Xiao, G. (2025). Rethinking translanguaging: (Trans)bordering, spatiality, and academic discourse socialization in a graduate TESOL classroom. Applied Linguistics, amaf062. doi.org/10.1093/appl...

I’m delighted to share that my new article is out in Applied Linguistics! In this piece, I introduce the idea of (trans)bordering — a semiotic process in which we create and negotiate borders that define acceptable practices and norms. 
doi.org/10.1093/appl...

Excited to share my review of @nelsonlflores.bsky.social's new book! This work traces how bilingual education shaped by raciolinguistic ideologies has often reinforced the hierarchies it seeks to dismantle. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in social justice and equity in education.

Thank you so much for the opportunity and support!

I have a new blog post that tries to lay out just what is at stake with Trump's attempted fascist takeover of higher education. Check it out and share widely! educationallinguist.wordpress.com/2025/05/13/t...

They don’t went POC, women, LGBTQ or international students at elite US universities. When they claim a desire tor meritocracy what they mean is hoarding resources for themselves.

R1 institutions: Publish or perish. You: Publish tons. R1 institutions: Be an excellent teacher. You: Win a teaching award. R1 institutions: We don’t like you anyway so will find whatever reason we want to deny you tenure.

Join us during #AAAL2025 for a panel that brings together leading scholars to discuss the realities of doing decolonial work in applied linguistics. ✨ Ryuko Kubota ✨ Suresh [email protected] ✨ Nelson Flores @nelsonlflores.bsky.social 🔗 Registration: forms.gle/u2bWSy725haE...

When I was a gay kid the government was letting gay people die When I was a bilingual teacher the government was dismantling bilingual education Now that I am a researcher of race the government is coming for DEI The government has always attacked people like me And I have always resisted

I’ve been thinking and writing a lot about abolition, liberation, and curricular justice in the field of world language education. I’m honored and excited to share and reflect on this topic during my plenary at the upcoming AAAL conference. I hope you’ll join me! www.aaal.org/events/aaal-...

For me the more relevant linguistic distinction is not between monolingual and multilingual people but rather between those whose linguistic border crossing is marked as a first step to policing them and those whose linguistic border crossing remains unmarked or even celebrated as innovative.

RIP "Our research shows that the primary reason for the failure of the school to educate black children...[is that]...the stereotype the teacher already has about black children is triggered into action by the teacher's unconscious reaction to the child's speech and behavior" -William Labov, 1979

Language education has to involve unsettling all of the oppressive language ideologies which state that there is a singular way to use a language.

I am pleased to announce the release of a white paper I wrote on culturally relevant and sustaining education for Latinx students. I am grateful to the Spencer Foundation and my co-author Lupita Barrientos for their support. spencerfoundation.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/store/af7917...

Thank you @nelsonlflores.bsky.social for your support and inspiration! 😊

Congratulations to @gengqixiao.bsky.social for this new article that was inspired in part by the “Language Diversity and Education” course he took with me a few years ago. You should all check it out! www.tandfonline.com/eprint/TD76J...

Jonathan Rosa and I had the amazing opportunity to work with an undergraduate student and a high school student to "translate" our "Undoing Appropriateness" article for high school students. The final product is available for free here: demystifyinglanguage.fordham.edu/articles/lan...

After many delays by book Becoming the System: A Raciolinguistic Genealogy of Bilingual Education in the Post-Civil Rights Era is finally available for preorder: global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Are you teaching undergraduate students in a language-related course this semester? Or, do you know some undergraduate students interested in language? If so, I'd appreciate you sharing some info about a study I'm doing on podcasting and critical language awareness! bit.ly/psuplp

Glad to share my review of this book! If you’re looking to understand and counter raciolinguistic ideologies in your context, check it out. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

just published open access in Annual Review of Applied Linguistics - new work which pushes for transformative justice, abolition, the ending of linguist-police collaborations, and reconceptualisations of 'impact' work in applied linguistics. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

coming soon in the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics ↓

Very excited to have worked with the wonderful Aris Clemons to contribute this chapter to Padilla and Vana’s edited volume Representation, Inclusion, and Social Justice in World Language Teaching ✊🏾

the devaluing of someone's language is a devaluing of their life itself. linguistic justice is always about more than language.

tiered vocabulary emerged from a series of experiments by academics on mostly Black children living in poverty in 1980s USA. 40 years later, it’s firmly embedded into England’s education system. here’s a critique of what it is and how it was sold to policy makers and teachers 👇

Raciolinguistic ideologies that link particular named languages with full humanity and other named languages with subhumanity can literally be the difference between life and death apple.news/ApsddIZ6uRRK...

I had the opportunity to respond to Philipp Angermeyer's recent article on discrimination in translation (doi.org/10.1017/S004...) that takes up his invitation to further delve into a raciolinguistic perspective on translation & interpretation (doi.org/10.1017/S004...). You should check them out.

My latest collaboration with Jonathan Rosa cautions against an uncritical embrace of the term “raciolinguistics” that may inadvertently continue to silo discussions of race from “real” linguistics while essentializing race and language in troublesome ways. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

One of the reasons language is so interesting to study is because people often have such strong rigid and conservatives ideas about what language is and how people should use it that completely contradict the fluidity and creativity of what they and others actually do with it.

Next month I will be giving a talk at American University in DC entitled “A Raciolinguistic Genealogy of the Self”

Outsider does not only mean novice. It exists in the moment when we’re marginalized, when we’re ignored, when our voices aren’t heard, when our identities aren’t liked, when we’re kept outside the door… So we decide to enter the academia.

AAAL Graduate Student Council is hosting a free webinar entitled "Things I Wish I Knew In My Early Years as a Graduate Student." You can register here: utoronto.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

What if schools approached language difference with fascination rather than frustration? What if we used discourse analysis as a tool for student writing feedback instead of the dreaded “red pen?” Excited to release this collaboration with Joelle Pedersen! authors.elsevier.com/a/1hgGI3CKC-...

I had the honor to respond to Kris Knisely’s recent article “Gender Justice Beyond Inclusion” where I express appreciation for his push to center trans people in discussions of translanguaging. Since we don’t have DMs message below if you need access to it. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The systemic language discrimination which takes place in schools doesn't mean that the system is broken - it means that the system is working exactly as it was designed to do so. Schools are designed to actively maintain the raciolinguistic status quo.

The common idea that “kids are sponges” has done great harm to education in general and language education in particular. It perpetuates the idea that kids passively absorb information. But they don’t. They actively reconstruct it in ways that reflect their unique experiences.

Appropriateness-based approaches to language education are not progressive. They told me I should sound less Latino, less gay, less Philly, less me when “appropriate.” Marginalized people being told to be less themselves when “appropriate” is oppression. Period.

You should check our my latest collaboration with Jonathan Rosa “Rethinking Language Barriers & Social Justice from a Raciolinguistic Perspective” where we manage to make references to both Star Trek and My Fair Lady 🤗 www.amacad.org/sites/defaul...