Date of Award

5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in English and Writing Studies

Department

English

First Reader/Committee Chair

Adebayo, Taofeeq.

Abstract

Drawing on qualitative interview data from undergraduate students at a public university in California, this thesis conducts a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of the experiences of bilingual and multilingual STEM students as they navigate language barriers in higher education. Specifically, it examines how disciplinary sublanguage, defined as the specialized vocabulary and communication practices unique to an academic field of study, and dominant language ideologies (e.g., monoglossic ideology, the English-only movement, etc.) gatekeep students’ access to knowledge, participation, and academic success. To do so, this thesis employs Fairclough’s three-dimensional model of CDA to connect individual experiences with broader institutional and societal structures. The findings reveal that multilingual students face a double linguistic burden, as they must learn the complex sublanguage of their discipline while simultaneously mastering English, the dominant language of academic instruction, assessment, and participation in the U.S. (i.e., learning a second language in a second language). The findings further show that this burden is framed as both normal and neutral – terms that suggest these linguistic expectations are natural, inevitable, and unbiased. However, this thesis demonstrates that such norms are, in fact, socially constructed through language ideologies and disciplinary language complexity. Ultimately, this thesis calls for greater institutional awareness and equitable practices to ensure the academic success of bilingual and multilingual students.

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