In the era of AI, the emergence of Human language technology (HLT) aims to provide people of different languages and cultures with an equal opportunity to access and share knowledge in this globalised world. Free online machine translation (MT), one of the applications of HLT, has not only become an indispensable resource for many language learners (Heugh et al., 2022), but it has also been used as a computer-assisted language learning tool to support language pedagogy (Lee, 2020; Tsai, 2020). However, few studies have investigated whether MT technology can benefit bi-/multilingual learners in English medium instruction (EMI) contexts. The purpose of students studying through EMI is not only to learn English but also to learn content knowledge across the curriculum. The aim of this research is to investigate how bi-/multilingual learners use MT to assist their academic learning in EMI contexts.

Research participants included Chinese-speaking postgraduate students who were studying through EMI at an Australian university. Analysis of screen recordings and focus group discussions reveals that the students use MT as a tool to check their academic writing in English for accuracy of meaning making, grammar and sentence structure, and to revise their written texts. The sequences of their use of MT are analysed and discussed through the lens of translanguaging. This study indicates that MT can be a useful AI tool to support content knowledge and language learning if used appropriately. The findings have implications for bi-/multilingual learning and pedagogy through human-machine interaction.