This chapter addresses the immediate challenge Chinese as a second language programs face to readjust program goals to prepare learners for China-related careers with pathways to professional-level proficiency. Drawing from the Third Space as a new framework for CSL pedagogy and key themes of the transdisciplinary framework, this chapter advocates for a shift in the focus from language proficiency to communicative performance in CSL programs for those learners with a long-term commitment to and a vision of becoming multilingual professionals in Chinese workplaces. CSL programs should train such learners to recognize and negotiate what is culturally expected of them at the most sophisticated level to best achieve their own communicative intentions and agenda in the multilingual workplace. Showcasing the pedagogical manifestation of this proposal, this chapter discusses the collaboration between a Chinese language instructor and a Chinese professional expert in an advanced CSL course at a Sino-U.S. joint-venture university.

This study explores the fluidity of multilingual and intercultural identities among Australian university students participating in a study abroad (SA) program in China. It pilots a structured analytical framework to analyse visual metaphors created by the participants, examining how Chinese language learners depict their evolving identities, thereby uncovering their fluid nature. An analysis of three case studies of Australian students—one of Chinese heritage, one Australian-born of Serbian heritage, and one Japanese-born who moved to Australia in childhood—illustrates their unique trajectories of identity formation. Multimodal data reveals that while the visual metaphors of all three students point to fluidity, with sub-themes of dynamism, blending, and layeredness, the SA experience triggers diverse individual processes of identity negotiation and transformation. This study contributes to the fields of multilingual and intercultural education and SA through its innovative use of a visual metaphor analysis approach, which effectively captures and decodes the complexities of intercultural development among language learners in an SA environment. The study advocates visual metaphor as a valuable tool for both researching and understanding how multilinguals, especially those whose first and home language is not English, reflect on their multilingual and intercultural identity and experiences.