While English is now the most commonly used language for internationally recognized academic publications, its consequences for non-native English-speaking researchers have yet to be sufficiently documented in the Arabian Gulf. Using Flowerdew’s (2023) framework of ‘globalization of scholarship’ within ERPP (English for Research Publication Purposes), this paper explores the challenges and subsequent strategies used by Omani Arabic-speaking early-career scholars publishing in English language journals. This study is based on the analysis of qualitative data obtained from personal, unstructured interviews with eight Omani researchers in a publicly funded university in Oman to investigate the ways in which Arabic-speaking novice researchers negotiate the pressure to publish in well ranked English language publications by both conforming to established protocol, as well as by asserting their unique linguistic and discourse identity. The findings suggest that early-career scholars value English language publishing as a marker of institutional and professional achievement, but they want better support systems in terms of training and mentoring. Their recommendations to advance academic belonging consist of being involved with international organizations in specific disciplines to become familiar with academic discourse in English, engaging in collaborative writing, and using a journal’s in-house languages services. This study calls for inclusive publication opportunities as well as increased pedagogical support for scholars seeking to belong to the English language academic community.

This paper presents research on the potential of classroom dialogues to facilitate greater intercultural communication between undergraduate home students in the UK studying Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) and Master’s level students from China. The project put both cohorts together to discuss culture-related topics in Mandarin Chinese. Nine CFL students and 18 international students from China participated in the study. Five meetings were arranged, with the discussions being led by the students. The data collection includes videos of the group discussions and recordings of individual student reflections obtained after each discussion. Byram’s intercultural competence framework was used to analyse the data. The findings indicate that social interaction enables the participants to demonstrate intercultural competence in several dimensions (attitudes, knowledge and skills of discovery and interaction), with skills of interpreting and relating and critical cultural awareness being more limited. The reflections also showed that the participants expressed varying degrees of anxiety about the discussion. CFL students reported their foreign language anxiety, and Chinese students were mainly concerned about potential prejudice against China. Intracultural competence was also discussed in this study.

The process of developing intercultural competence requires students to decenter from their existing frames of interpretation. Dissonance creates opportunities to question assumptions by challenging the primacy of perspectives, fostering skills to grapple with new knowledge and the ability to think more dialectically about the world. The present study examines how reflecting on dissonance engages skills and dispositions that support the development of cognitive flexibility, the ability to switch between emic and etic perspectives. In an advanced French course focused on marketing and communication, embodiments of economic patriotism in advertising and marketing practices in France aimed to disrupt and destabilize assumptions about the impact and role of globalization on local product consumption and consumer behavior. The analysis of students’ self-reflections collected in two sections of the course shows that dissonance acted as a sensitizing device, signaling to students the limits of their own perspectives. The juxtaposition of multiple perspectives through the angle of marketing prompted reinterpretation, questioning, and awareness of the subjectivities of interpretation, fostering dialectical thinking skills. Imagination, interest, and curiosity were key in sustaining the decentering process and developing a readiness for cognitive flexibility.

Review of Translanguaging and Epistemological Decentring in Higher Education and Research, edited by Heidi Bojsen, Petra Daryai-Hansen, Anne Holmen, and Karen Risager.