Language Practices and Transformation of Language Ideologies: Mainland Chinese Students in a Multilingual University in Hong Kong

Abstract

This chapter explores the language ideologies and language uses in a multilingual university in Hong Kong by exploring the voices and experiences of both mainland Chinese and Hong Kong students. Drawing on the notions of separate multilingualism and flexible multilingualism, and the data from individual and focus group interviews, the research illustrates how the linguistic ideologies existent in the university context have constrained or enhanced the students’ multilingual practices, the identity positions they construct and present, and the social spaces they jointly establish. The research also shows that the language ideologies among students index broader institutional and ideological frameworks. Finally, it demonstrates that the multilingual university context has provided the space for the students to establish a translanguaging space with hybrid language use, in which linguistic resources are employed to perform a range of subject positions and to play a number of roles.