Lao University Students’ Identity Construction On WeChat And Facebook From A Translanguaging Perspective

In the shifting paradigm of the world economy,China has become one of the popular destinations for international students crossing the border and receiving high education.To reinforce the regional cooperation between China and neighbouring countries,China’s border provinces have been discursively constructed as the platform for initiating international communication.Given the strategic importance of China’s Southwest provinces,Yunnan has turned itself into an educational hub receiving international students from Southeast and South Asian countries.Based on a longitudinal ethnography with five Lao students receiving China’s higher education between September 2019 and July 2021,this study examines the ideological meanings of their translanguaging practices on We Chat and Facebook.The multiple types of data were collected through participant observation online and offline,We Chat and Facebook screenshots and semi-structured interviews.The study finds that translanguaging practices are often deployed by Lao students during their stay in China and in Laos.Their translanguaging practices contain different language forms and patterns,and display various types of social meanings including the intertextuality of the local voice,the identity construction of language learners and global citizens,and the sociocultural inbetweenness.This study indicates that Lao students tend to perform their transnational identities online and their translanguaging practices intersects with social,cultural,political and economic factors.The study can shed some lights on the lived experiences of international students in China-oriented migration trajectories.