Speak English in the Department or Perish? A Multimethod Study on Online Public Responses to an English-Only Incident at a US University.

Yi Zhu; Mary Bresnahan; Yichao Wang; Xiaodi Yan; Syed Ali Hussain

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ERIC Number: EJ1468873

Record Type: Journal

Publication Date: 2025

Pages: 17

Abstractor: As Provided

ISBN: N/A

ISSN: ISSN-1470-8477

EISSN: EISSN-1747-759X

Available Date: 0000-00-00

Speak English in the Department or Perish? A Multimethod Study on Online Public Responses to an English-Only Incident at a US University

Yi Zhu¹; Mary Bresnahan²; Yichao Wang²; Xiaodi Yan³; Syed Ali Hussain⁴

Language and Intercultural Communication, v25 n1 p29-45 2025

This study investigated more than 3600 online comments responding to an incident in 2019 where a controversial memo was sent to instruct Chinese graduate students at a US university not to speak Chinese in the department. A text analysis based on Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software showed that these comments included more negative-emotion words compared with positive-emotion words. In addition, an inductive thematic analysis identified themes supporting monolingual language ideology and other themes supporting language freedom in the United States and questioning the context of this English-only incident.

Descriptors: Responses, Internet, Graduate Students, Chinese, Language Usage, Foreign Countries, Foreign Students, Content Analysis, Linguistics, Monolingualism, Language Proficiency, English (Second Language)

Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals

Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research

Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education

Audience: N/A

Language: English

Sponsor: N/A

Authoring Institution: N/A

Identifiers - Location: United States; China

Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A

Author Affiliations: ¹Department of Communication, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, USA; ²Department of Communication, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA; ³Guangming School of Journalism and Communication, China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; ⁴College of Communication, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates