Navigating Japanese language learning at an EMI university in Japan: international students’ investment, language learning strategies, and identity development

Despite growing international student mobility (ISM) to non-Anglophone destinations, little is known about how international students invest in learning host-country languages while studying through English-medium instruction (EMI). Drawing on Darvin, R., and B. Norton. 2015. “Identity and a Model of Investment in Applied Linguistics”. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 35:36–56 investment model, this qualitative study explores the investment, language learning strategies (LLSs), and identity development of nine Kazakhstani international students enrolled at an EMI university in Japan. Data were collected through written narratives and individual semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal that participants’ investment in Japanese evolved from initial interests in Japanese culture or scholarship opportunities into aspirations for social participation, professional development, and multilingual identity construction. Although EMI facilitated academic participation, it did not adequately support integration into Japanese society, increasing participants’ recognition of the importance of Japanese for everyday communication. Participants exercised agency by adopting contextually embedded LLSs, strategically using artificial intelligence, expanding social networks, and engaging in authentic interactions. The study further identifies emerging insights into how near-peer relationships and AI-mediated learning may provide access to resources that support learner agency and sustain investment. These findings deepen understanding of investment in EMI and LOTE-learning contexts by explaining how investment is enacted through contextually situated LLSs and negotiated within multilingual environments.