How do educators leverage diverse languages in language studies within Australian higher education? A comparison of content- and language-focused courses

This study investigates how educators leverage diverse languages within the structural divide between content- and language-focused courses in Australian higher education. Through a qualitative multiple case study of Spanish/Latin American and Chinese Studies programmes, the research analyses a comprehensive data set derived from doctoral research, comprising educator and coordinator interviews, classroom observations, and student questionnaires. Using a thematic analysis approach to explore how languages are positioned, the findings show that educators across both programs leverage named languages shaped by disciplinary focus and pedagogical purpose. The analysis reveals three interconnected orientations including (a) functional-affective, (b) intercultural-comparative, and (c) critical-epistemic, from largely code-based, pragmatic uses of named languages to more epistemic and transformative engagements. While the findings confirm a move away from a fully intact monolingual habitus, they also reveal persistent tensions, particularly the continued prominence of English. These findings call for a reconsideration of the content–language dichotomy in language degrees, highlighting the need for multilingual pedagogies that attend to disciplinary focus and promote more meaningful leveraging of languages.