ABSTRACT
In language and intercultural communication, the critical turn has been most evident in two fields. One is critical linguistic ethnography, which seeks to investigate situated language use in order to understand the dynamics of social and cultural production in everyday activity (e.g., Blommaert, 2013; Martin-Jones, Blackledge & Creese, 2012; Pennycook, 2010; Rampton, Maybin & Roberts, 2014). The other is intercultural languages education and pedagogies, where learners (and their teachers) seek to resist essentialist understandings of the other and take action against all types of injustice (Crosbie, 2014; Díaz, 2013; Guilherme, 2002; Levine & Phipps, 2011). Given that most social research nowadays is multilingual, and given the inextricable links between language, identity, and culture, multilingual research also implies intercultural research. Therefore, the critical turn invites investigation of how researchers draw on linguistic resources (their own and others’) in these multilingual contexts, how they negotiate intercultural relationships and communication in the research site, and the ethical processes such a multilingual, intercultural focus entails. These aspects of the research process have important implications for the trustworthiness and transferability of the research outcomes.
