Knowledge, interaction and language beyond the EMI classroom: Business students preparing for work

English-medium instruction (EMI), often linked to internationalization, is a growing area globally in diverse contexts, and inevitably works within the context of local language(s). Furthermore, university curricula are situated within local and global contexts, oriented to academic disciplines but also mindful of graduates’ future work/life prospects. This article examines how local undergraduate students in the United Arab Emirates navigate these contexts as they collaboratively transfer and apply knowledge from their EMI business programme to a local business context. We analyze recordings of students preparing for a roleplay task, which required them to mediate knowledge from a university text in English for a local L1-speaking manager. We show how they deployed knowledge and language in a social and epistemic context, drawing creatively on their whole linguistic repertoire and diverse knowledge resources, to reach beyond their EMI curriculum and co-construct knowledge and identities within immediate and anticipated interactions.