In order to get in-depth information about the participants, the study took an ethnographic approach where semi-structure interviews, informal conversations and audio diaries were used to collect data. Using the concepts of investment (Norton, 2013), imagined identity (Norton & Toohey, 2011) and imagined community (Norton, 2013) as the analytical lens, the findings showed that all participants experienced academic identity reconstruction and during this process, the role of their L1 is unignorable. There was a significant shift on their academic identity as their aims of studying abroad changed. Before they started their studies in the UK, their imagined identity of an international student focused on promoting their English linguistic competence such as pursuing native like accents, becoming global citizens and emerging into the new community. However, as they began their study in the UK, they started to vague the concept of native speakers and began to view English as lingua franca where they now focused more on the knowledge itself rather than the L2 (English) skills.

Unlike some previous studies (Chang, 2016; Gao, 2011; Crowther, 2020) where improving one’s English linguistic competence and adapting into the new environment are the target goals for international students in an English-speaking country, the participants showed low investment both in promoting their L2 (English) linguistic skills as well as adapting into the new environment. Though their investments in the destination country and English linguistic skills seemed to be limited, they managed to use their L1 (such as using translation tools or working with co-nationals) to integrate into the local community and at the same time, achieved satisfactory academic outcomes. For some participants who self-defined as inadequate L2 learners, they managed to use their L1 competence to make friends with non-Chinese which unexpectedly, benefited their L2 learning. It is also interesting to find that their naming practices in the UK also reflected the reconstruction of their academic identities as well. Some participants stopped using English names but began to use their Chinese names to reflect their Chinese international students’ identities. Some continued to use English names but the Chinese names are revealed under the coats of certain English names.

When it comes to the factors that affected their academic identity (re)construction, the Pandemic was just part of the reason why some of the participants had limited interaction with other non-Chinese in academic work and had low investments in promoting their L2 linguistic skills. The most important reason was affected by their imagined identity—potential job hunters in Chinese labour market. As most of them planned to back to China to seek for jobs, they had little interest to invest in promoting their L2 competence as Chinese labour market values more of their study abroad experience rather than their English competence. Also, unlike previous studies where language barrier (Fang & Baker, 2018) is the main cause of limited interaction with non-Chinese peers, my study discovered something different. The participants’ imagined future identity also affected their interaction with other non-Chinese as they had little possibilities to work in the UK after graduation, they found it less necessary to invest in maintaining friendship with other non-Chinese peers.

The duration of my study lasted about six months which consisted a pilot study (two months) and a formal study (four months). The study invited 11 participants in total which are all from a University in Scotland. The study is a mini-ethnographic study where semi-structure interviews, informal conversations and audio diaries are used to collect data. As the study was conducted in 2022 and considering of the Pandemic, interviews and informal conversations were conducted both online and offline. I recruited the participants through snowball sampling through my friends. After the ethical approval, I sent consent forms to all the target participants and began my study after I received their consents. At the first stage, an one-to-one semi-structure interview was conducted to each of the participants to get the background information of my participants. Each interview lasted about one hour. After the semi-structure interviews, my participants and I had informal conversations on a weekly basis (around every five to ten days), the time of each informal conversation varied from 5 minutes to 30 minutes and participants were welcomed to share anything related to their daily life or school life. In order to stay as close as I can with the participants, I also joined some of their daily activities together such as went to supermarkets or had dinners together. In order to get richer information about my participants, I introduced them the method of doing audio diaries (Dangeni et al., 2021), which was a flexible way for them to record any thoughts or feelings and they could send the recordings to me at their convenience. During the last stage where the study was about to end, I had another one-to-one semi-structure interview with each of them again. The interviews and informal conversations were all recorded and transcribed before the analysis started. As all oral communications were conducted in Mandarin, the transcriptions were in Mandarin and important sections for further analysis were translated into English then. Thematic analysis (Nowell et al., 2017) were used to analyse the data with the help of Nvivo 12.

The study provided some new findings which are quite different from previous studies. International students’ identities may not emphasise either on becoming successful L2 learners or becoming global citizens. Rather, for many participants, the study abroad experience emphasised more on earning qualifications which turned them into competitive job hunters in home country’s labour market. Moreover, international students’ imagined identities should also be taken into consideration when it comes to analyse international students’ identity reconstruction as imagined identities affected their present identities. Unlike some previous findings where language barriers (Fang & Baker, 2018) limited Chinese international students interaction with the new local community, some of my participants showed agency of choosing not to emerge into the new environment because of their imagined identities of back to China after graduation. However, it needs to be admitted that the Pandemic is also an important factor in their academic identity reconstruction as it affected their interaction with the local community. By the time when the study was conducted, most of my participants were still having both online and offline courses which in reality limited their interactions with non-Chinese peers. What’s more, the Pandemic also affected their future identities as most of them decided to back to China rather than stay in the UK which in turn, affected their current academic identities.

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