Enacting multilingual entrepreneurship

An ethnography of Myanmar university students learning Chinese as an international language

Bibliographic Data

ID12738947
AuthorsJia Li (0000-0003-0253-8544, Yunnan University), Yongyan Zheng (0000-0002-0664-3942, Fudan University, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume20
Issue3
Pages1234-1249
Publication date2021-09-18
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Multilingualism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1479-0718 • E-ISSN: 1747-7530
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14790718.2021.1976785
OpenAlexW3200100880
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited58

Drawn on the notion of linguistic entrepreneurship (De Costa, P., Park, J. S., & Wee, L. (2016). Language learning as linguistic entrepreneurship: Implications for language education. Asia-Pacific Education Research, 25(5–6), 695–702, De Costa, P., Park, J. S., & Wee, L. (2019). Linguistic entrepreneurship as affective regime: Organisations, audit culture, and second/foreign language education policy. Language Policy, 18(3), 387–406, De Costa, P., Park, J. S., & Wee, L. (2021). Why linguistic entrepreneurship? Multilingua), this study extends the field of inquiry of neoliberal language learning by exploring Chinese as an international language. Based on a large-scale ethnography of Myanmar university students in China conducted between September 2013 and July 2017, this paper reports on a qualitative inquiry on how the neoliberal discourse permeates Myanmar students’ language exploitation to enhance their worth and maximise their opportunities. Findings show that Chinese learning constitutes the formation of a neoliberal self through the valorisation of multilingual competence. However, the study demonstrates that the enactment of multilingual entrepreneurship only values certain languages, which aligns with the neoliberal logic of convertibility for the China-and-Myanmar communication market. The study also reveals that access to entrepreneurial ambitions through Chinese learning opportunities is largely constrained by citizenship status, socioeconomic conditions, and the fast-evolving demands of linguistic markets within and across national boundaries. The study concludes with some implications for language policy and language education

China · Entrepreneurship · Foreign language · Language education · Language policy · Linguistics · Minority language · Multilingualism · Pedagogy · Political science · Sociology · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Interpreting and Communication in Healthcare · Multilingual Education and Policy