Technology-Enhanced Language Education under the Belt and Road Initiative: A Qualitative Linguistic Analysis of English Teaching in Multicultural Classrooms

Abstract

This is a qualitative study that aims to explore the representation of technology-mediated English education in policies and studies related to multicultural classrooms in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Data collection: A purposive analytical corpus of 17 documents was created from four domains, namely, BRI education and language policy, technology-enhanced language learning, multilingual/English-as-a-lingua-franca pedagogy, and international guidance on digital education. Qualitative document analysis and thematic reflexivity were used for the analysis of documents that have been published between 2003 and 2024. The analysis was directed towards issues of access, interaction, linguistic norms, multilingual mediation, interculturality, assessment, and algorithmic authority. Findings: Five themes were developed. First, English is placed as a connecting resource, whereas implementing in English can result in unequal language authority. Secondly, the educational potential of technology is mainly those that enable people to interact with each other across borders, repair, revise and reflect on. Third, translanguaging and multimodality are not barriers to the learning of English. Fourth, digital participation is still dependent on the infrastructure, the accessibility, teacher mediation and data governance. Fifthly, automated systems can restrict legitimate variation in English and must be controlled by human use, critically examined. Originality: The study brings together language-policy studies in the context of BRI and technology-enhanced language learning and multilingual applied linguistics within one analytical frame. It suggests an iterative pedagogical cycle and assessment model of the digital English teaching responsive to language. Limitations: The results only refer to document representation and conceptual relations and are not indicative of classroom effectiveness or causality. The framework needs to be tested at multiple sites in classrooms.

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