Stabilising emotion, structuring aspiration: Taiwanese language coaching as pre-migration protection

In an age of competitive global higher education, how do international students develop and maintain the confidence to pursue their ambitions of studying abroad? Existing research emphasises the role of language coaching centres in preparing students for international admissions exams (e.g. TOEFL, GRE) but has paid little attention to the emotional dimensions of pre-migration preparation. Drawing on four years of ethnographic fieldwork in Taiwanese language coaching centres and a content analysis of related online forums, I demonstrate that, in addition to transmitting content knowledge and test-taking strategies, these coaching centres play a crucial role in managing student anxiety. Specifically, I show how (1) environmental, (2) instructional, and (3) interpersonal elements of the coaching centres mitigate anxiety and promote a vision of attainable success by fostering a sense of cultural familiarity, personal control, and community support. Extending the transnational social protection framework (TSP) to the pre-migration phase, these findings demonstrate how language coaching centres function as sites of emotional preparation for global admissions, making success in this field appear both achievable and deserved. As such, they represent crucial infrastructures of pre-migration protection.