Recent studies of second language learning and language contact in bilingual and multilingual communities have been informed by feminist poststructuralist approaches to the study of language, gender, and identity (Cameron, 1997; Cameron, Frazer, Harvey, Rampton, & Richardson, 1992; Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 1992; Erhlich, 1997; Norton, 2000;…

Based on a qualitative study of Latin American adults enrolled in a California English as a second language (ESL) program, this article examines the ways in which gender as a social construct mediates learners' decisions and opportunities to learn English. In narratives audiotaped during life-history interviews, participants shared their varying…

Examines imagined professional and linguistic communities available to preservice and inservice English-as-a-Second-Language and English-as-a-Foreign-Language teachers enrolled in one TESOL program. Discursive analysis of students' positioning in their linguistic autobiographies suggests that the traditional discourse of linguistic competence…

Applies constructs of language as economic and symbolic capital, transnationalism, investment, and imagined community to analysis of interviews with immigrant parents living in Vancouver, Canada. These parents promote multilingualism by maintaining their family language and enrolling their children in French immersion programs. Argues they view…

Argues for a complex and contradictory presentation of culture in the language classroom. Uses theories of nationalism to examine treatment of the O.J. Simpson case. Coverage from popular news magazines is read through the lens of anthropology and of literary and social theory. (Author/VWL)

Focuses on how teachers of minority ancestries construct and represent their family language identities. Drawing on poststructural, postcolonial and sociocultural theory on culture, identity, and language, examined the complex nature of linguistic identities of 25 teachers of Chinese and 20 teachers of Punjabi ancestries. (Author/VWL)

Traces ways that literacy and language policy are translated into classroom practice through the examination of a single case. Demonstrates that the role teachers play in the process can best be understood by considering a variety of factors that have been advanced in policy research to explain variations in policy implementation. Presents…

Presents findings of a qualitative research study that set out to investigate the relation between language and the sociocultural identities of individuals learning English as a Second Language (ESL). Focus is on how English impacts the construction of sociocultural identities of Malaysian ESL speakers. (Author/VWL)

The teaching of grammar has recently reemerged in Singapore as a topic within the English teaching profession and in public discourse about education. Debates about the role of grammar in political discussions and in popular media typically proceed in terms of a crisis and falling standards. Focuses on ways this discourse of crisis constructs…

Examines the prosocial potential of a cooperative learning content-based English-as-a-Second-Language program in which native born and immigrant undergraduate pairs work to develop the immigrant students' academic English. (Author/VWL)

Argues that the concepts of heritage language and heritage learner need clarification and should be placed within a larger national policy perspective. Examines pedagogical and sociopolitical issues surrounding the current heritage language debate from a crosscultural and historical perspective. (Author/VWL)

Analyzes the policies and practices of school in Japan that serve large numbers of bilingual students. Using the notion of imagined communities, examines the relationship between the schools' visions for their students, their current policies and practices, and the students' identities. (Author/VWL)

Reports a 2001-2002 study conducted among middle school students in Karachi, Pakistan, in the wake of 9/11. In the context of their involvement in a global community-building project, in which students sought to develop the literacy and English skills of a group of Afghan refugees, students were asked to reflect on their perceptions of literacy…

Reports of racist violence in Britain identified a prevailing institutionalized racism and social segregation. Presents an analysis of authoritative educational discourse in the form of school inspection reports, focusing the cultural practice of minority ethnic families visiting their heritage country. Using critical discourse analysis, suggests…

Surveyed 745 undergraduate student Iowans' attitudes toward the need for an official English law and examined the reasoning behind those opinions. Challenges and opportunities for language educators are discussed, as well as suggestions for future research. (Author/VWL)