ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a transnational collaboration designed to address the native speaker mindset that was often observed to dominate the thinking of teacher candidates at two universities: one in the UK and the other in China. The participants were tasked with talking to one another—individually or in groups—about life as a university student in their respective countries. Prior to the activity, both groups of participants were noted to share a similar concern around whether they would be intelligible to their interlocutors. The post-activity written reflections from the teacher candidates index the beginnings of an ideological shift. Owing to their first-hand experience of conversing with collaborators from a different geographical context, the participants, it seems, received exposure to the plurilithic nature of English, and thereby reflected on the fallacy behind perceiving language as an entity that can be compartmentalized. Furthermore, the reflective reports suggest how this realization furthered the teacher candidates’ understanding that misapprehensions that can occur due to this dynamic nature of language can be overcome through a change in mindset and accommodating language behavior.
