Examining Chinese teachers’ emotional vulnerability of teaching international students in an English medium instruction programme

Despite the fact that a growing number of studies have begun to focus on stakeholders' emotions in English medium instruction (EMI) settings, little is known, particularly about teachers' emotional vulnerability in EMI teaching. Situating teachers' emotional vulnerability as a sociocultural and ideological construct, this study seeks to investigate Chinese EMI teachers' emotional vulnerability of teaching international students in Southwest China. Based on a larger critical sociolinguistic ethnography, the findings reveal a slew of social, ideological, institutional, and personal factors that mediate Chinese EMI teachers' emotional vulnerability, indicating that their emotional vulnerability is largely influenced by the discourses of neoliberalism and performativity, which are dominated by the ideology of English hegemony, top-down evaluation mechanisms, and power relations. Simultaneously, Chinese EMI teachers' emotional vulnerability also can be transformed into agencies for possible alternatives. The paper concludes with some practical implications for mitigating the negative effects of emotional vulnerability on EMI teachers. The article contributes to raise a greater recognition of teachers' emotional vulnerability in EMI higher education contexts by sparking a critical discussion about how to promote the awareness of stakeholders' emotional vulnerability and well being in policy making and curriculum design.