This article explores language learning as a process of translanguaging and of cultural translation. We draw examples from a sociolinguistic ethnography of translanguaging practices in a karate club in east London, UK. Formulaic Japanese is taught as part of karate techniques, practised as the language of performance and rituals and valued as the…

A Meta-Cultural way of thinking about communication, understanding, and competence means not just understanding and appreciating a few other cultures, but rather being able to function competently in any cultural setting in which you find yourself. In the Meta-Cultural mindset, therefore, all cultures have value, we are sensitive to cultural…

This article investigates 90 Shanghainese participants' cross-generational use and knowledge of 140 English loanwords in Shanghainese which are deemed as an important part of Shanghai Regional Culture (SRC). The quantitative results reveal that the older participants use and know much more of English loanwords than the younger ones, and that many…

This paper develops an interdisciplinary critical perspective on the concept of "Confucian Heritage Cultures" (CHC), used in intercultural and English language teaching theory to explain the supposed culturally distinct learning habits, expectations and schemas many Asian students bring to academic classrooms in English-speaking…

This reflective practice will examine and report on students' experiences of three different bilingual (English-Spanish) task-based telecollaborative projects. The observations indicate that throughout these different projects the students were able to develop their intercultural awareness and their critical thinking skills via different online…

This article is about exposing and countering racism through critical pedagogy in the context of a Japanese EAP (English for academic purposes) program. Relevant issues are first raised through: (1) a review of academic work concerning Japanese constructions of language, race and culture commonly found in "nihonjinron" writings, a genre…

As a result of China's growing participation and importance in the process of internationalization and globalization a continuously rising number of Chinese students has gone abroad for further study. By the end of the last decade the number of Chinese students abroad made up the largest group of international students in the USA (surpassing those…

"Happy Chinese" or kuaile hanyu is an educational melodrama produced by the Chinese TV channel CCTV in 2009. Aiming to improve foreign learners' Chinese language skills, the plot revolves around Susan, an American, staying with her former Chinese classmate's family. "Happy Chinese" proposes both language and cultural learning.…

Although cultural stereotypes of Asian students as being prone to rote learning, passive and teacher-dependent have been under criticism, the issue of the extent to which Asian heritage culture impacts on Asian students' learning attitudes and behaviour warrants further investigation. This paper reports on an empirical study which compares…

Learner autonomy has been an important issue in English Language Teaching since the 1960s. In language teaching it is of vital importance, since learning can only occur if the learners are willing to learn. So, the students have to realize that their role in the process of learning is crucial. Students have different needs, styles of learning and…

The history of textbooks is a history of contested territory. Science and history textbooks for K-12 students are particularly vulnerable to protests from various constituencies. What is the history of potentially controversial, sociopolitical material in Spanish language textbooks? Are today's students presented with a nuanced and complex vision…

This study examines autobiographies of American teachers of French in order to make explicit their beliefs regarding French language and culture. The themes of class and power are prominent in these teachers' belief systems, as is the desire for self-transformation through mastery of French and miming a subset of French behaviors. These notions…

A study examined the production of English apology strategies by Spanish speakers learning English, by analyzing the remedial move in native and non-native social interactions. To restore harmony when an offensive act has been committed, remedial exchanges are performed according to the rules of speaking and the social norms of the speech…

This paper introduces a pedagogical approach to integrating intercultural communication into language learning. The focus is on the development of competence in discovering and interpreting cultural meanings when communicating in English as an international language. The analyses of data which students produced illustrates how discovering implicit…

Educational assessment, as it is typically conducted in U.S. schools, does not successfully capture or build on potentially important content knowledge and understanding of Indigenous students. In fact, current policies (such as the No Child Left Behind Act, 2002) are interfering with the implementation of many of the things we know about making…