'We are not the same but feel like we are the same group': international students' language choice and identity construction at a Chinese university

Adopting the notions of identity, investment and translocal scale, this study explores how international students negotiate language choices with multilingual others and construct new sociolinguistic spaces. Interview data with 12 international students at a Chinese university revealed tensions between language norms of local Chinese students and that of international students, especially toward the mobility and status of English and Chinese. As international students invested in learning Chinese, scaled English, French and other multilingual resources beyond local norms and boundaries, they created a translocal sociolinguistic space featuring polycentricity and plurality, and developed an imagined identity of 'global citizenship'.