Pramod Kumar Sah

This article examines how everyday linguicism and racism shape the academic and social experiences of international students in Hong Kong, focusing on the racialized subjectivity of a South Asian graduate student. Although research on international students has mainly focused on Western higher education, little attention has been paid to the lived realities faced by racialized students in multilingual, postcolonial Asian contexts. Through a single in‐depth case study, the analysis shows how mobility repositions students within racialized and linguicized hierarchies: English‐medium classrooms offer academic access yet coexist with campus infrastructures dominated by Cantonese and Mandarin that structurally exclude nonlocal speakers; raciolinguistic ideologies portray South Asian English speakers as perpetually deficient, even when they are proficient; and gendered expectations place representational and reproductive scrutiny on women students. Framed through racialized subjectivity, linguicism, and intersectionality, the study demonstrates that belonging depends not only on language skills but also on navigating discourses and infrastructures that continually mark racialized international students as outsiders. By contextualizing these stories within Hong Kong's colonial legacies and linguistic hierarchies, the article extends research on linguistic racism beyond Western higher education and calls on universities to promote structural inclusion through multilingual communication, recognition of diverse Englishes, and proactive attention to intersectional inequalities.

Once limited to postcolonial contexts or international programs, English-Medium Instruction (EMI) has expanded considerably, and English-Medium Higher Education (EMHE) has become a key strategy in ...

English–medium instruction (EMI) has become a highly contested topic in discussions on the language of instruction policies in the Global South, raising critical questions about whether it truly delivers on the promises made in policy rhetoric and public discourse. While EMI is often promoted as a pathway to social, educational, and economic success for all, its rapid expansion raises concerns about linguistic inequality, social stratification, and unequal educational access. Through a critical synthesis of recent EMI literature, this paper identifies some persistent misconceptions that underpin the promotion and expansion of EMI in the Global South. These include the presumed neutrality of English, the belief in its automatic pedagogical and economic benefits, and the assumption that EMI leads to equitable access and improved content learning. The paper highlights the ideological and material consequences of EMI, such as epistemic injustice, linguistic hierarchies and social reproduction. In doing so, it calls for a rethinking of EMI beyond instrumentalist and Anglocentric logics and urges the centering of linguistic diversity, multilingual pedagogies and critical policy orientations. The article concludes with implications for future EMI scholarship and practices, particularly in contexts marked by deep social, linguistic and educational inequalities.

The special issue examines the intersection of language ideologies, race, and equity in urban multilingual education. Drawing on critical theories, contributors investigate how linguistic hierarchies and monoglossic ideologies shape multilingual learners’ and educators’ racialized experiences in urban educational contexts across the United States, Canada, and Australia. Employing diverse methodologies, the papers critique linguistic racism, ableism, and deficit ideologies, while also advocating for multilingualism as a resource in urban contexts. Through this lens, we propose decolonial and antiracist approaches to dismantling inequities and reimagining educational spaces as inclusive and affirming sites for diverse linguistic and cultural identities.

This thematic issue, “Considering Emotions as Entanglements in Applied Linguistics,” explores the complex, relational, and sociocultural dimensions of emotions in language teaching and learning. Moving beyond individualistic and psychodynamic perspectives, the issue proposes a framework of “emotions as entanglements,” highlighting how emotions intersect with spatial and temporal dynamics, ideologies, power structures, and social identities (e.g., race/ethnicity and gender) in educational contexts. Adopting the framework of “emotions as entanglements,” the contributions in this special issue draw on various methodologies to examine how emotions are collectively experienced in entanglement with a sense of belonging, translingual practices, racialized geopolitics, ideological tensions in academia, agency, and power dynamics. By analyzing entangled emotional experiences across diverse geographical contexts, the issue also sheds light on the transformative potential of emotions in fostering solidarity, agency, and resistance. The papers together emphasize that emotions are central to understanding power dynamics, promoting inclusive pedagogies, and addressing inequities in language education. This collection calls for a more nuanced approach to emotions in applied linguistics, urging educators and researchers to consider emotions from the perspective of entanglement.