Multilingual scholars can benefit from reflecting on their own experience, a Northeastern University researcher concludes. Qianqian Zhang-Wu, an assistant professor of English, says multilingual educators usually focus on how learners move back and forth between languages, but they can empower themselves by looking inward. “We usually look outward at how our students use language,” says Zhang-Wu, who is the multilingual writing coordinator for Northeastern’s writing program. “But we ourselves can be marginalized in many ways, racially, linguistically. There isn’t enough space for us to look inwards.”
Zhang-Wu solicited the personal reflections of more than a dozen academic researchers from six continents to write about their experiences. Her goal: create a space where researchers can turn their focus to themselves and explore the complexities of thinking in multiple languages but teach in English.
