This study reports on two students of color studying abroad in China and examines the dialectic between their interpretation of American racism and their agency to study in China and speak Chinese. There have been steady increases in the number of ethnically minoritized students among the study abroad population, but students of color typically…

This study explored two teacher educators' understanding of multilingualism and a change in their perception from monolingual native speakerism to multilingualism. Through exchanging the narrative about learning to be a professional and being a teacher educator in ESL and EFL settings, they deepened their understanding of multilingualism and…

This study explores the interplay of nationalism and English Language Teaching (ELT) classroom practices, as reported in 11 interviews with ELT educators in various locations (e.g., United States, Serbia, France, and Saudi Arabia). The study approach is informed by theories of discursive nationalism which interpret nations and nationalized things…

The author examines discourses of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and World Englishes (WEs) in the commercials for 2 standardized English tests: the International English Language Testing System for study abroad in English-dominant countries and the Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program for Canadian permanent residency and…

This article investigates the construction and maintenance of ideologies regarding the legitimacy of English as the dominant language in the United States in interactions involving adult immigrant learners of English. As both the researcher and these students' English as second language (ESL) instructor, I am a participant in the ESL classroom and…

Building on contemporary to approaches to narrative theory and analysis, this article examines how university students enrolled in an advanced Spanish-as-a-foreign-language course textually position themselves and are positioned by others as legitimate or illegitimate users of Spanish in the stories they tell about speaking the language outside…

The challenge posed to foreign language (FL) education by globalization and by the multilingual multicultural speech communities it has spawned is showcased by the current crisis in the teaching of German at American colleges and universities. It is not clear why American learners of German should be learning German: for business purposes, for…

This article reports on a study investigating ways students from Japan studying English as a second language at an American community college encounter cultural dissonance in their classroom interactions. I take a sociocognitive view rooted in the work of Bakhtin and Vygostky to explore the ways language, culture, and cognitive processes interplay…

Cultural difference is an important topic of discussion in second language education. Yet cultural difference is often conceptualized as fixed, objective, and apolitical based on an essentialist and normative understanding of culture. This article challenges such conceptualizations by examining and politicizing multiple and conflicting meanings of…