The Proliferation of English as a “World” Language

Huo, Xiangying

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-60599-5_3

Cited by 1 publication

(4 citation statements)

References 67 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Interestingly, another question that these men repeatedly asked the author was “What is your name?” Names are a type of sign, which elicits pre-existent images (Smith, 2017). As Huo, 2020 experienced, only particular first names index “Canadianness,” while ethnic names signal racialized foreignness, as some of the stories in this study indicated. Yet, a name constitutes a very special aspect of one’s identity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 57%

“…Focusing on racialized teachers of English as a second language (ESL) in Toronto, Ramjattan revealed students’ expectation that their teachers would be White NESs, causing racist and nativist microaggressions against racialized teachers, even though they were Canadian-born. The struggles of raciolinguistic teacher legitimacy are also documented by Huo, 2020 in her autoethnography. As an NNES instructor originally from China, tutoring at a university writing center, she struggled with the White NES norm.…”

Section: Language and Race In Higher-education Contextsmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Witnessing the rising animosity toward those who look and sound different from the dominant group, applied linguists have increasingly focused on the relationships between race/ethnicity and language by examining discourses in various domains, such as the workplace (e.g., Tankosic and Dovchin, 2021) and higher education (e.g., Huo, 2020; Lee, 2015; Mayuzumi, 2015; Ramjattan, 2019; Sterzuk, 2015). Underlying discourses of racialization and racism is language ideology.…”

Section: Language and Race In Higher-education Contextsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another obstacle was her ethnic name. Of all the instructors, hers was the only obvious Chinese name, which seemed to deter students from making appointments with her; indeed, she was told by one student, “It is so weird to see a Chinese name among all other names” (Huo, 2020: 133).…”

Section: Language and Race In Higher-education Contextsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

“Your English is so good”: Linguistic experiences of racialized students and instructors of a Canadian university

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Racism has increasingly been exposed and problematized in public domains, including institutions of higher education. In academia, critical race theory (CRT) has guided scholars to uncover everyday experiences of racism by highlighting the intersectionality of race with other identity categories, among which language constitutes an important, yet underexplored, component. Through the conceptual lens of CRT and counter-storytelling as a methodological orientation, this study investigated how racialized graduate students and faculty members at a Canadian university experienced racialization and racism in relation to issues of language, including communication and the use of ethnic names as semiotic markers. Individual and focus group interviews generated participants’ stories, to which we applied a thematic analysis. Participants generally felt that they were forced into pre-determined and essentialized categories of race, ethnicity, nationality, and language. Racialized non-native speakers of an official language—English or French—often received compliments or inquisitive comments on their language proficiency, which further accentuated their raciolinguistic Otherness and caused pain. Conversely, racialized native speakers did not report receiving compliments on language. For East Asian participants especially, speaking White English seemed to offset their racial stigma and psychologically separated them from non-native, English-speaking East Asian immigrants who looked like them. These experiences indicate normative expectations. The participants felt they were expected to not only speak, write, or communicate in the White normative language and manners, but also to use or not use an Anglicized name against their will. These impositions were questioned and resisted by some participants, and antiracist consciousness was expressed. The participants’ voices encourage universities to validate their stories as well as their ways of telling their stories.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 57%

Section: Language and Race In Higher-education Contextsmentioning

confidence: 91%