Linguistic racism is magnified when a speaker is multilingual and shuttles between different languages and language varieties. This reality is underscored in this commentary that reviews four empirical studies that comprise this special issue on linguistic racism. We see linguistic racism enacted in different forms and contexts: through racial…

Translingual dispositions, characterized by a general openness to plurality and difference in the ways people use language, are central for all users of English in a globalized society, and the fostering of such proclivities is an imperative to the contemporary composition classroom. In this article, we analyze student writing that emerged from a…

Linguist Rosina Lippi-Green concludes in her book, "English with an Accent: Language, Ideology, and Discrimination in the United States," "Accent discrimination can be found everywhere in our daily lives. In fact, such behavior is so commonly accepted, so widely perceived as appropriate, that it must be seen as the last back door to…

Indigenous scholars have debated the impact that researchers and the act of researching have on Native and Indigenous people and communities. Although literature on this subject has grown, little has been written explicitly laying out "the doing" of research with these communities. The authors seek to articulate their "doing"…

The spread of English has increased opportunities for native English speakers in the United States to interact with speakers of other Englishes (WE). These native speakers are rarely encouraged to develop the knowledge and skills necessary for intercultural communication, often resulting in a one-way communicative burden on the world English…

Describes a series of evaluations of gender pairs of New Zealand English, Australian English, American English, and received-pronunciation-type-English English voices by over 400 students in New Zealand, Australia, and the United States. Twenty-two personality and demographic traits were evaluated by Likert-scale questionnaires. Results are…

English language business-related documents around the world contain purposeful spelling differences that reflect two standards, American English and British English. Given the importance of culturally acceptable spelling, the need to be aware of and sensitive to cultural differences, and strong reactions to variation in spelling, it is important…

The Internet as a worldwide literacy practice environment has created a new situation in communication, providing a new dynamic field for research. On the basis of the two articles under discussion, this commentary develops three main aspects of the Internet: as an informal learning environment for English as a second/foreign language; as a…

This paper describes cultural and educational characteristics of West African countries that may have implications for West Africans studying and learning English in the United States. Countries discussed include Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Benin, Niger, Gambia, Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire, and Mali. The structures of the systems of elementary,…

The construction of an intermediate course in Mandarin Chinese for business purposes is discussed. Following an introduction in part one, part two considers the progress of trade relations between Taiwan, the People's Republic of China (PRC), and the United States. Part three gives a brief review of materials already in print that might help in…

A cross-cultural training seminar involving French, German, and American language teachers is described. The program was designed to examine the influence of teachers' cultural perceptions on selection of authentic instructional materials, sources of linguistic misunderstandings, and teachers' strategies for resolving cultural conflict. (MSE)