Seeing things as they are, not just as we are: investigating linguistic racism on an Australian university campus

Examining the effects of different English speech varieties on an L2 academic listening comprehension test at the item level

“…We can broaden and expand the construct representativeness of listening tests by defining and operationalizing a construct of "ability to cope with accent variation" (Harding, 2011, p. 176), particularly in the domain of academic English on college campuses, where students are expected to encounter and understand different varieties of English of professors and ITAs. We should also note that language tests are entitled to bring about beneficial consequences to our society (Messick, 1989) and can be used as a tool to contest linguistic racism still present in English-speaking universities (Dobinson & Mercieca, 2020), and therefore, language testers should stand up to the demand to learn the "standard" variety of English as the sole reference to follow in a multilingual society.…”

“Because Here, White is Right”: Mental Health Experiences of International Graduate Students of Color from a Critical Race Perspective

“…Dobinson and Mercieca (2020) noted that, on an Australian university campus, international students were expressly prohibited from using their native languages and required to communicate in English. The scholars argued that such measures award inequitable privilege to English speakers due to their subjective linguistic capital (Dobinson & Mercieca, 2020). Regrettably, international students have reported similar instances of linguistic racism within the U.S. as well (Lin, 2020;Mervosh, 2019).…”

“…For instance, linguistic racism (or the practices that conform, normalize, and perpetuate unequal power among language users Dovchin, 2020 ), has been used as a vehicle against ISC to further dehumanize them. Dobinson and Mercieca ( 2020 ) noted that, on an Australian university campus, international students were expressly prohibited from using their native languages and required to communicate in English. The scholars argued that such measures award inequitable privilege to English speakers due to their subjective linguistic capital (Dobinson & Mercieca, 2020 ).…”

“…International graduate students of Color (IGSC) are exposed to a multitude of interpersonal and systemic stressors that frequently go underrecognized in the counseling literature (Anandavalli, 2020 ). Extant scholarship indicated that, as a result of their racial identities and immigration status, IGSC are frequent targets of explicit violence (Lee & Rice, 2007 ), racial slurs (Dobinson & Mercieca, 2020 ), and nativist rhetoric (Yao et al, 2020 ) within and outside of college campuses. Such incidents contributed to the significantly poorer mental health outcomes of international students of Color (ISC) compared to the American public (Ogunsanya et al, 2018 ).…”

Using the Controversy over Human Race to Introduce Students to the Identification and the Evaluation of Arguments

“…There is evidence of racist attitudes in Australia (Dobinson & Mercieca, 2020 ), Colombia (Soler Castillo, 2019 ; Viecco Garzón et al, 2017 ), Brazil (Garcia Castro & Abramovay, 2006 ), and the United States (Clark and Hurd, 2020 ; Donovan et al, 2019 ; Tawa, 2020 ), among other countries. In the case of the USA, it is alarming to see the exacerbation of these attitudes in times of Covid-19.…”