The number of Chinese students studying overseas has been increasing for decades; and according to data compiled by British Institute of International Education, China continues as the largest contributor to the international student population, far exceeding any other nationality at 91,215 (UKCISA, 2017). Extensive research has been conducted on challenges overseas Chinese students face in the context of academic classroom at international universities. Spencer and Xiong (2008), for example, identified difficulties Chinese students have in mixing with local students in collaborative activities. Dollinger (2013) highlighted the issue of self-segregation and stressful experiences arising from this challenge as particularly common among Chinese students. Rocca (2010) observed that Chinese students had limited participation in classroom activities and discussions, resulting in reduction of opportunities for an English immersion experience. These studies, though not exactly representative of the whole research in this area, suggest that Chinese students experience challenges to adapt into this new learning environment. However, the positioning of Chinese students in relation with classroom participation does not seem to have been researched enough by researchers in this area.

Exploring how Chinese students position themselves and how they are positioned by others are significant to facilitate their socialization process into new academic communities, which can also provide constructive policy and practical implications for HE institutions which have similar population of students. This paper aims to investigate the examined issue by trying to ask the following questions:

1. How do Chinese students negotiate identities, competence, and power in intercultural classrooms when they participate in oral activities, such as group discussions and answering instructors’ questions?
2. What are the voices, thoughts, and feelings of Chinese students who remain silent or participate less actively in intercultural classroom?
3. How do interactions with peers and instructors influence their position in the new academic community?

Grounded in the theoretical framework of second language socialisation (SLS) (Duff, 2010), this paper perceives Chinese students’ negotiation of positioning in the new learning environment as a dynamic, multi-directional and socially constructed process. SLS is a relatively new trend of research in applied linguistics (e.g., Duff, 2010; Morita, 2004; Vickers, 2007). However, it has been developed as a socio-cultural theory to examine how second language students as newcomers gain communicative competence, membership, and legitimacy in a community or in a culture (Duff, 2011). SLS also acknowledges the important role played by more proficient members in socializing novices the facts, values, and traditions of the interacting group. However, at the same time, novices also affect the way that more proficient interlocutors behave with their learning needs, different values and traditions (Morita, 2004). Built in this framework, this paper explores how Chinese students, as newcomers into the academic community, negotiate their positioning through interacting with their peers and instructors.

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