Reacts to Ruth Spack's commentary "The Rhetorical Construction of Multilingual Students." Each reaction is followed by a response from the author. (Author/VWL)

China's cultural system is based not on the strength of the individual, but on the pattern of relationships maintained by all people. In communication, the Chinese put emphasis on the receiver of messages and on listening rather than on the sender. This cultural trait, derived from Confucianism, has a significant impact on the strategies native…

The possibility of curricular innovation in English teaching in non-Western countries has been questioned on cultural grounds. However, in some cases this may be unjustified; insufficient attention may have been paid to the diversity and extent of the educational traditions that either co-exist, or have existed in the past, in a particular…

Discusses reasons for behavior of East Asian college students in their approach to reading, including their respect for the teacher as a spiritual guide, belief that asking a question is a sign of slow learning, and conviction that the goal of reading is to decode words and recite whole text fluently rather than to analyze a reading passage. (14…

Cross-border education has been growing dramatically in both English-speaking countries and non-native English-speaking countries. While more and more students, particularly from Asian countries such as Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan choose to study in English-speaking countries, many native English speakers go to Asian countries to…

This paper examines philosophical frame factors for English Language Teaching in the Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC) classroom. Drawing on the experience of a Native English Teacher in a government-aided Hong Kong High School it pays attention to two related difficulties: the "reality" of English in the classroom and the perceived…

This paper looks at South Korea as an example of a collectivist society having a rather large power distance dimension value. In a traditional Korean classroom the teacher is at the top of the classroom hierarchy, while the students are the passive participants. Gender and age play a role in the hierarchy between students themselves. Teaching…