Unpacking the positioning of being “ disengaged ” and “ disrespectful ” in class through nexus analysis: an international student ’ s navigation of institutional and interactional university norms

: Given the signi ﬁ cance of creating an inclusive academic environment for international students, our study examines how three newly arrived international students (a Chinese female and two Korean males) navigated the institutional and interactional norms in an academic orientation class at a U.S. university. Drawing on nexus analysis, we examine student class disengagement at the intersection of discourses in place, interaction order, and historical body. In particular, we focus on how the Chinese international female student was perceived as being “ disengaged ” and “ disrespectful ” in class by her Korean graduate male classmates and her female instructor. Such discursive positioning, we argue, was attributed to the interplay of various factors, such as our student participants ’ navigation of U.S. classroom participation expectations. Furthermore, we argue that class disengagement should be understood within a wider sociocultural space as such disengagement is inter-woven with the broader U.S. classroom discourses and individual participants ’ past experiences.


Introduction
Previous studies have extensively explored the complex challenges that international students experience as they navigate their host countries' often implicit academic and social norms, expectations, and practices (e.g., Heng 2018;Morita 2009;Phan and Li 2014;Tatar 2005).In regard to East Asian students studying in predominantly Englishspeaking countries, Heng (2018) and Kingston and Forland (2008), for example, note that the Western education system, such as that in the US, is generally characterized by a discussion-based learning style that places students at the center of education, and encourages them to actively voice their thoughts and opinions in class.As a result, being quiet in class may be perceived as a sign of incompetence or disengagement (Yuan 2011).By contrast, in a more collectivistic East Asian society, students often find it difficult to speak up and draw people's attention to what they have to say.Therefore, as noted by Yuan (2011), the identical act of being quiet may be understood as denoting self-discipline and respect for teachers in East Asian countries, such as China.
In addition to differences in class participation style, the unfamiliar pedagogical and learning styles of a U.S. classroom can be a challenge to international students who elect to study abroad there.For example, Barbieri (2015) described the U.S. classroom as being less organized than the classroom in other countries; she added that "a great deal of references to personal experience," in the U.S. classroom can be challenging for international students "accustomed to structured lectures and learning factual information" (p.20).In a related study that also examined classroom discourse, Morita (2009) reported that students in Japan primarily learn from their professors, who are deemed knowledgeable, in contrast to their Canadian counterparts who were accustomed to sharing ideas and getting feedback from others.
In noting these aforementioned contrasts, it is not our intention to make a dichotomous categorization between "Western culture" and "East Asian culture", and thus overlook the heterogeneous nature of any student group experience (Heng 2018).On the contrary, we recognize the complexity of international students' academic socialization experiences in study-abroad contexts.More specifically, we are mindful of the nonlinear socialization trajectories and diverse socialization outcomes of international students, which are shaped by various factors not limited to differences in cultural or educational values between countries.With this understanding, our study, which is guided by a second language socialization framework (Duff 2019), investigates how academic socialization of international students might (not) occur in classroom interactions.In particular, the use of nexus analysis as the methodological tool in this study makes it possible to provide a snapshot of a specific interactional context that facilitates or hinders international students' acquisition of desired academic discourses.
Zooming into the classroom interaction dynamics in an academic orientation class at a U.S. university, this study presents the story of Kristina, a Chinese international student, through the retrospective accounts of four participants (the instructor, two Korean graduate students, and a Chinese undergraduate).In the interactions with other participants in the classroom, Kristina was perceived as passive and disengaged, and ostensibly failed to be socialized in line with the desired outcome (i.e., the integration of international students into the academic community).This investigation thus provides an in-depth view of the ecology in which an international student is immersed and explores changes, inlcuding limited access to diverse classroom discourses), conflicting participation expectations, class sizes, and a lack of perceived affordances (Morita 2009;Tatar 2005;Yuan 2011) that need to be navigated.Furthermore, our study yields insights into how, despite an ESL (English as a Second Language) instructor's well-intentioned efforts to socialize international students into an academic discourse, some students may still feel alienated and excluded.
Finally, in contrast to many language socialization studies that focus on the graduate international students, who tend to have clearer academic goals and are better equipped to use strategies and resources to navigate challenges that are generally part of a large academic socialization experience (e.g., Anderson 2017;Morita 2009), our study examines the experiences of an undergraduate international student who began her adulthood in a foreign country.The study thus seeks to advance the understanding of the unique struggles and challenges encountered by the international undergraduate student population.

Language socialization
We adopt the lens of language socialization to examine learning and interactions within a social context (Friedman 2021).Researching L2 learners' socialization affords us the opportunity to reexamine teachers' pedagogical strategies, interactions, classroom organization, and lesson structures (Watson-Gegeo 2004).Interactions with more experienced learners and teachers often facilitate international students' acquisition of membership and language socialization in L2 communities (e.g., De Costa et al. 2022;Duff and Talmy 2011;Zappa-Hollman 2007).Many L2 socialization studies (e.g., Morita 2004Morita , 2009;;Zappa-Hollman 2007), therefore, view the interactions between and among teachers and students as the primary object of investigation for understanding international students' L2 socialization.As astutely noted by Scollon and Scollon (2004), what students say and how they talk are vitally important parts of socialization.
Relatedly, Fujieda's (2019) examination of a Japanese undergraduate EFL (English as a Foreign Language) student's academic discourse socialization found that their focal participant was socialized into her course and discourse community by (1) engaging in discussions with her teacher and classmates, and (2) constructing a social network outside the classroom.In other cases, however, opportunities to interact with experienced peers and instructors may not necessarily help international students become legitimate members of the academic community.For example, Kota, the focal participant in Morita's (2009) study, felt marginalized and alienated despite efforts to socialize with peers and engage in class activities.Morita reported the struggles Kota experienced when interacting with academic discourse communities in a Canadian university, including a lack of perceived English abilities, diverse cultures of which he had to make sense (i.e., "the culture of Canadian graduate school, local disciplinary and institutional culture, and classroom culture of various courses") (p.456).This demonstrates that his academic socialization was impeded by structural forces, such as a lack of support and understanding from the institution, despite his strong research motivation and desire to pursue a degree.
In their investigation of the silence experience (in English-speaking country classrooms) of international Chinese students born in the 1980s, Phan and Li (2014) describe similar experiences of navigating different cultures at various levels.The authors contend that the in-class silence of Chinese international students should be understood as going beyond "language barrier issues and cross-cultural factors" (p.244), and thus bears a sociopolitical dimension.Students may purposefully elect to remain reticent in class, to express either their attitude towards the teaching style and class atmosphere or resistance to having their opinions not taken seriously.Thus, their silence arose from the institution's different and unfamiliar structural forces.The study also highlighted the importance of legitimizing silence as a way of learning and thinking in contrast to the pedagogy that links talking to thinking and learning in many Western classrooms (see also Bao 2014).In addressing the issue of having to navigate different values, discourses, and practices in a new environment, Morita (2009) underscored the importance of involving all parties, including experienced peers and instructors as well as international students, in order to communicate participants' needs and expectations, create more opportunities for the experienced members to learn about the challenges international students face, and build a better supporting network for them.

Positioning theory
As noted by Kayı-Aydar (2019), positioning theory revolves around the rights, duties, and obligations of interlocutors through conversations.The primary focus of positioning theory is to reveal the practices that limit individuals from certain actions or performing specific acts.Unlike the notion of "position," which encompasses a complex cluster of general personal attributes, "positioning" refers to a discursive process in which people engage during conversations.Positioning thus serves as the fundamental mechanism through which self and identities are constructed in social interaction.By employing positioning moves, people can claim, deny, and allocate rights, and understand themselves as part of a team, group, or community.They intentionally utilize positioning to exercise agency and achieve their specific goals.In this study, the concept of positioning is used to interpret and illustrate our participants' actions.
Previous studies that have highlighted the significance of social contexts have adopted positioning theory to help us better understand how additional languages are acquired.For example, Nguyen and Yang (2015), who focused on the classroom engagement of a queer Korean ESL learner, reported that the level of engagement, disengagement, or resistance displayed in classroom discourse closely correlated with the alignment between students' desired self-identities and language classroom practices.Specifically, in cases where a student's queer identity was not supported by the prevailing practices within the language class, student disengagement occurred.In a related study by Kayi-Aydar (2014) who investigated the positioning of two ESL students in an oral skills class, it was found that students' positioning significantly influenced their interactions, shaping both what they chose to say and withhold.Thus, positioning theory offers a valuable framework for comprehending the intricate interplay of social and cultural factors in language learning and socialization.

Nexus analysis
To help us better understand L2 socialization, Duff (2019) posited that a commitment to community members' own (emic) perspectives of their learning can yield valuable insights on their L2 learning processes.Given its ethnographic roots, nexus analysis (Scollon and Scollon 2004; see also Scollon and Scollon 2007) constitutes an approach that enables us to situate a learning phenomenon within a broader sociocultural context by considering both linguistic and non-linguistic factors that might impact learning outcomes.
To investigate language socialization processes encountered by international students and the attendant social actions in which they are engaged, it is useful to examine single moments of social action across various scales (Hult 2015;Scollon and Scollon 2004). 1 Social action is understood as an action taken by a person with reference to a social network, as well as an action conducted through material and symbolic mediational means (Scollon and Scollon 2004). 2 And because all human actions are social in nature, actions examined through nexus analysis can also help explain how histories, identities, and interactions contribute to learning a new language and culture.Importantly, Scollon and Scollon (2004) viewed social action as a nexus of aggregated discourse in place, interaction order, and historical body (see Figure 1).
Discourses in place refer to circulating values in social actions.This construct illustrates how people take different kinds of actions and what constitutes mediational constraints or affordances (e.g., language) are.Interaction order is a set of social norms for how individuals interact with each other.According to Hult (2017), interaction order deals with the shared norms of practice and expectations towards others based on their social positions which enable certain actions and curtail others.Historical body, which entails the embodied life experiences of individuals in social actions, demonstrates one's goals, purposes, and experience.To understand one's social actions, it is thus necessary to delve into how these three elements (discourses in place, interaction order, historical body) are intertwined with social actions.As seen in Figure 1, these three elements intersect at the practice level through social action.
2 An example of a material means is money.An example of a symbolic mediational means is a language.

Nexus analysis in language studies
Nexus analysis is not new to language studies, however.As an analytic method, it has been used to conduct research in classroom settings (e.g., Dressler 2018; Levine 2013), study abroad contexts (e.g., Dressler et al. 2021;Levine 2015), English as a lingua franca communication (Soukup and Kordon 2012), transcultural language contexts (Hult 2012), and in language education policy (Hult 2017).For example, Hult (2012) examined the Swedish national syllabi for languages and the social contexts of an English language teacher training program by using nexus analysis.He found that the globalization of English was localized in Swedish educational policy and practices, and that tensions among pre-service English teachers occurred in the process of the transculturation of English in Sweden.As a discourse-analytical tool, nexus analysis thus enables researchers to unpack major tensions in a language classroom.
Given that nexus analysis is a tool to analyze discourses, it can be used to analyze interactions or narratives in the language classroom setting.In other words, and in conjunction with positioning theory described earlier, nexus analysis can be used as heuristic to guide our understanding of classroom discourse (e.g., Dressler 2018;Gynne et al. 2016;Levine 2013Levine , 2015)).For example, Gynne et al. (2016) adopted nexus analysis to investigate how linguistic-cultural values were constructed in everyday educational practices in a bilingual school.Specifically, they found that teacherdominated discourse could affect and was affected by the students' historical bodies (i.e., their embodied life experiences) during student-teacher interactions.Thus, among other things, nexus analysis allows us to examine values embedded in everyday classroom interaction as well as in wider school and society.And when applied to L2 classrooms, nexus analysis enables us to better understand the dynamics surrounding L2 socialization, which as noted earlier, is characterized by complex value and identity work.

The present study
Following Dressler et al. (2021) who paired nexus analysis with a case study methodology, our study adopts nexus analysis as an analytical framework to examine L2 learners' language socialization.Historical body, interaction order, and discourses in place in a nexus of practice are used to explore international students' socialization and their identity development.Our study, which contributes to the body of L2 socialization research by conducting a nexus analysis of an international student's language socialization at a U.S. university, was guided by these two research questions: 1. How did the newly arrived international student experience socialization into the American classroom via interactions with her teacher and peers? 2. How was she positioned in interactions, and what factors contributed to this positioning?
The context for this study was a three-week intensive Academic Life Preparation (ALP) course at Great Lake University (GLU; a pseudonym) during the summer break that was designed to help international students transition to a U.S. university classroom.Before starting their program, this course acted as a transition between their home country's campus culture and the new U.S. campus culture.A noteworthy point is that the ALP program accommodates both undergraduate and graduate students, despite their very different needs.The rationale for this arrangement is that the topics covered in the ALP program, including integration into campus life and American classroom culture, understanding spoken English, written communication, oral expression, and campus and community resources, are considered integral to the integration of all international students into the academic community.
The course description stated that the class focus was "gaining academic skills and cultural skills that can aid in your adjustment to the American classroom."The academic skills taught in this class include communication skills such as effective email writing, English academic reading, and public speaking skills.Student social and cultural adjustment was aided by introducing students to different resources available at GLU, the campus culture, and the local surrounding community (see Table 1 for further information about the ALP syllabus).Notably, international students enrolled in the ALP program tend to form a tight-knit community among themselves, as they are among the first group of international students to arrive on campus during the summer before a new academic year begins in the fall.They also often study together for three weeks.This research project started before the ALP course began.After several meetings with the instructor and obtaining agreement from her, we observed the first class of ALP course, and asked the students if they were interested in participating in the research project.All participants voluntarily agreed to participate in this project.

Data collection
Our focal participant was Kristina, who at the time of our study was newly arrived from China.Being a member of the Chinese international student community, she belonged to the largest segment of international student population on campus.The other three participants were two Korean international students (Jin and Won) and the course instructor (Cathy). 3In 2017, only three students registered for this program before they started their academic program (an undergraduate program for Kristina and graduate programs for Jin and Won) at GLU. 4 The three participants' English proficiency measured by TOEFL was similar (80 on average, an intermediate level).Kristina was an 18-year-old female Chinese student who came to the U.S. right after graduating high school.Jin and Won (Korean males), were admitted as graduate students into a master's program.Cathy, the course instructor, had over 20 years of teaching experience in English as a Second Language and had taught the ALP course several times before (Table 2).
To triangulate the data and to enhance the trustworthiness of our findings (De Costa et al. 2019), we used multiple data sources including four interviews with the students, one interview with the instructor, observation field notes, PowerPoint slides for this course, the course syllabus, and the instructor's course evaluation results.The data were part of a large project that was carried out over 1.5 years (June 2017 through December 2018).Authors 2 and 3, the field researchers in this project, went to the ALP class twice during the three-week course duration and wrote the field notes.They also met each participant individually in a conference room and conducted semi-structured interviews.In addition, Authors 2 and 3 interviewed Cathy in English.Author 2 interviewed Kristina in Chinese (their common L1) and Author 3 interviewed Jin and Won in Korean (their common L1) in order to elicit rich data from the participants.

Data analysis
By examining our multiple sources of data, we sought to identify the most salient phenomena that would help us better understand what the participants did in and outside the school activities that would have facilitated their L2 academic socialization process.Guided by the parameters underpinning nexus analysis (Scollon and Scollon 2004), we coded our data sources to: 1. uncover the practices and resources through which our participants constructed the social order of their conduct in social interaction; 2. identify discourse/s in practice with respect to our participants' values and identities; and 3. explicate the notion of the historical body in terms of our participants' different embodied life experiences.
We inductively examined and analyzed the interview data (our primary data source) by coding, categorizing, and recoding the emergent themes (Lankshear and Knobel 2004).In the initial coding process, all three authors analyzed the data together to familiarize themselves with the data.Authors 2 and 3 also met regularly to examine the data, code the data, and check the coded data together to reach a consensus.For data triangulation, Cathy's syllabus, PowerPoint slides, and her course evaluation results were also coded by utilizing thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke 2006).Specifically, these data sources were coded according to our: participants' expectations towards the ALP class and the instructor of the ALP class; and participants' understanding of their learning experience at the GLU.
The above themes were further organized and analyzed in relation to how our participants interacted with each other to contribute to the positioning of Kristina as a "disengaged and disrespectful" student in the class.In the findings section, we focus on Kristina's experience and identify three main themes: -Kristina being the disengaged and disrespectful student in class; -Kristina navigating the new participation expectations and negotiating the "disengaged" student identity positioning; and -Cathy's belief in the need for having the 'right' attitude.

Findings
Our findings present Kristina's less successful academic discourse socialization experiences and analyze factors that influenced Kristina's seemingly deviant and withdrawn behaviors when presented with socialization opportunities in class.Furthermore, while Kristina was positioned as "disengaged" and "disrespectful" in the interactions with Cathy, Jin and Won, the findings reveal a more nuanced perspective.By delving into the dynamics of their class interactions through their personal accounts, the findings highlight the gaps in participation expectations, life histories, and perceived affordances that contributed to Kristina's positioning.

Being the disengaged and disrespectful student in class
In our interview with Cathy, we asked her to use some adjectives to describe her three students in the ALP class.She described the two Korean students as "so engaged, inquisitive, thoughtful, purposeful, team players and demanding," whereas for Kristina, she noted "so impatient, disengaged, disrespectful to peers, not to me, but disrespectful to peers."In addition, similar descriptions about Kristina were seen in Won's interview: Excerpt 1 I noticed the tension between Cathy and Kristina.I think Cathy felt that she was not respected by Kristina.Kristina never prepared for class.She did not participate in class.Kristina said that she took this course because she thought it's a TOEFL preparation course … But too bad that she did not learn anything from this class.The content could help her later.
Of particular interest is the shared recognition of Cathy as being a responsible and caring instructor among the three students.In the interview, both Jin and Won spoke highly of Cathy, underscoring her passion for teaching and her care for students.Likewise, Kristina, described in the interview "Cathy cared for us deeply.She tried to attend to and engage each of us in class."To some extent, such a positive evaluation of Cathy led us to question Kristina's image as being a 'challenging' student with deviant attitudes and behaviors.
In addition, as Lee and Bucholtz (2015) reminded us, positionality is often contextual, relative, co-constructed and negotiated within interactions (p.323).In her high school English classroom, Kristina assumed the role of a quiet student with an average academic performance who was "absent-minded and disengaged in class from time to time" (interview data) and did not seem to draw much attention from her instructors.As she stated in Excerpt 2, she appeared to adopt a rather passive approach to learning by embracing a "getting by" stance and "being selective in paying attention" in her high school English class.Nevertheless, similar practices that seemed to be tolerable in the past were now deemed "disrespectful" in the ALP class, as she interpreted it in Excerpt 2.
Excerpt 2 Teachers in China are less strict and more flexible.As long as you don't cross the line, it's pretty easy to get by.And we had 30 students in the classroom [in China], so the teacher will not check on you all the time.You can be selective in paying attention.But here, if you don't pay attention in her class, you might strike her as not respecting her.I have never had foreign teachers before, so I have never had this experience.Duff (2008), when examining language socialization at work, highlighted that the newcomers to a new workplace might face challenges in being socialized into the new discourse community, especially when their prior socialization experiences significantly differed from the practices of the new discourse community.Similarly, we argue that Kristina had been socialized into a student role of being reticent and invisible in class.In addition, she had grown accustom to a distanced student-teacher relationship in her high school.Excerpt 3 illustrates that Kristina's initial disengagement in the ALP class might not necessarily indicate a disrespectful and deviant attitude towards her instructor, Cathy, and her peers.Instead, these behaviors could be understood as a continuation of her previous learning habits and patterns.However, such a change of behavior resulted in the rise of tension between Cathy and her, prompting Kristina to feel disciplined by Cathy, as Cathy re-evaluated her verbal participation as "confusing and not logical".
Thus far, we have delineated Kristina's disengaged behaviors in class and the arising tensions between Kristina and Cathy through the different participants' accounts.Next, we analyze the factors contributing to Kristina's continuous disengagement in class, despite Cathy's efforts to engage her in the classroom.This analysis highlights the challenges Kristina encountered when navigating the new discourse norms within the ALP class.Crucially, these challenges might have gone unnoticed in day-to-day class interactions, especially when they were probably perceived as affordances for Jin and Won.

Mandatory participation and small size class
Cathy, in the interview, expressed sympathy for the difficulties Kristina might have experienced adjusting to high demand for class engagement, which may not have been the norm in the previous ALP classes.The unusual small class size that year made any demonstrations of distractions or absent-mindedness conspicuous.The class size also made active participation by each student crucial, if not mandatory.As shown in Excerpt 4, because there were only three students, Cathy required students to each take turns participating in class activities, which made it demanding for Kristina.Excerpt 4 When I felt bored and didn't want to participate in class activities, I had to anyway, because we only had three students, and we had to take turns to do all these activities.This rule made me even more reluctant to participate ….The atmosphere felt stiff.If we did those activities in our high school in China, everyone would pitch in, say whatever we want, the ideas flow freely.
The turn-taking participation pattern in the ALP class contrasted with Kristina's previous learning experience, where she reported that she was neither in a small class nor under mandatory circumstances to speak out in class activities.Upon reflection, Kristina recognized that it was the turn-taking expectations, not the activities themselves, that made her unwilling to participate. 5n addition, Kristina also pointed out in the interview that the small class size affected the quality of the discussions in those class activities, noting that "having discussions was not that interesting because the three of us can only contribute so much, which limited the scope and depth of the discussions."In contrast, Jin and Won commented that they benefited greatly from participating in the discussions, because they had ample opportunities to practice their English-speaking skills and received tailored instructions from Cathy.As a result, the small class size worked to the advantage of the two Korean students.As one of them wrote in the class evaluation, Excerpt 5 I believe my class was excellent.Especially small number of students (there were only 3 of us).This could make us have lots of conversation with instructor.Also, the instructor could have focused on each of us.
Upon comparing the three students' learning experiences in the ALP class, we argue that the class size became a mediational tool that shaped participants' learning experience.To be more specific, the small size class in the ALP class was converted into affordances for Jin and Won in ways that enhanced their learning.Nonetheless, for Kristina, the same classroom context ended up being a form of constraint that impeded her learning.We argue that such a constraint, coupled with the active participation expectation in Western education discourse (Heng 2018;Yuan 2011), works to normalize or naturalize active participation in the ALP class, which becomes the major challenge for Kristina.As a result, in a classroom of three students, their contrastive participation modes left little space for Kristina to evade the dichotomous positioning of being either a good student or a disengaged one.

Life histories: past learning experiences, current expectations, future goals
Another factor that greatly mediated Kristina's learning experience within the ALP class was her learning expectation of the ALP class.Attending the ALP class, Kristina did not have clear learning goals except to improve her English skills and keep herself occupied with meaningful tasks.As she stated in the interview, Excerpt 6 One of my teachers in China helped me find this ALP program.He said it's like an intensive language learning course, like TOEFL training ….Also, my mom wanted to keep me busy so that I don't waste the whole summer in China .…Even though I expected the class to be different from the ones in China, I thought that the class would still be skill learning, like listening and writing skills.
It is evident that neither she nor her teacher in China thoroughly investigated the nature and objectives of the ALP program before her enrollment, which led to the misalignment between Kristina's expectations and the goals of the ALP class.Nevertheless, Kristina's expectations for the ALP class were later communicated to Cathy, who then revised the course syllabus to incorporate English skill training lessons specifically for Kristina.However, this effort was not well received by Kristina.
To understand Kristina's disengaged behaviors despite Cathy's effort, we posit that Kristina's understanding of "skill learning" was shaped by her prior academic socialization experiences in high school English class, where she was socialized into a teacher-centered and lecture-based didactic instruction mode, as she described in the interview.As a result, when transitioning to the ALP class, which prominently featured student-centered and discussion-based participatory learning practices, Kristina found herself lacking the necessary means, resources, and guidance to depart from her previous learning practices.As can be seen in the interviews, Kristina continually referred back to her high school English class and teacher-student relationships to make sense of the new class culture in the ALP class (see Excerpts 2, 4, and 6).
Furthermore, with regard to her future goals of undergraduate study at GLU, Kristina expressed a sense of uncertainty about the future.As she noted in the interview, "I'm not sure what major I want to study or what I want to do in the future, I think I'll figure it out in college."Thus, it is not difficult to infer that having just entered adulthood and moving alone to a foreign country to begin her four-year undergraduate career, Kristina was at a stage of life where she found herself having to explore who she is and will be, while also having to wrestle with what was expected from her in a new environment.
In comparison, Jin and Won shared in the interview their primary goals for taking the ALP class were to improve their English proficiency and become familiar with English academic discourse as quickly as possible in order to adjust to their graduate study in the US.For example, Jin stated, "I have not used English for a long time.I wanted to develop my English skills before the semester starts."Having been out of school for more than 10 years, they reported feeling grateful for having this opportunity to further their professional development.This can also be seen from their active participation and interaction with Cathy in the ALP class.As Morita (2009) suggests, one's unique histories and previous academic backgrounds can influence their interactions with peers and instructors.Even though Jin and Won had been out of school for a while, their absence may have helped them transition more smoothly into their new university setting because enough time may have elapsed since they had last been undergraduate students.Thus, in some ways, they were looking at the new participation expectations and discourse norms within the ALP class with fresh eyes.contrast, Kristina, whose experience as a high school student was still recent, had to unlearn and relearn how to negotiate her academic expectations, previous academic discourse experiences, and former student role (Kobayashi et al. 2017).

Perceived lack of affordances
Conspicuously, among the necessary resources and guidance that Kristina was lacking were the limited access to linguistic resources and the absence of a peer-led support network.In the interviews with Kristina, she identified her limited English language proficiency as being a major barrier that prevented her from actively participating in class.
Excerpt 7 [O]ur limited proficiency prevented us from sharing what we had in mind, so the discussions were not quite interesting … we can only describe [things] at the surface level using quite simple English.If this activity were to be done in my high school in China, we would use Chinese to communicate, and my classmates would come up with lots of fun descriptions about this object.It would be more interesting.
Kristina felt the limited English proficiency of three of them rendered ALP class discussions to be less interesting.It is important to point out that central to the "interesting" discussion in her high school English class is that students can use Chinese as the linguistic resource to facilitate class interactions.By comparison, Kristina had to navigate a different linguistic reality in the ALP class, that is, one that mandated that only English could be used to communicate with Cathy and her two other non-Chinese classmates.In addition, the perceived limited English abilities also prevented her from reaching out to Jin and Won, as she stated, "I don't think the age difference is the issue.I think the language is.We don't speak English well and we cannot really communicate ideas smoothly."While Won and Jin also perceived their limited English proficiency to be a challenge, they had the means and resources to address this challenge.Excerpt 8 explains how Won was able to overcome linguistic hurdles by studying learning materials outside the class and drawing from his previous working experience at a multinational corporation.Excerpt 8 I think I understand only half of the course due to my limited English proficiency.Studying the textbooks, course handouts and materials kept me on track, and I was able to follow Cathy in class.Since I worked in the HR (Human Resources) [human resources] department, I was used to speaking and writing basic concepts of HR, so I don't find any difficulties in doing writing assignments.
In addition, both Won and Jin reported having tight connections to the local Korean church, which played a vital role in helping them settle in and get familiar with the local community; as Jin shared in an interview, "I usually meet friends from the Korean church here.They helped me settle in." In contrast, Kristina's previous learning experience was mediated greatly by peer support.As she described in the interview, "when I was left behind, my friends would push me to study hard, remind me of homework and exams, and we often studied together."It is evident that a pivotal aspect of Kristina's previous academic discourse socialization was her engagement with peer socialization agents who provided a network of support and supervision.Steffenson and Kramsch (2017) emphasize that learning is most likely to occur when the embedded learning space offers "symbolic and nonsymbolic affordances" that align with the socialization needs of the learners.Ostensibly, the affordances present in the ALP class, including the tailored instruction and feedback by Cathy, the extremely small size class, the student-centered and discussion-based instruction mode, and the local church community, facilitated Jin and Won's socialization into the target academic community.These same affordances, however, presented challenges for Kristina, as these practices diverged from her established learning practices.Lacking an adequate transition period, specific guidance, and peer support, Kristina was less successful in being socialized into the desired academic practices in the target community.

Not having the right attitude
The interaction of these different factors contributed to Kristina, Jin, and Won's divergent participation practices in class.Nevertheless, these factors did not surface conspicuously in class interactions.Thus, it was almost impossible for Cathy to comprehend those complexities in the moment-to-moment interactions with her three students, especially after trying every strategy and method she knew to reach out to Kristina.

Student's navigation of university norms
Excerpt 9 I tried to be very understanding.I tried not to call the person on the spot.I included a brand-new curriculum for the student [Kristina].To my surprise, she was not engaged.I tried to talk one-onone with the student [Kristina] ….I really went out of my way myself and used as many methods and techniques and approaches as I could.I think sometimes people don't want to be reached.
In the interview with Cathy (Excerpt 9), we detected myriad reactions when discussing Kristina's case.In the beginning, Cathy felt rather puzzled about Kristina's disengagement in class, as she tried different strategies to engage her.For example, as mentioned earlier, the effort of designing skill-focused lessons for Kristina was not well received or recognized.This instance, along with other acts of disengagement, ultimately led Cathy to position Kristina as someone who did not "want to be reached out."Cathy's remark aligns with a key point highlighted in Anderson (2017), which suggests that academic discourse socialization is largely about self-socialization, depending on "internal socialization" processes (Duff and Doherty 2015).In other words, learners often only draw on resources they perceive as relevant and meaningful to support their socialization, despite the presence of many external resources and guidance in the environment (Pu and Xu 2022).
The positioning of Kristina, which was discursively constructed, became solidified when Cathy compared Kristina to her former students.In the following excerpt, Cathy was responding to an interview question on the extent to which their English proficiency influenced their learning experience.
Excerpt 10 I think it has so much to do with attitude, and my illustration is, I had two Korean men [last year] that were here for a master's degree.Zero learners, [they] couldn't function ….I compare that to Kristina, [who] had way more proficiency than these two Korean men, but took nothing away from ALP.You need a size of a class that allows you to create camaraderie.But it's about attitude more than it is proficiency.
While Cathy attributed Kristina's disengagement to her "wrong" attitude, this wrong attitude should not simply be interpreted as a personal trait or self-made decision.Rather, Kristina's disengagement in class needs to be seen as a form of social action in a nexus, shaped by a clash of discourses in place, the interaction order of a small class in a U.S. university that was populated by different historical bodies (see Figure 2).

Discussion
Our findings demonstrate that Kristina's disengagement in the ALP class was shaped by various factors such as the active student-led classroom participation norm, a small class size, student participant's life history, including her previous learning experience, current expectations, and future goals, as well as the lack of resources and support network she perceived relevant (Kayi-Aydar 2014; Nguyen and Yang 2015).Adopting a nexus analysis framework, we discuss the interactions of those factors (review Figure 2) in ways that helped us understand the complex dynamics surrounding classroom interactions.

Constructing and negotiating the ALP class interaction order
In the dynamics of class interactions, social actors generally project different expectations towards each other and come to position each other differently based on whether their actions align with or depart from the expectations of their social positions (Diao 2016;Kinginger 2017).Thus, to some extent, the rules or class policies dictate the participation expectations in the ALP class.Excerpt 11 lists specific course requirements.(ALP course syllabus; emphasis added) The mandatory language, such as the repeated use of words including "must" "all" and the use of imperative sentences, discursively constructed an authority role of the instructor (Cathy) and her expectations towards students in the ALP class.Furthermore, as Gynne et al. (2016) pointed out, the instructor "orchestrates the interactional space, controlling the order and the topics of interaction" (p.335).
Similarly, Cathy's authority role was reinforced through the classroom management and organization of class activities and discussions.As an intensive academic preparation course, ALP students stayed together with Cathy for several hours a day for three intensive weeks, which put great pressure on Cathy to engage students as much as possible and strike a balance between lecturing and facilitating studentcentered class dynamics.Coupled with the unique small class size, Cathy implemented a turn-taking rule for most of the class activities to optimize interaction between herself and her three students.Unfortunately, such an interaction order, (i.e., students were expected to participate actively through taking turns), was denied any time or space for trial and error.While Heng (2018) demonstrated that many international students are able to adapt to the new participation expectations if given adequate time, Kristina did not have the luxury to navigate the new norms and rules at her own pace; nor did she have access to resources and support she perceived relevant to socialize her to the new participation expectations (Nguyen and Yang 2015;Pu and Xu 2022).As a result, Kristina's disengagement actions were then perceived as being saliently deviant from the class norms (and thus in violation of the expected interaction order), which in turn cemented the "disengaged and disrespectful student" positioning of her.

Bringing historical bodies into the ALP class
The discursive identity positions that emerged in and through an established interaction order were not simply claimed by participants or imposed on them.
Rather, it is the participants' historical bodies that provided both affordances and constraints that either enabled or disabled them from claiming or accepting certain identity positions in class interactions (Hult 2012).In other words, their prior academic and professional socialization experiences, namely, Cathy's years of experience as a U.S. university ESL instructor, Kristina's educational experiences in China, and Jin and Won's professional experiences in multinational corporations, contributed to the development of "specific habitual expectations in participating in the classroom activities" (Gynne et al. 2016: 336).Given their different historical bodies, the student participants developed different dispositions towards social and academic practices in the new environment, which was (mis)aligned with the interaction order in the ALP class, which in turn subjected them to various degrees of learning and participation in the new order.For example, compared to Kristina, Jin, and Won's "success story" in ALP class was mediated by their previous work experience, from which they developed effective learning strategies, a grateful attitude towards learning opportunities, as well as abilities to make use of resources to achieve their goals.Such qualities helped them to quickly identify and adhere to Cathy's rules and expectations, and make the most out of the classroom materiality (e.g., the small class size) to achieve their goals.

(Two) discourses in place
It was at the intersection of our participants' historical bodies, the prevailing ALP classroom interaction order, and the wider cultural context and discourses that circulate in ALP classrooms that mediated social action occurred (review Figure 2).Addressing discourses in place, Hult (2017) reminds us that we need to pay attention to values embedded in these discourses and examine how the values are performed and reproduced in and through interactions.In our study, we focused on two discourses present in the ALP class.

Discourse #1: Student-centered and discussion-based classroom discourse
As discussed in the findings section, one of the main challenges for Kristina was to navigate a student-centered and discussion-based classroom discourse in the ALP class.This classroom discourse pattern, which is prevalent predominantly English-speaking countries education systems (Heng 2018;Phan and Li 2014;Tatar 2005), contrasts greatly with the reality of Kristina's previous classroom (i.e., large size classes where English teachers mainly lectured and imparted knowledge to students, as she described in the interview).In addition, both Chinese and English were used as mediums of instruction and class discussion in her previous English classrooms.The difficulty she encountered when trying to be socialized into the student-centered and discussion-based discourse corroborates with Morita's (2009) observation that newly arrived international students often need to make sense of different cultures in different courses, disciplines, and departments, as they negotiate contrastive expectations and norms of practices.
In Morita's (2009) study, described earlier, Kota was able to develop coping strategies to overcome the challenges related to being socialized into new discourses, such as interacting with classmates outside the classroom to better understand instructors' pedagogies and academic norms, or doing "self-analysis and reflection" on everyday academic encounters (p.455).However, in Kristina's case, during the ALP course she did not have access to any peer support groups on campus at that time; nor did she develop the autonomy for self-directed learning or self-analysis.Although Kristina appeared to lack the agency to take responsibility for her own learning, we surmise that her act of being continuously disengaged or withdrawn in class may have been part of her coping strategies, which could be a manifestation of her agency and a way for her to voice her opinion about the strained class atmosphere (Kayı-Aydar 2019; Phan and Li 2014).

Discourse #2: Academic versus social discourse in the US
In addition to the participatory nature of classroom discourse in the U.S., Kristina's apparent disengagement was also mediated by another discourse present in the ALP class, that is, the academic community discourse (constructed both in the course policy documents and the class interactions).As described in the methodology section, the ALP class sought to prepare incoming international students for their academic life in a U.S. university.An academic community discourse was always present in the ALP class.Crucially, the practice of the spoken and written academic discourse in the ALP class nicely aligned with Jin and Won's expectations and goals.Thus, they were committed to engaging in academic discourse practices.
In comparison, peer influence played a significant role in Kristina's prior academic socialization.As she described in the interview, Kristina was longing for a supportive peer community that could help her settle in and transition into university life.In the interview, she described the "tailgate parties" on campus with great excitement, and the "most difficult thing" for her after coming to the U.S. was "loneliness because I [she] did not know anyone here."For Kristina, we argue that entering the academic discourse community was secondary compared to finding a peer support system and building a peer social network in the new environment.Unfortunately, the ALP class, with its small class size and focus on academic discourses, failed to meet Kristina's needs.
Thus far, we have demonstrated that the three students in the ALP class brought with them their previous work and learning experiences that intersected with different classroom participation norms and discourses, resulting in the three students being positioned differently, and consequently executing different social actions in the ALP class.Our focal participant, Kristina, was positioned as a disengaged and disrespectful student in the ALP class.More importantly, our analysis illustrates that such positioning was difficult to negotiate or contest from Kristina's perspective.Instead of assigning blame to anyone, we strive to complexify "disengagement" behavior and hope to generate insights into tensions and conflicts that often arise from class interactions and that are often manifested in "class disengagement" or attributed to "having a wrong attitude" or "having limited English proficiency."Furthermore, we argue that class disengagement should be understood within a wider sociocultural space as such disengagement is interwoven with the broader U.S. institutional understandings of international students.An exploration of such understandings can help open a much needed and long overdue discussion space regarding how to create a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable campus for international students, a point to which we turn next.
While we applaud the emergence of ALP-like courses, we nevertheless need to be cautious about imposing an assimilation discourse that expects international students to "adjust to," "fit in" the "host" community (e.g., Ploner 2018).In understanding international students' cross-border educational experiences, assimilationist perspectives risk reducing their learning journey to a unidirectional assimilationist experience, one that both categorizes and constructs international students as a homogeneous group, while failing to take into account the complex ecology of the host community (De Costa et al. 2022).As our findings have demonstrated, Kristina, Jin and Won came to the US with different motivations, goals, and prior socialization experiences in hopes of interacting with and socializing into different communities.The delicacies of such personal histories and individual dispositions toward social and academic practices are generally hard to recognize in the classroom, and thus remain opaque to many instructors.This problem exacerbated when students found themselves in accelerated learning situations such as the ALP course which had a very packed curriculum.Moreover, international undergraduate students like Kristina, who was at a pivotal self-exploratory stage, might find it more beneficial to be socialized into the desirable academic practices through interactions with members in their social network, as observed in Zappa-Hollman and Duff (2015).Hence, to meet the socialization needs of individuals like Kristina, we suggest that it is crucial to provide them with access to resources and social support from the wider campus community, including introducing them to student-led organizations and activities for newly arrived international students, and access to peer-led social networks such as student mentor programs.These measures will help integrate international students into the social and academic practices of the local community.In Kristina's case, Cathy or the ALP program could have assisted Kristina by identifying a U.S. domestic student and a Chinese international student to be Kristina's buddies, which could potentially have been the starting point for building her own local social network.In addition, as Morita (2009) suggested, senior students within the department could be the resource people for incoming students; conducting student-led workshops or creating online discussion forums within the department are some examples to help new students navigate the new cultures.More importantly, we recognize that academic discourse socialization is a long-term process, and it requires a concerted campus effort to provide the necessary infrastructure to support individuals like Kristina so that they can be successfully socialized into U.S. academic life.
In closing, we join other scholars (e.g., De Costa et al. 2022;Ploner 2018;Waters 2017) who have called for a more holistic and ecological understanding of international students' socialization experiences.In the meantime, we also urge university programs and university learning support centers to engage in constructive dialogues with international students and with each other in order to raise awareness of international students' unique historical bodies and their multi-directional socialization trajectories.

Figure 2 :
Figure 2: A nexus analysis of participant (dis)engagement in the ALP class.

Table  :
A simplified outline of ALP class: adapted from the original ALP syllabus.
This previous socialization experience, thus, made her navigation of the current teacher-student relationship and class participation norms more difficult.As Excerpt 3 shows, Excerpt 3 At first, I was quite active in class.It's my first time coming to the US and taking a course like this.Cathy was also quite attentive to me, always listening carefully to me in class.I felt what I said in class was logical and decent.Then I got lazy and started to come to class late and participate less in class.Then she felt that my ideas were confusing and lacked logic.But the two Koreans [Jin and Won] also made mistakes here and there.Cathy didn't have any problem with them.