Zhu Hua, Exploring intercultural communication: Language in action. London: Routledge, 2014. Pp. xvi, 280. Pb. $39.96.

Abstract

the contagion of modernity. This fear is further underscored in the final chapter that reveals that BTs may never fully pass as FFBs, may always have a degree of outsider status, and are even subject at times to FFBs' prejudice or discrimination. In this sense, ba'alei teshuva may be considered a term of relationality; it describes not simply an identity but a hierarchy that prioritizes biology over choice-though in fact, as this book demonstrates, both BTs and FFBs are continually engaged in performing and reaffirming their identities through social interactions. These reflections are not theorized in Benor's study, but her book sets the stage for future scholarship on BTs (and other religious novices) as mediating agents that not only legitimize and reproduce the traditional world but also transform it.Becoming Frum provides a wealth of ethnographic and linguistic data that will prove extremely useful in the study of adult language socialization and religious education. To be sure, this book has already impacted Jewish scholarship, as is attested to by the many accolades it has received from the field of Jewish studies. It deserves more attention in sociolinguistics and applied linguists in that it opens the door for a closer examination of the language socialization processes of missionization efforts in American society, and the bidirectional aspects of adult language socialization in religious communities. Written in an accessible and engaging tone, this book delivers an important contribution that should appeal to undergraduates, graduate students and scholars of linguistics, sociolinguistics, Jewish ethnography, and American religion.

A Qualitative Exploration of Students' Experiences With Acquiring Culture During Foreign Language Instruction

“…The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages accommodates this method, and outlines that good language students need to possess knowledge, skills, existential competence, and the ability to learn (Council of Europe, 2003). Zhu (2014) claims that language teaching and learning is now often perceived as an inevitably intercultural experience in which language learners learn about other cultures and peoples. If teachers do not have students with different cultural, religious, and/or linguistics backgrounds in their classrooms, this reflects poorly both on the part of them, as well as shows that people's expectations of them are low.…”