Interviews | Center for Multilingual and Intercultural Communication

Translanguaging as a decolonising approach: Students’ perspectives towards integrating Indigenous epistemology into Asian language teaching

An Interview with Dr. DanpingWang
Conducted by Dr. Yi Wang

Monday, October 24. 2022

Decolonizing the Mobility Turn: Toward Non-Western Traditions of Spatial Linguistics for the Anthropocene

An Interview with Dr. Suresh Canagarajah
Conducted by: Dr. Loredana Polezzi
Friday, April 30, 2021

Critical Approaches to Social Justice and Antiracism in Language Education:

An Interview with Dr. Ryuko Kubota
Conducted by: Eriko Sato
Wednesday, October 21, 2020

1. 1. In your view, does the global dominance of English play a role in perpetuating racial stereotypes and/or racializations?
2. 2. Recent research in applied linguistics has problematized the notion of a "native speaker". What is your view? Do you believe that this notion should be dismantled? Why/Why not?
3. 3. Is the field of TESOL racialized? Are caucasians overrepresented in the field of TESOL? If so, what repercussions can this have on students of English?
4. 4. In English teaching programs such as JET where participants act primarily as assistants to English teachers from the home country, what can native English speaking assistants do to promote equity and diversity, not only to their students, but also to their fellow instructors?
5. 5. In what ways can language education (whether English or other languages such as Chinese and Japanese) be used to combat racism?

In Every Crisis Lies Opportunity: Emergency Remote Teaching, Research and Future Directions:

An Interview with Dr. Julian C. Chen
Conducted by: Brian Tavares
Friday, September 17, 2020

1. Do you think that the COVID pandemic has fostered new approaches and ideas towards language instruction, and if so, in what ways?

2. As a result of the COVID pandemic, do you see technologically based education becoming more prominent? In what ways do you think it may become more widely used?

3. What are the negative impacts of virtual language instruction? What can those trying to teach or learn virtually do to combat these issues?

4. Do you think online teaching is a threat to language teachers? Why or why not?

5. What are your future research plans?

Chinese Script: Its Characteristics and Intrinsic Regularities:
An Interview with Dr. John Jing-hua Yin
Conducted by: Maha Alam
Friday, September 27, 2019

1. What drove you to the area of teaching Chinese to English speakers?

2. Do you feel there is a direct connection between the nature of Chinese characters and the nature of the Chinese language? If so, how?

3. When learners of Chinese first begin studying the language, do you advise them to study Chinese characters as well, or do you find the pinyin is sufficient in the early stages? Why?

4. Do you think Chinese characters have historically facilitated positive intercultural communication among the people in surrounding countries such as Korea and Japan?

5. Do you see Chinese characters changing or evolving with time? Why?

Symbolic Power and Conversational Inequality in Intercultural Communication :
An Interview with Dr. Zhu Hua
Conducted by: Brianna Young
Thursday, September 19, 2019

1. Why is studying intercultural communication important in the 21st century?

2. How can we both be sensitive to people from other cultures and yet maintain our own culture when interacting with one another?

3. How can educators and administrators teach students and employees the importance of intercultural communication in the US or UK?

4. With the world becoming more and more connected every day, and so more informed, do you believe that there will ever be a time where a universal culture exists?

5. What do you hope your work and research will lead to in terms of impacting the world?

Translanguaging: Key Debates and Future Directions
Conducted by: Yilin Zhao
Monday, March 25, 2019

1. How do you define applied translation studies?

2. What motivated you to study translanguaging and translation as related phenomena rather than separate areas of inquiry?

3. What are the advantages and disadvantages to study translanguaging and translation in a multilingual and multicultural city like Singapore?

4. How does your work impact translation practices and everyday language use?

5. Where do you picture your research develop in the future?

L2 Pragmatics Research in The Era of Globalization: The Role of Intercultural Competence in Pragmatic Development: An Interview with Dr. Naoko Taguchi
Conducted by: Annie Manley
Thursday, April 19, 2018

1. What led to your interest in the area of pragmatics in L2 acquisition?

2. Can you explain the role that pragmatics plays in learning a second language? How does pragmatic competence usually evolve? Is it similar to syntax where there are set stages for learning it?

3. Are languages more pragmatically similar than they are different?

4. What do you think are some effective ways of teaching pragmatics?

5. How do you do research in L2 pragmatics?

Language and Education: Multilingualism and Translanguaging:
An Interview with Dr. Ofelia Garcia
Conducted by: Annie Manley
Thursday, October 12, 2017

1. What is translanguaging?

2. Did your move from Cuba influence your studies? If so, what insights did it give you and what inspiration?

3. What is the goal of translanguaging? Where are we at now in terms of translanguage studies?

4. What type of bilingual theories are practiced in the school systems nowadays? Can they use improvement? What is your ideal bilingual education look like?

5. Why is bilingual education good, and why do you recommend all children to undergo bilingual education?

6. What are you currently researching at the moment?

7. What is your view on countries like America that try to deny their bilingualism?

8. What type of extra support do bilingual students need in school that regular students don't?

9. Do students bring their ethnic identity into the classroom? If so, in what way do these ethnic identities manifest?

10. What does bilingual education really mean in today's globalized world?

11. What are you currently researching? What are some of your current findings?

Language Ideologies Effects on Family Language Policies: An Interview with Dr. Xiao Lan Curdt-Christiansen
Conducted by: Ji Young Park
Thursday, March 23, 2017

1. Can you please tell us about Family Language Policy (FLP)? Why is it important to have this new field of research?

2. In today’s society, there is a huge emphasis on the need for globalization. How do English-dominant ideologies affect FLP?

3. You have carried out research across cultures and countries. What are some of the greatest challenges you have faced?

4. Where do you see your research developing in the future?

Linguistic Hegemony and Language Identity: An Interview with Dr. Richard Young
Conducted by: Ji Young Park
Friday, November 18, 2016

1. Do you yourself speak any languages other than English and has this affected your research in any way?

2. Could you please define for us exactly what is a "hegemonic language"? In today's world, given the need for easy and efficient global communication, why can 'hegemonic language' be a bad thing?

3. How is a person's identity related to the language s/he speaks? If a person speaks multiple languages, does it mean that s/he has multiple identities? What happens if these identities conflict with one another?

4. Are there any benefits of smaller communities with their own languages coming in contact with hegemonic languages?

5. What direction do you see your research developing in the future?

Professionalizing International Students: An Interview with Dr. Krishna Bista
Conducted by: Honaidah Ahyad, Yuli Ma
Thursday, April 14, 2016

1. What are you currently working on?

2. Did your personal experience as international student pique your interest right away or was it something you reflected on that led you to research international students and professional development?

3. How can academic institutions implements programs that can help international students succeed both professionally and socially?

4. With a rapidly changing workplace environment, what are the main things that academic institution can help students develop that will help professionalize academic students?

5. In your area of interest, what are some of the big questions being asked right now?

Spanish In The U.S.: An Interview with Dr. Kim Potowski
Conducted by: Honaidah Ahyad
Thursday, April 19, 2016

1. Were you exposed to two distinct dialects from birth?

2. With the amount of Hispanic cultures to choose from, what made you focus on Mexican and Puerto Rican cultures? Is there a cultural or linguistic overlap that makes the pair particularly interesting?

3. Can you explain the differences, if any, in the pedagogical approach between Heritage Language teaching and Second Language teaching?

4. When considering an individual's social identity, how important is it for them to maintain their heritage language?

5. Can you let us know what inspired you to write the first book you authored?

6. What are you researching at the moment?

7. In your area of interest, what are some of the big questions being asked right now?

The Role of Technology in Language: An Interview with Dr. Richard Kern
Conducted by: Patrick Gaston, Yuli Ma, and Dr. Sarah Jourdain
Friday, October 2,2015

1. Do you have experience with, and if yes, could you comment on, the CULTURA project and its contributions to relational pedagogy:
https://cultura.mit.edu/
http://llt.msu.edu/vol5num1/furstenberg/

2. Could you elaborate on both the promise and perils of videoconferencing as a tool for developing multilingual language and literacy?

3. Could you describe how your own interest in technology-mediated language learning/teaching developed?

4. Could you share with us a bit more about relational pedagogy and the role it plays in classroom culture?

5. What are you researching at the moment?

6. Do you believe that language is changing the role of foreign language pedagogy?

7.For second language learners, how important is cultural awareness in acquiring a new language? Do you think technology takes us away from this?

8. In your book, language, literacy, and technology, you talked about mediated communication and cultural codes. Do you think technology is removing us from understanding these cultural codes and using them as a means of expression by removing the human element?

9. Do you believe that it could be possible that technology is hindering the learning process by adding additional elements to overcome in the classroom?

10. In your book, you mentioned that technology reflected the direct environment. Considering the new student experience, do you believe that incorporating technology can increase difficulty in acculturating into a new multicultural / multilingual environment?

Bilingual Executive Control in Avoiding Mixing Language Despite Brain Damage: An Interview with Dr. Loraine Obler
Conducted by: Patrick Gaston, Yuli Ma
Friday, November 13,2015

1. When did you decide that you wanted to specialize in neuro as opposed to the other?

2. What lead you to research aphasia?

3. In studying polyglots, what is the most interesting discovery you have had? Were there any assumptions you had going in that were disproven?

4. Do you think that people with below average IQs with a low score in verbal ability overall would have a much harder time learning more than 2 languages compared to someone with average or above scores in verbal ability?"

5. Overlooking an article, titled “”Teen Speaks Over 20 Languages” written by Englishlife.uz in February of this year, that you were in which involved timothy Doner, the hyperglot, you stated that the ability to learn languages was connected to art and music, neurologically. Can you tell us a little about the evidence behind this?

6. In your area of work, what are some of the most important questions being asked right now?

Linguistic Landscape: An Interview with Dr. Elana Shohamy
Conducted by: Naomi Vingron & Adrienne Blaser
Tuesday, April 21,2015

1. What languages do you speak? how did you become interested in the field of language learning and bilingual education?

2. What is linguistic landscape and why is it especially interesting to study it in Israel?

3. How is language important for peace making on a community level?

4. Every speaker is multilingual in a different way, how do you assess that?

5. What social function do you see these kinds of language testings serve in the future? What is the function of language testing in multilinguals in the context of global mobility?

6. What is your opinion on the idea of "official languages“ in a country? do you consider these helpful or harmful to the community and the general linguistic landscape?

The Concept of Heritage Language: An Interview with Dr. Agnes He
Saturday, March 7,2015

In this presentation, Agnes He discusses the concept of Heritage Language (HL) vis-a-vis Foreign Language (FL)/Second Language (SL), the complex and heterogeneous HL speaker population, the value of HL for the society and the individual, the linguistic and sociolinguistic characteristics of HL learners, the HL developmental trajectories and outcomes, and broad implications for HL education.

Translingualism in Bilingual Education: An Interview with Dr. Angel Lin
Conducted by: Naomi Vingron & Adrienne Blaser
Tuesday, April 21,2015

1. What is your current research focus?

2. What initially drew you towards translingualism in bilingual education?

3. Do you believe translingualism in education settings to be easier when the languages involved are typologically close to each other?

4. Were you educated in a bilingual environment? How did your own lingustic exposure affect your acadmeic life?

5. Where do you see this research going in the future?

Heritage Linguistics: An Interview with Dr. Maria Polinsky
Conducted by: Naomi Vingron & Adrienne Blaser
Friday, November 21, 2014

1. What is heritage linguistics?

2. Why do you feel that now is the time to study heritage linguistics?

3. In research it’s been found that there is a certain cognitive advantage to being bilingual, do you think that heritage bilinguals benefit from this in a special way? How are their experiences different from those of active bilinguals?

4. Since phonology is always the first thing that gets lost in people who are not bilingual and the older they get, the harder it is for them to learn new phoneme in foreign languages. Would you say that heritage bilinguals will be able to acquire native like fluency when they relearn a foreign language?

5. Would you say there is something that all heritage speakers have in common?

6. How do you see heritage languages and research on heritage language speakers develop in the future? Will people be able to benefit from it more?

An Interview with the President of the Center for Applied Linguistics, Dr. Terry Wiley
Conducted by: Naomi Vingron & Adrienne Blaser
Thursday, February 26, 2015

1. What languages do you speak? How did you become interested in the field of language learning and bilingual education?

2. How is bilingualism perceived differently around the world? What is the U.S lacking and what can the U.S. learn from other countries?

3. What is the reason legislators give for dropping Title 7?

4. What is your opinion on schools forbidding the use of languages other than English?

5. You are the president of the Center for Applied Linguistics. Can you tell us a little bit more about what the center does and how it serves the community?

6. How do you see the role of the English language developing in the future? Do you think it could become even more of an international language than it already is?

Multilingual Encounters Around the World: An Interview with Dr. Mark Aronoff
Conducted by: Naomi Vingron & Adrienne Blaser
Friday, October 24, 2014

1. What got you interested in multilingualism? What languages do you speak? How was that relevant to your career and upbringing?

2. How do you find New York and working at Stony Brook University?

3. What are you researching at the moment?

4. Where do you see the need to be able to communicate in English in the future?

5. Do you think that there are some countries/peoples that are going to be fighting English as a global language in the future?

6. Personal Experiences In Italy

7. Language Development Experience in Maltese

Global Citizenship: An Interview with Professor Shyam Sharma
Conducted by: Naomi Vingron & Adrienne Blaser
Thursday, October 9, 2014

Interview with Prof. Sharma

1. How do you think your research is contributing to making society more open to other cultures and languages?

First, I research and write about international students, especially their academic transition and success, and one of my objectives in this area is to highlight how international students don't just have "language problems" but they also bring--along with their proficiencies in other languages--a world of knowledge and perspectives. Second, I teach and write about rhetoric and writing across countries, cultures, and contexts; my research in this area is also driven by an interest in promoting intercultural communicative competencies and a sense of global citizenship. Third, I study how US universities are helping international graduate students meet the challenges of communicating, research, teaching, and other professional demands in graduate school and in the professions. I hope that these types of research/scholarship initiatives will help make society more open to other cultures and their resources.

2. Could you share with us a bit more about the concept of global citizenship that you mentioned during the interview?

The idea of global citizenship is defined very differently but the essence of it is the sense of belonging, feeling responsible, and having the competency survive and succeed in an increasingly globalized world. The topic is becoming more important in US higher education because there are both intellectual and pragmatic reasons for students to be "global citizens." In particular, it is gaining traction because educators increasingly recognize its pragmatic and professional value.

3. Relating to the previous questions, how do you and potentially people in your field of research teach others how to be global citizens?

The best way to promote the idea of global citizenship is to promote complex thinking and multiple perspectives by drawing them from multiple cultures. We can also promote global citizenship by helping students look at issues of global significance (poverty, war, crime, etc) as shared challenges across nations. Students should also learn more about other languages and cultures so that they can navigate them and relate to other people better.

As part of the Center of Multilingualism and Intercultural Communication’s Spotlight feature we interviewed Dr. Shyam Sharma of the Program of Writing and Rhetoric at Stony Brook University who serves on the Campus Advisory board for the center:

Growing up in a multicultural society in India, Professor Sharma grew up speaking English, several Indian and Nepalese local dialects. He was never attached to one particular culture or language. Professor Sharma explained, “I was never convinced that your identity is just one thing, with one language, with one culture,” and he never developed a good understanding of what culture is and the way people seem to use it as a straightforward word for identity. Instead he believes that multiculturalism and multilingualism is the norm rather than the exception in our society.

In his early twenties, Dr. Sharma became an English teacher in Nepal and while he was surrounded by scholars it was not until he came to the US that he found multilingualism as discourse. Teaching literature, linguistics, and critical theory in Nepal, Sharma found that the content of it (to learn, take exams, get grades) showed no relationship between what was taught in school, his life, the students’, professors’, or even society’s life for that matter. The gap between learning knowledge and life was precisely the reason he left to study composition studies, writing and rhetoric between the ages of twenty-five and thirty years old in the US. In the US, Sharma found that the field of writing studies was just beginning to value multilingualism and what they now call trans-lingualism. Building on this discovery, Dr. Sharma started reading literature, taking courses in that area, and naturally built on the personal and the social aspects of multilingualism.

Today, Dr. Sharma teaches scientists and engineers how to communicate to the public at Stony Brook University. He teaches students how to develop their research skills before they go into the profession and translate academic writing skills into professional writing skills. Dr. Sharma believes in the notion that there is academic discourse that everyone needs to learn. There is a distinct danger of disconnect between learning and life that looms over everyone. It runs the risk that learning knowledge and learning life will each remain an isolated world. Of utmost importance, Dr. Sharma’s mindset is that there is a constant need to rethink the relationship, relevance, and significance of learning to life. The notions of global citizenship through multilingualism brings a person out of their comfort zone, relates them to other peoples and cultures, and broaden horizons.

In regards to his experience at SBU, Sharma pronounces, “the reality of your life, even here at Stony Brook, if you go to any class you will see multilingualism and multiculturalism in at least half the people there. That is the phenomenon here at Stony Brook University.” Multilingualism and the idea of global citizenship are not exotic ideas for scholars to research. Sharma believes that these are the realities of the classroom and student identity here at Stony Brook and we shouldn’t make these things feels like they are fancy new topics.