It is important to examine citizenship not only in terms of citizenship education and intercultural education, where both are situated inside educational institutions and are part of mainstream formal schooling, but also as a "communicative achievement". As Fairclough, Pardoe, and Szerszynski argue, such a move would allow researchers "to get away…

This article presents an interview with Donal Carbaugh, a Professor of Communication at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) and Chair of the International Studies Council (2004 to present). In 2007-2008, Carbaugh was Distinguished Fulbright Professor and Bicentennial Chair of American Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland. He has…

Drawing on the literature on Asian international students, current debates surrounding English as an international language (EIL), and the conceptual tools of appropriation, this article reports the findings of a qualitative research study with eight Asian international students studying at a university in Thailand to explore their taking…

The worldwide spread of English has recently received much interest. Issues relating to the multifaceted roles of English around the world have been highlighted and purist positions about English challenged. In particular (a) the assumption that British English is the only valid standard of English; and (b) the notion that the "native speaker" is…

This paper argues that the challenge of intercultural communication has often been overlooked in discussions of indigenous language literacy in Africa. The omission continues despite the fact that literacy practices in Africa have often served as a means of intercultural communication, especially among highly educated Africans. Proposals for the…

Professor James Gee addresses issues of linguistics, literacies and cultures. Gee emphasises the importance of Discourses, and argues that the future of literacy studies lies in the interrogation of new media and the globalisation of culture.

This article presents an interview with Stella Ting-Toomey, an author of several books and articles on communicative interaction. Ting-Toomey's interview focuses on the factors that play in the relationship between culture and communication. She also talks about the role of conflict in culture, the underlying characteristics of international…

In anticipation of the European Union (EU) Year of Intercultural Dialogue, 2008, Clarissa Menezes Jordao interviewed Jose Eustaquio Romao, Director of the Paulo Freire Institute in Brazil. Her edited translation of that interview is presented here. In the interview Romao, guided by the legacy of Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire, discusses the…

The events that occurred during the Crusades, the encounter of Western and Eastern civilisations, led to certain modes of thinking and representations that are still evident today, overtly or subliminally. By revisiting some of the Western and Eastern chronicles of the first Crusade, we hope to capture the source of some of these images and to see…

This paper investigates language learners' negotiation of their social selves in the target language community of practice from a narrative perspective. In order to do this, I draw from post-structuralist and sociocultural approaches to language learning and L2 identity (e.g. Belz, 2002; Kinginger, 2004; Norton, 1997, 2000; Pavlenko, 2002, 2003)…

This paper examines the sociopragmatic character of intercultural communication between English Language Assistants (ELAs) and their "mentors" in French primary and secondary schools. With reference to Levinson's notion of "activity type", it argues that judgements by mentors as to what constitutes "allowable…

In the Maghreb, the struggle for independence was the starting point for a new relationship between people and institutions. Three different ways of developing a new state--in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco--are the result of a new social and political landscape that is being designed in the Mediterranean basin: from a monarchy in Morocco…

The aim of this paper is to make the contention that there is a connection between the phenomena of recognition, identity and social integration. My hypothesis is based on interviews with several groups of refugee children who have come to Norway at different times--Jewish children (1938), Hungarian children (1956), a Tibetan group (1964) and a…

This paper takes issue with recent claims regarding the impossibility of the transcultural narrative. After demonstrating the possibility of such narrative, a metaphorical model is proposed as a useful means of approaching the transcultural narrative. It is shown how an intellectual process of analogy and an affective process of empathy enable the…

This article presents an interview with Professor Boaventura de Sousa Santos. Santos is a professor of Sociology at the University of Coimbra, where he is the director of the internationally renowned Centro de Estudos Sociais. He offers a rich vein of theoretical reflection and translation for language(s) and intercultural communication.