Although considerable attempts have been made to decolonize German Studies curricula in UK universities through an inclusion of German-language cultural artifacts of authors and artists from ethno-racially marginalized backgrounds, this kind of expansionist method--the endeavor to merely expand the canon of German Studies--does not suffice. While…

Given that societies across the globe are increasingly multicultural and multilingual, the notion of communicative competence grounded in constricting definitions of national cultures and languages reflects neither our instructional realities nor the sociolinguistic reality of the languages and cultures we teach. To foster students' development of…

This essay explores the way that the social interactions of the classroom play a role in shaping sign production. It examines the talk of one second year Advanced Level English literature class in North London during their study of John Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi" through the lens of Volosinov's theories of language. It seeks to…

Research on academic socialization has predominately focused on the L2 educational experiences of international students. While foreign language (FL) research has explored "multiliteracies" and "intercultural learning," literacy in a FL continues to be understood as the use of foreign words and grammar combined with culturally…

This study compares and contrasts the selection and distribution of literary texts in the English programs of two diverse secondary schools, one in Massachusetts, USA, the other in Ontario, Canada. Analysis of the departments' curriculum documents, state/provincial curriculum policies, and teacher interviews indicated that at both schools,…

This study extends the extant research on first-year programs to include a closer examination of their impact on student learning and democratic outcomes. Based on data collected from three courses--a first-year success course with an explicit focus on diversity, an introductory communication course, and an introductory engineering course--we…

Bringing journals into upper-level foreign language classes painlessly involves students in the exploration of the second language and the writing process. The unstructured nature of journal writing allows for a free range of writing exercises that upgrade student language proficiency and help increase their control of grammar, structure, and…

The paper describes activities incorporating literature, music, and cultural material that are used with foreign language majors at National Tsing Hua University (Taiwan) and makes suggestions for their use in the pronunciation class. Even at advanced levels, Asian students of English as a second language (ESL) have difficulty with English…