Foreign language textbooks not only aid language learners in developing their linguistic skills and knowledge but also reshape their cultural identities. Drawing on theories of critical curriculum studies, this paper examines cultural representation in two sets of US-produced Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) textbooks for American college…

Based on ethnographic data, the present study examines how being critical has been understood, valued and practiced among students enrolled in international English-as-the-medium-of-instruction (EMI) Master's porgrammes in a top-rated comprehensive university in China. Drawing on the Foucauldian ethico-political axes of self-formation, this…

In many parts of the world, there is a visible increase in the numbers of culturally and linguistically diverse students entering compulsory education. To explore the preparedness of teachers for responding to this diversity, this article reports the findings of an ethnographic study which had a specific focus on Samoan students. In…

This two-year-long qualitative study investigated how white teacher candidates at a U.S. university interacted with two international teacher candidates from Japan. Findings reveal that the participants stopped interacting with their white peers because the interactions did not occur on equal grounds, and they disliked the fact that they were…

This paper examines a language teacher education professional development programme in New Zealand that draws on the 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. At the heart of the Learning Languages area in the curriculum is communicative competence, with the understanding that communication involves "language knowledge" and "cultural…

In this article, the author provides a brief response to Claire Kramsch's paper. While the author agrees in many ways with her arguments, he also wants to point to a potential contradiction between two positions: On the one hand, Kramsch suggests that in promoting foreign language learning language educators run the danger of essentialising the…

This article presents the author's response to Alastair Pennycook and Azirah Hashim. In this article, the author contends that learning a foreign language should not lock learners in an imagined homogeneous target culture, despite the efforts of textbooks to reinforce stereotypes and some learners' desire to identify with an essentialised Other.…