The emergence of academic writers: Multilingual doctoral students’ translanguaging and transpositioning in AI-mediated academic writing

[Kevin W. H. Tai (Prof.)]

Dear Members of the SIG,

I would like to take this opportunity to share this paper that is co-authored by Amy Wanyu Ou (University of Gothenburg), myself (Kevin W. H. Tai) and Xinyi Wang (my PhD student at The University of Hong Kong). This paper investigated how PhD students navigate and orchestrate multilingual, multimodal, and AI-generated resources in academic writing and negotiate multiple identity positions in AI-mediated writing contexts. 

The findings underscore how AI-mediated academic writing becomes a space not only for writing support, but also for identity construction, enabling transpositioning whereby PhD students reconcile their roles as multilingual writers, researchers, and autonomous academic authors. Our understanding of transpositioning extends positioning theory by proposing a model in which all positions are fluid, contingent, and perpetually in flux. Unlike positioning, which implies a shift from one fixed role or identity to another, transpositioning is an ongoing, dynamic process that resists nominalization. 

In the context of academic writing, this process is facilitated by translanguaging with GenAI, which allows for the flexible, embodied use of all available resources—linguistic, semiotic, and cognitive—without rigid adherence to the boundaries between named languages, linguistic and non-linguistic modalities, and even human and non-human languages. By leveraging these resources, PhD students are able to fluidly negotiate their identities, moving beyond the constraints of fixed roles to construct a more nuanced and empowered academic voice. Thus, transpositioning, supported by translanguaging in AI-mediated writing contexts, emerges as a transformative approach that fosters adaptability, critical engagement, and the continuous renegotiation of identity in academic writing. Therefore, we argue that AI-mediated academic writing is not merely a technical or text production process but an interactive space where these students with insecure ESL stances engage in transpositioning, encouraging the emergence of critical academic writer identities. This process involves students’ power negotiation with AI through translanguaging practices to assert text ownership and disciplinary voice. 

We further argue that rather than focusing solely on AI's influence on writing quality or ethics, which are as important as those issues remain, scholarly attention must also turn to the interactional process between students and AI tools. It is in the process that voice is negotiated, identity as an academic writer is actively constructed, and substantial learning happens.

The full paper is published in the Journal of English for Academic Purposes, and it can be downloaded by the link here for free: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2025.101613

Reference: 

Ou, W. A., Tai, K. W. H., and Wang, X. (2026). The Emergence of Academic Writers: Doctoral Students’ Translanguaging and Transpositioning in AI-mediated Academic Writing. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 79, 101613. DOI: 10.1016/j.jeap.2025.101613 

Many thanks,

Kevin Tai 

Professor Kevin W. H. Tai

PhD (UCL), FHEA, FRSA  

Assistant Professor of Language and Literacy Education

Co-Director, Centre for Advancement in Inclusive and Special Education

Faculty of Education 

The University of Hong Kong

Honorary Research Fellow, IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society, University College London

Editor, The Language Learning Journal (Routledge) 

Associate Editor, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism (Routledge)

Executive Guest Editor, International Journal of Applied Linguistics (Wiley) 

The World's Top 1% Scholar and HKU Scholar in the Top 1%, Clarivate Analytics, 2025

The World’s Top 2% Most-Cited Scientist (Languages and Linguistics), Stanford University, 2024 and 2025 (Elsevier)

Email (HKU): kevi...@hku.hk  

Email (UCL): kevi...@ucl.ac.uk  

Telephone: (852) 3917 6107  

Website: https://web.edu.hku.hk/faculty-academics/kwhtai