Language for learning? International students’ doctoral writing practices in China

ABSTRACT

A growing number of international doctoral students choose to study in China, a non-traditional learning destination. However, relatively few studies have investigated these students’ academic writing practices while undertaking their studies in China. This study draws upon Bourdieu’s concepts of field, habitus, and capital, and the notion of global-national-local imbrications, to explore 20 international doctoral students’ language-engagement experiences in a Chinese university. Our analysis found that English and Chinese co-exist to varying and sometimes shifting degrees in doctoral students’ academic writing practices. As a result, some students potentially developed a hybrid, ‘in-between’, cosmopolitan habitus. Notably, however, other students felt disempowered in the Chinese HE ‘sub-field’, with its unique logics of practice. Students’ experiences indicate that multifarious language practices potentially create a heavily hybridised ‘sub-field’ characterised by a multitude of imbricating global, national, and local influences, and highlight the need to ensure that the language of instruction is indeed oriented to student learning – a language for learning.

KEYWORDS:

• International doctoral student
• academic writing
• Chinese university
• Bourdieu
• imbrication

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 ‘Double First-Class’ is a higher education policy implemented by the People’s Republic of China in 2015 to develop China as a higher education leader by the middle of the 21st Century. On 21 September 2017, the Ministry of Education announced the initiative, with a total of 465 first-class disciplines from 140 universities selected. On 14 February 2022, with the approval of the State Council, the list of the second round of ‘Double First-Class’ universities and disciplines was issued, and seven new universities were selected in this round. Consequently, there are a total of 147 ‘Double First-Class’ universities.