problematized in the Anglosphere, China remains a context that needs to be examined and uncovered. Drawing upon semi‐structured interviews, this article explores the racialized experiences of six African Black English teachers and how racial ideologies and racial ideologies of ELT affect their life pathways and identity formation. Findings suggest the …
International habitus, inculcation and entrepreneurial aspirations: International students learning in a Chinese VET college
While research continues to document the influence of higher education institutions on students’ identities, studies considering how these institutions inform students’ post-study aspirations and career pathways remain limited. This paper engages with a new phenomenon – international students in vocational colleges in China – where we examine how the cultural and expressive characteristics of the institution empowered them to imagine their future…
Micro language planning and governmentality in ‘globalisation from below
Linguistic racism and micro-aggressions in everyday encounters of African migrants in China: A challenge to the nation’s strategic vision for Africa
Linguistic racism and microaggressions have their origins in the Western world, but their foci and methods are certainly applicable to any society in the age of global mobility. Drawing upon semi-structured interviews, observations and fieldnotes data informed by African migrants in China, this study expands these two notions in China – a country outside the centre and Anglosphere. I illustrate how linguistic racism manifested through shunning an…
Studying Chinese, studying in Chinese and studying with the Chinese: International students' experiences and identity construction in Chinese-medium instruction (CMI) programs
While extensive studies have been devoted to English-medium instruction (EMI) in the internationalisation of higher education, only a few studies have investigated the language-related experiences and perceptions of international students in non-Anglophone contexts where the local/national language(s) serve as a medium of instruction for academic purposes. Given that Chinese universities have adopted a strong Chinese-medium instruction (CMI) init…
Engaging disadvantaged students in a Chinese as a Foreign Language classroom: Bernstein’s pedagogic discourse as a bridge
This study is part of practitioner inquiry undertaken in an underprivileged, low-achieving primary school in Sydney, Australia, based in a Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) classroom with 9–10-year-olds. The aim was to unpack pedagogic discourse at the micro level of interactions, while delving into students’ perceptions of language learning experiences. Two data sources were used: an audio recording of lessons and students’ focus groups. By ap…
Conflictual language ideologies and mismatched language practices of Thai international students at a Chinese-medium instruction university
This study is situated against the backdrop of China’s emergence as a new player in the international higher education market and its initiative to promote the Chinese language through academic programmes. We interrupt the entrenched ‘Englishisation’ of higher education in non-Anglophone contexts and investigate Thai international students’ language ideologies and language practices in the Chinese-medium instruction (CMI) university context. The …
Teaching the English language in Chinese higher education: Preparing critical citizens for the global village
This paper examines intersecting concerns in global citizenship education (GCE) and English Language Teaching (ELT) in the face of globalisation. While these two educational agendas cannot be assumed to automatically converge, our study signals that promising overlaps emerge from the enactment of dialogic practices in second language education. Drawing upon an ELT reading course in Chinese higher education, we elaborate on how a Freirean informed…
‘I want to settle down in China’: Charlie’s (dis)investments in Chinese and identity negotiation across times and spaces
To date the research narrative about L2 identities has been dominated by studies on English language learning in the Anglosphere and very little existing empirical work situates the Global South as a point of departure to explore aspirations for learning languages other than English amongst international students and migrants. This article adopts a context- and time-sensitive approach to investigating a Syrian student – Charlie’s (dis)investments…
Progressing to China-related careers: Unveiling the hidden curriculum in Chinese international higher education
Association between bowel movement disorders and depressive symptoms: A cross-sectional study
Constipation, diarrhea, and bowel leakage are associated with an increased risk of depression
Superdiversity, fluidity and flexibility: Translanguaging practices and grassroots multilingualism in an international trade hub in China
African students consuming the Chinese higher education market: The role of pre-mobility capital(s) in transnational social reproduction strategies
Academics without publications are just like imperial concubines without sons’: The ‘new times’ of Chinese higher education
Whilst the extant literature on the publish-or-perish culture in the West is plentiful, there remains surprisingly little scholarship exploring the ways managerialist policies have become integral to local identities, work and life in Chinese universities. We address this gap by taking China's endeavour to become first in the global higher education field as an entry point and reflecting on our lived experiences as early career researchers (ECRs)…
International students’ linguistic entrepreneurship: Motivation, ‘Chinese fever’ and the neoliberal burden
Against the backdrop of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the number of educational migrants from the member states, particularly African international students, has dramatically increased over the past decade in China. Much of previous research on international student mobility (ISM) and its ensuing language learning has exclusively focused on the East-West flow of students and their investment…
Applying Thematic Analysis to Education: A Hybrid Approach to Interpreting Data in Practitioner Research
Thematic analysis (TA), as a qualitative analytic method, is widely used in health care, psychology, and beyond. However, scant details are often given to demonstrate the process of data analysis, especially in the field of education. This article describes how a hybrid approach of TA was applied to interpret multiple data sources in a practitioner inquiry. Particular attention is given to the inductive and deductive coding and theme development …
The promise of Chinese: African international students and linguistic capital in Chinese higher education
The proportion of international students in Chinese higher education is increasing, however, there remains little research that explores their motivations and how their learning of Chinese influences their identities and imagined futures. In this paper, we address the need for research on South-South migration—specifically Sino-African relations—and draw on the concept of linguistic capital to explore what it means for 15 self-funded internationa…
Working-class girls' construction of learner identities and aspirations through engagement in Chinese language education in Australia
Despite suspicions concerning the global expansion of Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) education, the teaching of Chinese is often a mainstay within global citizenship and elite education. With this paradox in mind, the paper draws on theories of classed selfhood and learner identities to explore the possibilities of CFL to influence the learner identities of five working-class girls. Through drawing on their narratives, we glimpse the ways in…
Linguistic racism and micro-aggressions in everyday encounters of African migrants in China: A challenge to the nation’s strategic vision for Africa
Linguistic racism and microaggressions have their origins in the Western world, but their foci and methods are certainly applicable to any society in the age of global mobility. Drawing upon semi-structured interviews, observations and fieldnotes data informed by African migrants in China, this study expands these two notions in China – a country outside the centre and Anglosphere. I illustrate how linguistic racism manifested through shunning an…
Academics without publications are just like imperial concubines without sons’: The ‘new times’ of Chinese higher education
Whilst the extant literature on the publish-or-perish culture in the West is plentiful, there remains surprisingly little scholarship exploring the ways managerialist policies have become integral to local identities, work and life in Chinese universities. We address this gap by taking China's endeavour to become first in the global higher education field as an entry point and reflecting on our lived experiences as early career researchers (ECRs)…
Rising China and rising Chinese: An investigation into African international students’ language beliefs
Your skin is like crocodile’s’: A case study of an African wài guó student in China
On the one hand, studies of African international students in China document their instrumental role in ‘telling China’s story and spreading China’s voice’ while, on the other hand, this research indicates how their lived experiences are shaped by racialisation and exclusionary practices in social life. However, there remains surprisingly little scholarship exploring ways of reducing inter-group stereotypes and racial divides so as to further Sin…
International Higher Education and the Pursuit of ‘Chinese’ Capitals: African Students and Families’ Strategies of Social (Re)production
This paper intervenes in debates on Chinese higher education and social (re)production strategies in the contemporary African diaspora, developing the link between ‘Chinese’ capitals, social status and spatial mobility. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with both disadvantaged and middle-class African international students, I unpack how migration to China will enable them to accumulate prized forms of capital and position advantageously in d…
Translanguaging practices and language ideologies in adult migrants’ Chinese learning classrooms and beyond
The arrival of trade migrants in China has increased the demand for Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) education, and their superdiverse sociolinguistic profiles also present challenges to native Chinese-speaking teachers and their monolingual teaching approach. Compared to the research on foreign traders' mobility in China, fewer studies have explored their day-to-day language use and learning experiences. This research unpacks the complex real…
Investment, Chinese Language Learning and Imagined Identities: A Case Study of African International Students in China
This article challenges the current framing of English as a dominant global language and focuses specifically on African international students' investment in Chinese language learning and the enactment of imagined identity in China. Drawing upon Darvin and Norton's theorisation of "Identity and a model of investment," we present an analysis of 59 African youths' Chinese language practices across different contexts. The interview data revealed th…
(Non-)participation and identity negotiation: Sophie’s L2 learning and use experiences in China
This article reports on a single case study of a Nigerian female international student – Sophie’s changing second language (L2) learning and use experiences in China, with a specific focus on her negotiation of (non-)participation, competence and identity. Drawing upon the notion of ‘community of practice’ and poststructuralist theorising on identities in language learning, we provide a holistic and nuanced account of Sophie’s language learning t…
They Prefer White People and American English: Racialized English Language Teaching, African English Teachers and Identity Insecurity in China
While issues of race and language, especially English language teaching (ELT), are increasingly problematized in the Anglosphere, China remains a context that needs to be examined and uncovered. Drawing upon semi‐structured interviews, this article explores the racialized experiences of six African Black English teachers and how racial ideologies and racial ideologies of ELT affect their life pathways and identity formation. Findings suggest the …
International habitus, inculcation and entrepreneurial aspirations: International students learning in a Chinese VET college
While research continues to document the influence of higher education institutions on students’ identities, studies considering how these institutions inform students’ post-study aspirations and career pathways remain limited. This paper engages with a new phenomenon – international students in vocational colleges in China – where we examine how the cultural and expressive characteristics of the institution empowered them to imagine their future…
Superdiversity, fluidity and flexibility: Translanguaging practices and grassroots multilingualism in an international trade hub in China
Language ideologies and linguistic entrepreneurship in inter-Asian mobility: Voices from international students at Chinese universities
This paper provides a bottom-up way of approaching China’s macro-level initiative in the regions of Asia and examines the language ideologies and linguistic entrepreneurship of international students as an agentive response to China’s rise. Using data gathered via semi-structured interviews, we present the narratives of 26 Asian international students enrolled in courses at higher education institutions in Shanghai. The findings reveal that China…
Learning to ‘tell China’s story well’: Higher education policy and public diplomacy in Chinese international education
Taking the Learning to 'tell Chinese's story well' narrative prevalent in policies as a starting point, this article draws on data collected from a provincial university and delves into the institutional involvement and support in response to the state's international higher education policies. By foregrounding the underlying structures of power and control, I illustrate the mechanisms by which the policy was translated into and implemented throu…
Pursuing and playing the academic game: A duoethnographic perspective on two early career academics’ publishing experiences in China
Whilst the impact of the ‘publish or perish’ adage has received considerable attention from academics in the West, it remains under-researched in non-Western contexts, such as China. We address this gap by examining our lived experiences of navigating Chinese academia and academic publishing in the form of a duoethnographic collaborative self-study. We utilise the concept of precarious privilege in order to tease out a third space between publish…
Critical Chinese as an Additional Language education in Australia: A journey to voices, courage and hope
This article addresses key topics of Chinese as an Additional Language (CAL) education and classroom pedagogical practices. It reports on a 3‐year ethnographic study within Australian schools to discuss dialogic pedagogical practices and students’ aspirations. Based on Freire’s conceptualisation of conscientização and banking education, the purpose of this article is therefore to unpack a journey to voices, courage and hope of a cohort of sociall…
Multilingualism in the governance of a ‘monolingual’ country: Micro language planning, dispute settlement and social governance in China
Micro language planning and governmentality in ‘globalisation from below
Studying Chinese, studying in Chinese and studying with the Chinese: International students' experiences and identity construction in Chinese-medium instruction (CMI) programs
While extensive studies have been devoted to English-medium instruction (EMI) in the internationalisation of higher education, only a few studies have investigated the language-related experiences and perceptions of international students in non-Anglophone contexts where the local/national language(s) serve as a medium of instruction for academic purposes. Given that Chinese universities have adopted a strong Chinese-medium instruction (CMI) init…
African students consuming the Chinese higher education market: The role of pre-mobility capital(s) in transnational social reproduction strategies
International students’ linguistic entrepreneurship: Motivation, ‘Chinese fever’ and the neoliberal burden
Against the backdrop of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the number of educational migrants from the member states, particularly African international students, has dramatically increased over the past decade in China. Much of previous research on international student mobility (ISM) and its ensuing language learning has exclusively focused on the East-West flow of students and their investment…
Pedagogic affect and African international students’ attunement to Chinese language learning
The growth of the Chinese language in African countries and African students’ consequent flocking into Chinese higher education are both emergent phenomena. This partly explains the lack of empirical research on this body of student migrants and their Chinese language learning. This paper applies Watkins’ theorisation on pedagogic affect to explore pedagogic practices and students’ learning experiences in a vocational college in Southeast China. …
When East meets West: A practitioner inquiry of culturally responsive pedagogy in an Australian Chinese as a Foreign Language classroom
A nuanced description of “what” (the curriculum) and “how” (the pedagogy) to teach in Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) education remains unexplored in existing scholarship. This paper addresses this paucity by undertaking a practitioner inquiry to explore the intersection of Eastern pedagogy and Western students in an Australian CFL classroom, with the aim of improving classroom practice and enhancing low socio‐economic status (SES) students’ …
Agency via Guilt in Anchee Min's Red Azalea
Journal Article Agency via Guilt in Anchee Min's Red Azalea Get access Wenying Xu Wenying Xu Truman State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar MELUS, Volume 25, Issue 3-4, Fall/Winter 2000, Pages 203–219, https://doi.org/10.2307/468243 Published: 01 September 2000
Prospects for regulated competition in the health care system: What can China learn from Russia's experience
As China explores new directions to reform its health care system, regulated competition among both insurers and providers of care might be one potential model. The Russian Federation in 1993 implemented legislation intended to stimulate such regulated competition in the health care sector. The subsequent progress and lessons learned over these 17 years can shed light on and inform the future evolution of the Chinese system. In this paper, we lis…
Reframing genre-based pedagogy in a Chinese as a Foreign Language classroom: A transdisciplinary perspective
Building upon the genre-based research in literacy and English as a Second language (ESL) education developed in Australia in the past three decades, this paper reframes a genre-based approach to teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) in a primary classroom. Grounded in Bernsteinian sociology while also working in transdisciplinary dialogue with systemic functional linguistic perspectives, this approach to genre is illustrated with respect …
Applying Thematic Analysis to Education: A Hybrid Approach to Interpreting Data in Practitioner Research
Thematic analysis (TA), as a qualitative analytic method, is widely used in health care, psychology, and beyond. However, scant details are often given to demonstrate the process of data analysis, especially in the field of education. This article describes how a hybrid approach of TA was applied to interpret multiple data sources in a practitioner inquiry. Particular attention is given to the inductive and deductive coding and theme development …
Dominic’s Story: The “Pedagogy of Discomfort” and Learner Identity in Flux
The “boy turn” in research on gender and education has sought to understand how social practices and schooling contribute to the process of orientation to particular identities. This paper applies the theories of affect to explore the story of an underprivileged, low-achieving Samoan boy, as he engaged with learning Chinese in an Australian primary school classroom. Through an ethnographic lens, observational, journal entry and interview data rev…
Critical Chinese as an Additional Language education in Australia: A journey to voices, courage and hope
This article addresses key topics of Chinese as an Additional Language (CAL) education and classroom pedagogical practices. It reports on a 3‐year ethnographic study within Australian schools to discuss dialogic pedagogical practices and students’ aspirations. Based on Freire’s conceptualisation of conscientização and banking education, the purpose of this article is therefore to unpack a journey to voices, courage and hope of a cohort of sociall…
Reflexivity and cross-cultural education: A Foucauldian framework for becoming an ethical teacher-researcher
Fostering affective engagement in Chinese language learning: A Bernsteinian account
Affective engagement, as one facet of the engagement model, takes on the role of activating other aspects to facilitate continued action in partaking in learning activities. Recognising the silences of Bernstein’s theoretical oeuvre on the affective aspect in the process of cultural transmission, this paper applies his concepts of classification (structure relations) and framing (interactional practices) to theorise current empirical work on stud…
Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) education and global citizenship: Pedagogical encounters and endangered spaces of possibility
Within the field of Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) teaching, there has been limited engagement with Global Citizenship Education (GCE). The politicisation of CFL education in today’s diverse and multilingual Australian classroom remains a significant cause for concern as it endangers spaces of pedagogic possibility. Drawing upon data from an Australian primary CFL classroom we consider how pedagogic practices speak to Freire’s conceptualisat…
Investigating children’s affective geographies of Chinese language and culture education
Educational research has been witnessing a ‘spatial turn’ and an ‘affective turn’ which have informed studies on pedagogy and foreign/second language acquisition. Drawing on a teacher-researcher ethnographic study, this paper examines the implications of primary students’ affective engagement in the space of Chinese language and culture learning in Australia. In seeking to make a contribution to the field of Children’s Geographies, the study, whi…
Pursuing and playing the academic game: A duoethnographic perspective on two early career academics’ publishing experiences in China
Whilst the impact of the ‘publish or perish’ adage has received considerable attention from academics in the West, it remains under-researched in non-Western contexts, such as China. We address this gap by examining our lived experiences of navigating Chinese academia and academic publishing in the form of a duoethnographic collaborative self-study. We utilise the concept of precarious privilege in order to tease out a third space between publish…
The promise of Chinese: African international students and linguistic capital in Chinese higher education
The proportion of international students in Chinese higher education is increasing, however, there remains little research that explores their motivations and how their learning of Chinese influences their identities and imagined futures. In this paper, we address the need for research on South-South migration—specifically Sino-African relations—and draw on the concept of linguistic capital to explore what it means for 15 self-funded internationa…
Working-class girls' construction of learner identities and aspirations through engagement in Chinese language education in Australia
Despite suspicions concerning the global expansion of Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) education, the teaching of Chinese is often a mainstay within global citizenship and elite education. With this paradox in mind, the paper draws on theories of classed selfhood and learner identities to explore the possibilities of CFL to influence the learner identities of five working-class girls. Through drawing on their narratives, we glimpse the ways in…
Routine Literacy Practices as a Cultural Agenda: Children’s Experiences of Writing “Difficult” Chinese Characters in Australia
This paper illustrates how spaces were created for children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to emotionally engage in traditional Chinese literacy practices in a primary school in Sydney, Australia. The ethnographic data allow insight into how ordinary activities organised around character tracing and writing can pedagogically evoke students' "discomforting" emotions while socialising them into ways of becoming and embodying…
Investment, Chinese Language Learning and Imagined Identities: A Case Study of African International Students in China
This article challenges the current framing of English as a dominant global language and focuses specifically on African international students' investment in Chinese language learning and the enactment of imagined identity in China. Drawing upon Darvin and Norton's theorisation of "Identity and a model of investment," we present an analysis of 59 African youths' Chinese language practices across different contexts. The interview data revealed th…
Language ideologies and linguistic entrepreneurship in inter-Asian mobility: Voices from international students at Chinese universities
This paper provides a bottom-up way of approaching China’s macro-level initiative in the regions of Asia and examines the language ideologies and linguistic entrepreneurship of international students as an agentive response to China’s rise. Using data gathered via semi-structured interviews, we present the narratives of 26 Asian international students enrolled in courses at higher education institutions in Shanghai. The findings reveal that China…
Learning to ‘tell China’s story well’: Higher education policy and public diplomacy in Chinese international education
Taking the Learning to 'tell Chinese's story well' narrative prevalent in policies as a starting point, this article draws on data collected from a provincial university and delves into the institutional involvement and support in response to the state's international higher education policies. By foregrounding the underlying structures of power and control, I illustrate the mechanisms by which the policy was translated into and implemented throu…
When East meets West: A practitioner inquiry of culturally responsive pedagogy in an Australian Chinese as a Foreign Language classroom
A nuanced description of “what” (the curriculum) and “how” (the pedagogy) to teach in Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) education remains unexplored in existing scholarship. This paper addresses this paucity by undertaking a practitioner inquiry to explore the intersection of Eastern pedagogy and Western students in an Australian CFL classroom, with the aim of improving classroom practice and enhancing low socio‐economic status (SES) students’ …
Rising China and rising Chinese: An investigation into African international students’ language beliefs
Your skin is like crocodile’s’: A case study of an African wài guó student in China
On the one hand, studies of African international students in China document their instrumental role in ‘telling China’s story and spreading China’s voice’ while, on the other hand, this research indicates how their lived experiences are shaped by racialisation and exclusionary practices in social life. However, there remains surprisingly little scholarship exploring ways of reducing inter-group stereotypes and racial divides so as to further Sin…
International Higher Education and the Pursuit of ‘Chinese’ Capitals: African Students and Families’ Strategies of Social (Re)production
This paper intervenes in debates on Chinese higher education and social (re)production strategies in the contemporary African diaspora, developing the link between ‘Chinese’ capitals, social status and spatial mobility. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with both disadvantaged and middle-class African international students, I unpack how migration to China will enable them to accumulate prized forms of capital and position advantageously in d…
Engaging disadvantaged students in a Chinese as a Foreign Language classroom: Bernstein’s pedagogic discourse as a bridge
This study is part of practitioner inquiry undertaken in an underprivileged, low-achieving primary school in Sydney, Australia, based in a Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) classroom with 9–10-year-olds. The aim was to unpack pedagogic discourse at the micro level of interactions, while delving into students’ perceptions of language learning experiences. Two data sources were used: an audio recording of lessons and students’ focus groups. By ap…
Conflictual language ideologies and mismatched language practices of Thai international students at a Chinese-medium instruction university
This study is situated against the backdrop of China’s emergence as a new player in the international higher education market and its initiative to promote the Chinese language through academic programmes. We interrupt the entrenched ‘Englishisation’ of higher education in non-Anglophone contexts and investigate Thai international students’ language ideologies and language practices in the Chinese-medium instruction (CMI) university context. The …
Teaching the English language in Chinese higher education: Preparing critical citizens for the global village
This paper examines intersecting concerns in global citizenship education (GCE) and English Language Teaching (ELT) in the face of globalisation. While these two educational agendas cannot be assumed to automatically converge, our study signals that promising overlaps emerge from the enactment of dialogic practices in second language education. Drawing upon an ELT reading course in Chinese higher education, we elaborate on how a Freirean informed…
‘I want to settle down in China’: Charlie’s (dis)investments in Chinese and identity negotiation across times and spaces
To date the research narrative about L2 identities has been dominated by studies on English language learning in the Anglosphere and very little existing empirical work situates the Global South as a point of departure to explore aspirations for learning languages other than English amongst international students and migrants. This article adopts a context- and time-sensitive approach to investigating a Syrian student – Charlie’s (dis)investments…
Sociology (43 works) · Political science (37 works) · Pedagogy (33 works) · Psychology (24 works) · China (23 works) · Multilingual Education and Policy (21 works) · Politics (18 works) · Second Language Learning and Teaching (17 works) · Linguistics (16 works) · Social science (16 works)