Politics of Incompetence

Neriko Musha Doerr teaches at Ramapo College.

• Introduction: Incompetence and Power by Neriko Musha Doerr, Yuri Kumagai, and Cori JakubiakChapter 1: Identities of (In-)Competence and Plurilingual Repertoires: Three Stories of Digital Storytelling in a Japanese Language Classroom by Keiko KonoedaChapter 2: “Incompetence” as a Productive Force for Making the Invisible Visible: Linguistic Landscapes Project as a Dialogic Space in a Japanese Language Classroom by Yuri Kumagai with Yuko TakahashiChapter 3: Discourse of Incompetence, Unit Thinking, and Uses and Risks of the Translanguaging Framework: Language Politics in Aotearoa/New Zealand by Neriko Musha DoerrChapter 4: Studying La Bella Lingua as an Edu-Tourist: An Auto-Ethnographic Account of (In)competence by Cori JakubiakAfterword: Towards Understanding Production and Perceptions of (In)Competence by Theresa Austin

Recognizing that ideologies of language are embedded in second language instruction, the contributors to this deeply thoughtful collection ask us to consider ‘incompetence’ in a new way. The authors challenge readers to move beyond the usual instrumental goal of teaching language as a static, abstract object to be mastered by urging us to value idiosyncratic and messy language learning experiences. Detailed case studies from different ethnographic contexts forward the argument that language learning is a journey that should engage with forms of incompetence as a productive resource.