Negotiating language use in intercultural communication: scaling practices of international medical students in a Chinese hospital

This study employs the concepts of scale and chronotope to examine the process by which international students pursuing English-medium medical degrees (MBBS) - as scale makers - negotiate language choices and norms in a Chinese hospital, and the ways in which their scale-making is related to both imagined and materially enacted chronotopes. Through observations and interviews, the study found that international students actively negotiate and construct scales by invoking relevant chronotopes and drawing on chronotopically embedded resources, though constrained by existing scalar hierarchies. The study sheds light on the agency of multilingual individuals in scaling and deploying mobile resources. (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)'(sic)(sic)'(sic)'(sic)(sic)(sic)'(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(MBBS)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic) - - (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic) - - (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).