Managing linguistic risk: Arab female students’ participation in Hebrew-medium higher education

Participation in higher education is often treated as an indicator of engagement, learning, and academic success. For students who study through a language that is not their first language, participation may involve exposure to linguistic evaluation and social judgment. This study examines how Arab female students manage participation in academic discourse and how these processes shape their educational experiences and professional identities. Using an interpretive qualitative approach, the study draws on semi-structured in-depth interviews with 17 Arab Muslim female students. Thematic analysis identified four themes: the experience of a linguistic gap in the academic space, silence as a strategy of linguistic risk management, strategies for regulating participation and language as a resource for professional mobility. The findings show that participation is shaped not only by language proficiency but also by students' ongoing assessments of the potential risks and benefits associated with speaking. Silence, preparation, selective participation and delayed engagement emerged as strategic responses to interactional conditions perceived as evaluative. At the same time, Hebrew was viewed as a valuable resource for employment, professional recognition and social mobility. The article introduces the concept of linguistic risk management to explain how multilingual learners regulate participation when language use may carry social, academic, or professional consequences.