Multilingual communication experiences of international students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

While an increasing literature on multilingualism addresses the key role of language in access to social resources, including crisis communication, little attention has been paid to practices of English-mediated multilingualism. Based on semi-structured interviews with 10 international students from South Asia and Southeast Asia receiving their higher education in China, the study reveals what language-related challenges international students encounter, how they mobilize their multilingual resources to enhance their access to crisis communication and build a shared community, and how their multilingual competences are valorized and enacted in the shifting paradigm of the China-oriented new economy addressing mutual accountability in South-South cooperation. The study suggests that English-mediated multilingualism in China fails to bridge the needs of international students of diverse backgrounds. The study also calls attention to the shifting paradigm of multilingual studies and the necessity of addressing the real world problems of health communication in a diverse context.