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

1 Introduction

Multilingualism in China’s public sphere came into the spotlight shortly after the coronavirus was officially confirmed on 20th of January, 2020 (Li, Jia 2020). Up until then, English had been the unquestioned language of international communication in China. The active mobilization of non-English foreign language resources that has rapidly been gathering pace since then indicates the new profile of China’s economic, demographic and sociolinguistic structure. Since China became the world’s second largest economy in 2011, China’s economic power and its growing domestic market have played a pivotal role as a hub for regional trade growth and economic integration in Asia and Africa (Li, Xing 2019). As part of its socioeconomic rise, China has emerged from the largest sending country of international students to also become the third largest receiving country (Study International Staff 2018). By 2018, the total number of international students receiving their higher education in China was almost 500,000 and over 70 percent of them were from Asia and Africa (Ministry of Education 2019). The distribution of international students in China also highlights the geopolitical strategy of positioning China’s border provinces as “windows” to neighbouring countries. In Yunnan province in China’s southwest, for example, over 80 percent of international students are from Southeast Asia and South Asia (Yun and Zhu 2017).

In addition to the increasing number of international students of diverse linguistic backgrounds, non-English foreign language programs are gaining in importance in China. In 2017, 583 Chinese universities offered 1,417 foreign language programs at undergraduate levels and these foreign languages are predominantly the national languages of China’s neighbouring countries (Han et al. 2019). The increasing number and scale of non-English foreign language programs is unprecedented and largely geopolitically motivated. Yunnan University, for instance, has established 10 foreign language degree programs in languages of Southeast Asia and South Asia within only seven years (Li, Jia 2020). The increasing importance of establishing non-English foreign languages is embedded in the reciprocal approach of China’s foreign diplomacy towards peripheral countries, especially those in the list of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (B&R) (Paradise 2019; Qin 2014).

Despite the recent emergence of a high level of attention to non-English foreign languages, English is still the most dominant foreign language in China (Zhang, In preparation). English is not only a key enabler for Chinese students’ academic success and employability (Pan 2015), but is often conceived as a link language to attract international students coming to China for higher education (Kuroda 2014), facilitate international students’ Chinese language learning and solve their intercultural communication problems in China (Duan 2020). However, given the substantial number of international students arriving from non-English speaking countries, English as an imagined communication medium has been thrown into question. One of the problems with English-mediated communication is that not all international students in China are proficient in English, while also lacking Chinese proficiency (Li, Jia 2020). Over the course of the COVID-19 crisis, the tensions related to the use of English as a link language for international students have become more prominent, as access to public health information in China is, by and large, mediated by Chinese and English.

Against this background, this study aims to investigate two questions: (1) How do international students draw on their linguistic resources to navigate access to public health information? (2) How are their multilingual experiences embedded in the shifting paradigm of the world’s political economy and China’s global expansion?

2 English-mediated multilingualism

In China, Putonghua is considered the exclusive national language and English is imagined as the solution to any intercultural communication problems that might arise from this. We call this linguistic situation English-mediated multilingualism. Here, we use it to understand how international students negotiate access to public health communication during the COVID-19 crisis. English-mediated multilingualism is not unique to China. In many non-English speaking countries, English-mediated multilingualism is so dominant that it is rarely challenged but widely assumed to be the only legitimate and most equitable form of embracing linguistic diversity. The practices of English-mediated multilingualism in educational settings can be manifested in legitimizing English as elite form of multilingualism (Martín Rojo 2010; Preece 2019), naturalizing English In China, Putonghua is considered the exclusive national language and English is imagined as the solution to any intercultural communication problems that might arise from this. We call this linguistic situation English-mediated multilingualism. Here, we use it to understand how international students negotiate access to public health communication during the COVID-19 crisis. English-mediated multilingualism is not unique to China. In many non-English speaking countries, English-mediated multilingualism is so dominant that it is rarely challenged but widely assumed to be the only legitimate and most equitable form of embracing linguistic diversity. The practices of English-mediated multilingualism in educational settings can be manifested in legitimizing English as elite form of multilingualism (Martín Rojo 2010; Preece 2019), naturalizing English as medium of instruction to increase individual competitiveness (Piller and Cho 2013; van der Walt 2013), and accepting English as source of authority and an index of academic excellence and global accountability (Phillipson 2008; Piller 2016b, 2019).

These English-centric ways of seeing multilingualism have resulted in many negative social consequences in non-English speaking countries in that people who are not proficient in this form of multilingualism – the national language and English – are deprived of access to social resources (Han 2013; Piller and Cho 2013; van der Walt 2013). Rather than contributing to the common good and global justice, English-mediated multilingualism has entrenched social inequality by erasing diversity and paying tribute to the Anglophone center (Piller 2016a, 2016b). Given the increasing number of international students migrating from non-English speaking countries to China, English alone is far from being an effective medium of crisis communications, a fact highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, it is urgent to understand the real linguistic needs of international students to combat the global crisis and call attention to new ways of seeing multilingualism in the context of the shifting paradigm of China-oriented internationalization that focuses on South-South cooperation.

3 Methodology

In order to gain a nuanced understanding of international students’ experiences with public health communication during the COVID-19 pandemic, we interviewed 10 participants receiving their higher education in Yunnan. Table 1 provides an overview of the participants (the order of their language backgrounds is based on the range of their self-identified language proficiency).

At the time of collecting data for this study in April 2020, some of our participants (P2, P3, P4, P5, P7) had stayed in China throughout the epidemic there, some had gone back to their home country for holidays just before the outbreak (P6, P8, P9, P10), and P1 returned to Bangladesh during the outbreak. We employed semi-structured interviews, either online or face-to-face, to gain an understanding of their lived experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic from late January to the end of April. Interviews were conducted in either English or Chinese or mixing both languages depending on the preference of our participants. The transcripts of the audio-recorded interviews were analyzed using content analysis (Krippendorff and Bock 2009) to map out their reported language use during the crisis.

4 Findings

The description below is based on how our participants reported using different languages for their access to crisis communication over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis of language practices will be anchored in specific interactions and social circumstances, and the limitations of each linguistic repertoire will be discussed.

5 Discussion and conclusion

In this study we have examined the multilingual communication experiences of South Asian and Southeast Asian students of diverse linguistic backgrounds over the course of the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in China. Our findings demonstrate that their Chinese proficiency is, by and large, insufficient to meet their crisis communication needs and they need to turn to brokering and particularly translation apps. The utility of these, however, is limited due to their English-centric nature.

The multilingual communication experiences of international students have thrown the long-established value of English as global lingua franca into question. The fallacy of English in China as the best media for intercultural health communication and knowledge production has caused unintended consequences. The availability of many translation apps does not necessarily enhance access to health communication for international students with limited English and Chinese proficiency. On the contrary, the advanced digital communication technologies only serve to privilege those speaking English and Chinese but marginalize speakers of other languages. The same is true where English in China is imagined as ideal medium of communication between Chinese teachers and international students.

Beyond English, the valorization of diverse multilingual repertoires may offer alternative paths to building solidarity to comfort each other (P3), delivering medical supplies and connecting China with Southeast Asia (P8), and contributing to the global relief effort and mobilizing regional business networks (P3).

The new valorization of small languages which we have shown here has been nascent in China for some time but has been accelerated by the pandemic. This new multilingualism is embedded in the shifting paradigm of the China-oriented new economy addressing the mutual accountability in South-South cooperation. China’s approach to global governance such as the recent B&R has generated a new paradigm for the world order under China’s leadership (Li, Xing 2019). As part of the people-to-people connection project in China’s B&R, languages of peripheral countries are also included to bridge the understanding between China and the world. It is noted that China-oriented multilingualism is not just a replacement of English-mediated multilingualism but something qualitatively different. Chinese-mediated multilingualism can be conceptualized as the bi-directional approach in valorizing both Chinese and the national languages of non-English speaking countries where China’s global market can reach. Over the COVID-19 pandemic, the multilingual competences in both Chinese and national languages provide international students like P3 and P8 with access to social and business resources, which served to enhance their entrepreneurial subjectivities and sense of global responsibility.

Finally, to escape the self-fulfilling prophecy of English-mediated knowledge production and to raise the authority of grassroots voices to combat the COVID-19 crisis, we suggest an epistemological shift from the global north to the global south where multilingual realities form thousands of years of history and civilization, and where indigenous knowledge constitutes the essence of guiding principles embedded in social practice (see also Chen 2020, this issue).