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This essay begins with the question, "What can educators do to minimize the risks inherent to interracial dialogue?" Though no such meaningful conversation ever will be without risk, this article offers two specific strategies that have helped foster open classroom climates: adding without contradiction and granting freedom for conclusions. Both of these strategies intervene on several dysfunctional habits U.S. participants enact in conversations about race and, thus, help enrich the ameliorative capacity of interracial dialogue.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine attitudes towards African-American vernacular English (AAVE) in a setting outside of the USA. Because foreign attitudes toward AAVE can serve as an indirect assessment of a society's racial prejudice, we decided to explore these attitudes in Japan: a country with an intriguing mix of ties that are both close (i.e. politically and economically) and distant (i.e. culturally) vis-a-vis the USA. Considering the ostensible similarities in racial beliefs widely held in both countries, we hypothesised that evaluations of AAVE in Japan would be comparable to those in the USA. We found that the evaluations expressed by a sample of Japanese college students were virtually indistinguishable from the overall pattern of AAVE evaluations made by US Americans and recommend additional research in order to better understand the nature of contemporary Japanese attitudes towards different varieties of English. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

Efforts aimed at promoting multiculturalism in the classroom are often pedestrian and ineffectual. When instructors do succeed at facilitating honest discourse, they frequently fail to anticipate the great deal of pain, frustration and anger that is invoked. Rather than sustain a false sense of community, we argue that a dialogic, multicultural community can only be achieved by fostering breach of mainstream norms. Using cultural anthropologist Victor Turner's notion of social drama as a theoretical framework, we document the intense conflict that erupted in our classroom when students were pressed to engage one another regarding issues of race. In order to both acknowledge and make public our students' emotional responses to the dialogue, we implemented a 'recursive loop', a pedagogical strategy designed to provide immediate feedback and enable students to come to a richer understanding of how their experiences of race are inextricably linked. By analyzing the students' discourse, we demonstrate how these voices do not occur in a vacuum; to the contrary, they are articulated in response to one another and to grand narratives used to make years of oppression appear invisible. Ultimately, we contend that White Identity Transformation is necessary for a multicultural community and that such transformation is facilitated, ironically enough, by conflict.

To test the potential effect of information processing on speaker evaluations, an experiment was carried out in which learners evaluated speakers under a condition of time constraint, and again under a condition representative of a typical language attitudes study. Results indicated that evaluations of a female African-American vernacular English speaker were affected. (Author/VWL)

Provides data regarding attitudes toward Chinese speakers by eliciting non-Asian Americans' reactions to Chinese speakers using two varieties of English and introduced in the context of an employment interview with either an Anglo-American or ethnic Chinese male. Results indicate that speakers in all conditions were rated equally suitable for three types of employment. (Author/MKA)

Notes that the study of language attitudes is rich in a history stretching across several decades and social scientific disciplines. Points out that beliefs about language use can bias social interaction and decision making and that more study is required to increase understanding of the language attitude process. (74 references) (Author/CK)

Examines Anglo- and Asian-American attitudes toward Mandarin Chinese-accented English. Studies involving 135 undergraduates reveal no negative attitudes toward a Chinese-accented speaker during a job interview, but do find negative attitudes within the college classroom. Results show a need to better understand the role of context in shaping attitudes toward language. (GR)

This study examined the relationship between the strength of speaker accent and subsequent listener judgments about the speaker. The study employed a 3x2 factorial design featuring speaker accent (strong AAVE/ moderate AAVE/ mainstream U.S. English) and listener ethnicity (ethnic majority/ethnic minority). Results demonstrated that listeners rated speakers with strong AAVE accents both less attractive and less status-possessing than speakers with moderate AAVE accents, who in turn were rated as less attractive and status-possessing than speakers with mainstream U. S. English accents. In addition, listener ethnicity also had an impact resembling in-group bias. Even so, the results still demonstrated a trend consistent with the generalization that both dominant and non-dominant group members internalize the language ideology that favors so-called 'standard' speakers. Key Words: speaker evaluations, language attitudes, accent scaling, African-American Vernacular English, Since its inception in the 1930's, language attitudes research has demonstrated that language is a powerful social force that does more than convey intended referential information. For better or worse, [...]

The reactions towards speakers with Japanese accented varieties of American English was investigated using a match-guise study. The reactions of Americans to a Japanese male speaking on two different topics employing four language varieties were examined. Findings showed that Japanese-accented speakers were assessed in a manner which is different from all other non-standard accented speakers of American English.

Language attitudes are typically inferred from hearers' evaluative reactions to speech variations. Although they are central to human communication, their social scientific study has been reported mainly in journals outside of the communication discipline. This chapter first reviews the multidisciplinary work in the area that has looked to evaluations of speakers as a means of assessing language attitudes. Although this research has resulted in pragmatically interesting generalizations, more recent research and theorizing suggests that such generalizations may be limited due to assumptions and methodologies that neglect the complex process through which language attitudes reveal themselves. An emergent understanding of the speaker-evaluation process is discussed herein and represented by a recently developed model. Our assessment of the area concludes with suggested directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter offers a critical examination of the literature on intercultural communication training and a generalized model of the usually implicit process of training. Though limited, some research has tested various outcomes outlined by this model and has produced some supportive, although largely inconclusive, results. The authors argue that an array of important intergroup constituents of the training process remain obscured at best, and disregarded at worst. For instance, negative attitudes and stereotypes about the target host group can compromise attention toward, and acceptance of, much training material. Context, by means of its historical backdrop and the norms it provides, can also restrict training effectiveness. These and other intergroup dynamics can frustrate the training process and even work against the goals it seeks; indeed, boomerang effects have been documented. This chapter offers a new model of intercultural training that affords considerable theoretical Status to intergroup processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]