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3 - Ideologies of Language Use in an EMI University in Hong Kong

The Perspectives of International Students

from Part I - Ideologies and Educational Policies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2025

By
Chit Cheung Matthew Sung
Edited by
Seyyed-Abdolhamid Mirhosseini  and
Peter I. De Costa
Seyyed-Abdolhamid Mirhosseini
Affiliation:
University of Hong Kong
Peter I. De Costa
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
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Summary

This chapter examines the ideologies of language use in the context of an EMI university in multilingual Hong Kong from the perspectives of a group of international students. Based on the findings of the study, the chapter shows that international students’ ideologies of language use in the EMI university classroom are much more complex and nuanced than what is written in the institution’s official language policy documents. The majority of international students are found to hold ideologies of English as the default language for university education and English monolingualism as the norm in the EMI classroom. However, there is also evidence of varying degrees of acceptability of multilingual language practices in the classroom. The chapter draws attention to the complex ways in which international students’ language ideologies intersect with their concerns about social exclusion, linguistic disadvantage and educational inequality in the EMI classroom. It also demonstrates how their language ideologies contribute to sustaining and reproducing linguistic hegemony and social injustice in EMI higher education.

Keywords

language ideologylanguage useinternational studentHong KongmultilingualismEnglish Medium Instruction
Type
Chapter
Information
Critical English Medium Instruction in Higher Education , pp. 37 - 53
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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