Identifying Design Opportunities for Multilingual Communication at International Courses: A Diary Study

Previous research suggests that communication at international courses is usually multilingual. Students who speak the same native language may initiate course related discussions in either their own language or a common language shared by the whole class. However, when the native language of only a subset of students is used, it excludes others from participating in the conversation. The current study aims to understand when and why an exclusive native language will be used during communication at international courses. To do this, we conducted a 4-week diary study with 22 students taking the same class. These students come from 12 different countries but they all speak English as a common language. Through a preliminary analysis of the data, we extracted 4 scenarios where students chose their native language over English to conduct course related discussions. Based on these scenarios, we identified design opportunities to assist multilingual communication at international courses.