This book traces the existence and potential of two concepts rarely considered together: Blackness and World Languages. Each chapter begins with a vignette illustrating how the phenomenon of Black World Languaging has manifested in the author's life. Layering on fresh data to existing research, Austin unpacks the ways that World Languages constructs barriers both to humanizing and Black language practices, or Black World Languaging, despite the latter’s alignment with what is called for by national ‘foreign’ language standards. Each chapter then concludes with reflection questions for various stakeholders across language education. The book will be relevant to language teachers and learners, as well as students and researchers in fields including teacher education, language education, world languages, language policy, and sociolinguistics.

Tasha Austin is an associate professor of teacher education, language education and multilingualism in the Graduate School of Education at SUNY Buffalo, USA. Her research explores Blackness and language education particularly in the US context with a focus on the underexplored linguistic brilliance of Black language learners.