Language Difference Resources

Use the GWRJ Tags to find published pieces on translingual writing and writing topics related to linguistic-cultural difference and linguistics.

In this Bad Ideas about Writing chapter, Anjali Pattanayak unpacks the myth that there is one correct way to use language practices and its roots in US educational systems that value white, middle-class language practices. Pattanayak describes how schooling systems that privilege correctness also do damage by reinforcing cultural and linguistic inequality.

In this Writing Spaces article, Sara Alvarez, Amy Wan, and Eunjeong Lee remind writers to recognize the value of our identities and language use. They share strategies for how to rethink our relationships to writing by thinking of ourselves as language architects.

In this Writing Spaces article, Cristina Sánchez-Martín demonstrates an inclusive approach to writing by describing how we can explicitly incorporate language difference into any genre using the example of a recipe. Sánchez-Martín suggests how we should think about language in complex and equitable ways with all types of writing, including the kinds of academic writing we do.

In this TEDTalk, Kellam Barta illuminates how there is no such thing as one correct kind of English. Barta shares how African Americans, women, and young people can be marginalized based on our speech even though the pronunciations, grammars, and vocabularies that we use are intricate, systematic, and communicative.

In this TED-Ed Student Talk, Petrina Nomikou asks how the languages we speak affect how we actually think. Nomikou shares examples of languages from all over the world, from nursery rhymes to everyday words about gender or familial relationships, to show how our languages influence our ways of thinking every day.

In this TEDTalk, artist and animator Safwat Saleem shares how he responded when people mocked his voice online. To describe the process of unlearning, Saleem talks about different cultural stories, why representation matters, and how cultural myths we think are normal are damaging constructs that we can challenge and change.

In this TEDTalk, writer and activist Chimamanda Adichie shares how she learned stories growing up that were misleading. To describe the process of unlearning, Adichie talks about stories of growing up, going to college, and how dangerous it is to attach ourselves to any kind of single story about another person, class, or country.

This research book chapter focuses on stories from coauthors Ismael Gonzalez, Hannah Kyung Lee, and Vanessa Rouillon about their experiences with writing as transnational graduate students. Through the narratives and videos they create, Gonzalez, Lee, and Rouillon share their experiences with different languages and specific writing and speaking situations they encountered in academic spaces.

This website shares audio recordings of English language dialects from around the world that you can listen to by exploring special collections, searching the global map, or looking for a specific dialect.