Toward affective linguistic justice in English-medium instruction

This paper examines the affective dimensions of multilingualism in English-medium instruction (EMI) in the Global South. While existing research increasingly attends to emotions in EMI, little work has theorized how affect is shaped by the ideological, historical, and political entanglements of English dominance and multilingual marginalization. The paper argues that affective experiences are central to understanding the emotional economies of EMI, showing how social imaginaries of English as a language of modernity and success generate powerful emotional attachments while simultaneously producing affective harms for multilingual learners whose linguistic repertoires are undervalued. It conceptualizes affect not as an individual reaction but as a structuring force shaped by linguistic hierarchies, neoliberal ideologies, and postcolonial histories. By foregrounding emotions as socially constructed and politically consequential, the paper proposes a framework of affective linguistic justice and outlines its implications for EMI/ELT policies and practices that seek to address linguistic inequality alongside students’ emotional lives.