ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how foreign language teaching can be refashioned to foster border-crossing communicative competence that prioritizes dispositions, critical awareness, and strategic competence over a superficial manipulation of skills. Although the research contexts were outside of Japan's formal educational system, all participants mentioned in the chapter had received primary, secondary, and higher education in Japan. Language education in Japan in the 21st century is situated in a paradox between a powerful discourse that emphasizes teaching English as a common global lingua franca and growing linguistic and ethnic diversity at home. However, the cases of Misaki and Seiji indicate that English learners have diverse subjectivities in relation to English. These learners obviously exhibited open and proactive attitudes toward multilingual learning and interaction with people from diverse linguistic and racial backgrounds. This disposition overlaps with the communicative dispositions that emerged from my interviews with Japanese expatriates and managers.
