Exploring languaging practices and reasons in Chinese bilingual students’ academic writing process: insights from EMI and CMI contexts

In the context of globalised higher education, multilingual students utilise various linguistic and semiotic resources to facilitate learning both inside and outside the classroom. While extensive literature supports a translanguaging framework for understanding students’ use of their full linguistic repertoire, research on languaging practices in naturalistic academic writing processes remains scarce. This study investigates Chinese students’ languaging practices and the underlying reasons for practices in source-based academic writing, involving a sample of 17 participants from English-Medium-Instruction (EMI) and Chinese- Medium-Instruction (CMI) universities. Findings reveal that these students employed a range of languaging practices along a spectrum from monolingual practice to translanguaging. These practices were influenced by a variety of factors, including institutional, situational, linguistic, material, digital, and personal aspects. This study underscores the individual and context-dependent nature of languaging practices and calls for institutions to recognise and accommodate these diverse practices in teaching and assessment practices.