The Empire Struck Back: Cross‐Cultural Communication in a Multilingual Classroom
Main Article Content
Abstract
This pilot study explores language identity in the field of World Englishes as international students in a multilingual writing classroom encounter a Westerncentric teaching environment while struggling to become a part of the World English speaking community. In this instance, the students were able to bring their cultural and linguistic identities into the classroom in order to make meaning, and joined a community of practice that took into consideration their agency and L1 identities. Based on my initial classroom observations, I identified a pair of students to interview in order to triangulate and confirm my findings. By conducting semistructured interviews, analyzing paper topics, and learning about the participants” backgrounds, I was able to determine that while English was important to each of them in different ways, their identities were what was most important of all. Through an analysis of their interactions and interviews I assert that they are, in a true sense, speakers of World Englishes who are struggling to create their language identities as they bring their cultural and linguistic capital into the classroom to deal with any issues they face. As a result, there were several gaps I noticed between (western) teaching practices and the World Englishes the students speak. While this is a pilot study, I hope to further investigate my findings in a full ethnography that will expand on the issues in this paper.
Downloads
Article Details
The International Journal of Literacy, Culture, and Language Education (IJLCLE) (the “Publisher”) and the Author(s) agree as follows:
- Publication and Promotion: In consideration of the Publisher’s agreement to publish the Work, Author hereby grants and assigns to Publisher the non-exclusive right to print, publish, reproduce or distribute the Work throughout the world in all possible formats by any method now known or hereafter developed, including electronic and print formats, and to market or sell the Work or any part of it as Publisher sees fit. Author further grants Publisher the right to use the Author’s name in association with the Work in published form and in advertising and promotional materials.
- Copyright: Copyright of the Work remains in Author’s name.
- Prior Publication and Attribution: Author agrees not to publish the Work in print or electronic form prior to publication of the Work by the Publisher. Author agrees to cite, by author, title and publisher, the original International Journal of Literacy, Culture, and Language Education (IJLCLE) publication when publishing the Work elsewhere.
- Author Representations: The Author represents and warrants that the Work: (a) is the Author’s original Work and that Author has full power to enter into this Agreement; (b) does not infringe the copyright or property of another; (c) is accurate, and that any research or investigation conducted for the purpose of the Work abides by the guidelines and regulations of the Institutional Review Board and/or the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee; (d) contains no material that obscene, libelous, defamatory or previously published, in who or in part, except when written permission for reprinting is provided from another publisher. Author is responsible for requesting and providing such permission to the Publisher. Author shall indemnify and hold Publisher harmless against loss of expenses arising from breach of any such warranties.
- Licensing and Reuse: Unless another option is selected below, reuse of the published Work will be governed by a Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial NonDerivative 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0). This license lets other use contents of the Work without revision, although new works must acknowledge the original International Journal of Literacy, Culture, and Language Education (IJLCLE) publication and be non-commercial; they do not have to be licensed on the same terms.