Plenary Session: Noticing and Disrupting Microaggressions: Toward Linguistic Justice
This talk will discuss microaggressions through a sociopragmatics lens and explore how everyday language choices in today’s globalized world can nurture or jeopardize our dignity, inclusion, identity, belonging, and well-being. Microaggressions are subtle messages hidden in brief, seemingly harmless comments or actions. Even when a speaker is well-intentioned, a bias or stereotype may inadvertently surface to insult or invalidate the listener, especially in intercultural communication. Worse, microaggressions can accumulate over time and take a toll on the mental well-being of the marginalized target ( Sue & Spanierman, 2020).
The session will introduce relevant research in psychology and connect it to learner realities, focusing on children, adolescents, and adult learners of particular race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, (dis)ability, religion, and language status. In educational settings, mixed-heritage children and adolescents, returnees, and international students, for example, may experience microaggressions or even bullying in person and through social media (Piller, 2016; Tsai, Straka, & Kimura, 2024). Teachers may find themselves in need of responding in the moment when something harmful is said, yet they can also unintentionally contribute to microaggressions themselves through pronoun use, terms of address, other pragmatic choices, accentism, or cultural assumptions (Ishihara & Glasgow, in press). By focusing on sociopragmatic awareness of microaggressions and the role of power, I invite teachers and teacher educators to reflect on the ethical and social dimensions of language and intercultural communication education. I will also share practical resources to begin addressing these issues in age-appropriate and context-sensitive ways in the classroom.
Plenary Workshop: Combatting Microaggressions in the Classroom
Noriko Ishihara and Aurora Tsai
Language education does not stop at grammar, vocabulary, or pronunciation. It also involves teaching how to navigate the social meaning of language and behavior in the real world. Our everyday remarks, jokes, and assumptions may seem brief and subtle on the surface but can communicate our values and beliefs about who belongs, and whose identities and cultural and linguistic upbringing do not belong. This workshop will look at microaggressions through the lens of sociopragmatics and ask what language teachers need to notice, question, and respond to in today’s global climate. Drawing on research and documented experiences (e.g., Dovchin, 2020; Glasgow & Kim, 2025; Sue & Spanierman, 2020; Tsai, Straka, & Gaither, 2024), the workshop will examine cases related to younger learners, including mixed-heritage identity, returnee experiences, accentism, bullying, and social media behavior, while also addressing issues that resonate with university instructors and teacher educators. The goal is not simply to raise our awareness of microaggressions but also to explore, using current resources in this area (e.g., Souza, 2020; Sue et al., 2019), how to respond to harmful comments, behaviors, or environments when we encounter them as observers, targets, or initiators.
Enhancing Inclusion in Language and Intercultural Communication Education
Noriko Ishihara
When I tell people of all ages and trades in Japan, the U.S., and elsewhere that I have begun to research microaggressions, I receive a variety of responses. Some have no idea what microaggressions are, some think it is highly important and valuable to study them, others have no opinion, and some sound doubtful: “Well, that sounds interesting, but maybe people are too sensitive these days.” “Many more dont’s, and we won’t be able to say anything.”
These various reactions make me wonder whether we share a reasonable understanding of microaggressions. Even if we speak the same language, the scope of our division is so vast today that we may have reached a point where we do not readily access others’ perspectives, emotions, or vulnerabilities as we live in different (sub)cultures performing different identities. Given the prevalence of social media and the profound changes they have brought into our lives, cases of misunderstanding, conflict, aggression, impoliteness, even bullying or harassment have become increasingly common (Parvaresh, 2019). On a positive note, although the division may be severe, discussing microaggressions opens up an opportunity to address diversity and inclusion and can assist in bridging the gap.
The term microaggression was coined by psychiatrist Chester Pierce in the 1970s to address the racial slights experienced by African Americans in the U.S. Derald Sue, a Chinese American professor of psychology and education, and his colleagues developed the research further. In a seminal article, they defined racial microaggressions as “brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults to the target person or group” (Sue et al., 2007, p. 273). Today, most work in the area goes beyond race and ethnicity to include subtle acts of exclusion targeted at marginalized individuals or communities of particular gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, language status, national, cultural, or religious affiliation, and so forth (e.g., Cho & Corkett, 2023; Glasgow, 2024). Because of their apparent subtlety, microaggressions have been called everyday racism (Williams et al., 2021) and compared to “a thousand paper cuts” (Sue, 2021). Although one “paper cut” or one instance of an insult may not be fatal, the accumulation of small derogations can make the pain unbearable and long-lasting.
Lately, microaggressions have been discussed in academic and community forums in Japan. In a symposium organized by Sophia University and International Christian University, Williams (2025) discussed how patients seeking help through psychological therapy could become targets of microaggressions expressed by counselors who may innocently display their biases. Similar risks exist in education, where, for example, well-intentioned teachers may give compliments such as “Wow, you are so good in school,” or “You were so articulate in the way you said it!” Depending on the context, some people may detect an implicit insult: “You are so good for an Ainu,” “It’s surprising that a girl is so good at science,” or “Black people are not expected to be so articulate.” Schools and universities in Japan continue to globalize, but what if teachers, as well as students, remain unaware of how to embrace ever-growing diversity in the student population? Some of the students may be international students, but others can be mixed-heritage children, those from gender minorities, those with developmental or learning disabilities, older non-traditional students, or any combination of these and beyond.
Although microaggressions may appear benign, they can accumulate and hurt, especially if they derive from someone close or respected. Microaggressions can not only normalize discriminatory discourse and reinforce unequal power structures, but they may also cause anxiety, serious depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and adverse physical conditions (Williams et al., 2021). In educational settings, microaggressions can develop into bullying, isolation, increased substance use, self-harm, even suicide (Shimoji & Ichikawa, 2024). For example, kikokushijo, or returnee students who have lived and learned “authentic” English outside Japan, can be viewed as unsocialized into the Japanese school culture or lacking an authentic Japanese identity and thus may become the target of microaggressions, bullying, or ostracization (Ford, 2009; Kanno, 2003). Similarly, students from Okinawa may feel alienated due to their ethnicity or the lack of sociopolitical awareness on the part of the mainland majority (Kinjo, 2025). While mixed-heritage children may be romanticized, exoticized, or objectified due to their appearance (Fujimi, n.d.), mixed-race athletes can be maligned on social media based on their race, distinct physical traits, or perceived nationality.
Yet there are promising signs that awareness-raising interventions in educational settings can inform students and teachers alike about the vulnerability of marginalized peers, promote self-reflection on the potential linguistic violence they may engage in, overhear, or receive themselves, and identify and practice possible ways to resist microaggressions when they encounter them (Glasgow & Ishihara, 2025; Ishihara, 2026; Sato, 2026). Depending on the context, anyone can become a perpetrator, observer, or target of microaggressions. Without intervention, we may inadvertently reproduce the oppression we receive and pass it on to others in a vicious cycle (Freire, 1970). In our rapidly-globalizing world, incorporating a unit on microaggressions into our curriculum can be a step forward in seeking more equitable human relationships and enhanced linguistic justice in language education.
References
Cho, C. L., & Corkett, J. K. (Eds.). (2023). Global perspectives on microaggressions in higher education: Understanding and combating covert violence in universities. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003244394
Dovchin, S. (2020). The psychological damages of linguistic racism and international students in Australia. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 23(7), 804–818. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2020.1759504
Ford, K. (2009). Critical incidents in the experiences of Japanese returnees. Language and Intercultural Communication, 9(2), 63–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/14708470902807701
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Herder and Herder.
Fujimi, Y. (n.d.). Hanbun kyōdai [Half siblings]. Tōchi. https://to-ti.in/product/hanbun_kyodai
Glasgow, G. P. (2024). Black teachers of English(es) in Japan: Transnational professional and pedagogical encounters. Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/GLASGO6345
Glasgow, G. P., & Ishihara, N. (2025, December 6). Microaggressions and their sociopragmatic impact: Implications for second language pragmatics instruction in Japanese higher education [Paper presentation]. Sociopragmatic Symposium, Kansai University, Osaka, Japan.
Glasgow, G. P., & Kim, M. (2025). Microaggressions in Japan: Foreign-origin university students’ lived experiences and metapragmatic reflections. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 47(1), 122–139. https://doi.org/10.1080/07256868.2025.2598759
Ishihara, N. (2026, May 23). Linguistic justice: Basic tenets and classroom applications [Paper presentation]. In DEI in practice: Creating socially just, inclusive, & equitable classrooms [Panel]. JALT PanSIG, Chukyo University, Nagoya, Japan.
Ishihara, N., & Glasgow, G. P. (in press). Globalization and impoliteness: Countering microaggressions in intercultural communication education. In N. Ishihara, A. Chiba, D. Fujimoto, J. Ronald, B. Suzuki, & S. P. Tu (Eds.), Pragmatics and our changing world: Globalization and diversity. JALT Pragmatics SIG..
Kanno, Y. (2003). Negotiating bilingual and bicultural identities: Japanese returnees betwixt two worlds. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410607560
Kinjo, H. (2025, December 13). Yamatunchu, hondo tokken [Yamatunchu/mainlander privilege] [Paper presentation]. Dai 45 Kai IGC-SSRI Kokusai Shinpojiumu: Maikuroaguresshon Kara Manabu—Mainoriti no Keiken to Majoriti no Shisei e no Toikake [45th IGC-SSRI International Symposium: Learning from microaggressions—Minority experiences and questioning majority attitudes], Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan.
Parvaresh, V. (2019). Moral impoliteness. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict, 7(1), 79–104. https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00020.par
Piller, I. (2016). Linguistic diversity and social justice: An introduction to applied sociolinguistics. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199937240.001.0001
Sato, M. (2026, May 24). AI chatbot-mediated speaking to raise awareness of microaggressions in Japanese university EFL classes [Paper presentation]. JALT PanSIG, Chukyo University, Nagoya, Japan.
Shimoji, L. Y., & Ichikawa, V. (2024). Nihon ni okeru fukusū no minzoku, jinshu tō no rūtsu ga aru hitobito no ankēto chōsa [Survey of people with multiple ethnic and racial roots in Japan]. Committee for the Survey of people with mixed race and multiple ethnicities. https://sites.google.com/view/surveyformixedinjapan/
Souza, T. (2020, June 1). Responding to microaggressions in online learning environments during a pandemic. Academic Impressions. https://www.academicimpressions.com/microaggressions-online-learning
Sue, D. W. (2021, March 31). Microaggressions: Death by a thousand cuts. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/microaggressions-death-by-a-thousand-cuts
Sue, D. W., Alsaidi, S., Awad, M. N., Glaeser, E., Calle, C. Z., & Mendez, N. (2019). Disarming racial microaggressions: Microintervention strategies for targets, White allies, and bystanders. American Psychologist, 74(1), 128–142. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000296
Sue, D. W., Capodilupo, C. M., Torino, G. C., Bucceri, J. M., Holder, A. M. B., Nadal, K. L., & Esquilin, M. (2007). Racial microaggressions in everyday life: Implications for clinical practice. American Psychologist, 62(4), 271–286. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.62.4.271
Sue, D. W., & Spanierman, L. B. (2020). Microaggressions in everyday life (2nd ed.). Wiley.
Tsai, A., Straka, B., & Gaither, S. (2024). Mixed-heritage individuals’ encounters with raciolinguistic ideologies. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 45(2), 507–521. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2021.1904964
Tsai, A., Straka, B., & Kimura, D. (2024). Mixed-heritage individuals and systemic risk during negotiation of identity. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 23(6), 895–909. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2022.2065277
Williams, M. T. (2025, December 13). Microaggressions today: Understanding their impact and expanding the research [Paper presentation]. Dai 45 Kai IGC-SSRI Kokusai Shinpojiumu: Maikuroaguresshon Kara Manabu—Mainoriti no Keiken to Majoriti no Shisei e no Toikake [45th IGC-SSRI International Symposium: Learning from microaggressions—Minority experiences and questioning majority attitudes], Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan.
Williams, M. T., Skinta, M. D., & Martin-Willett, R. (2021). After Pierce and Sue: A revised racial microaggressions taxonomy. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 16(5), 991–1007. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691621994247
Noriko Ishihara, Ph.D., is Professor of Applied Linguistics/TEFL at Hosei University and facilitates professional development courses for language teachers in Japan, the U.S., and elsewhere with a focus on instructional pragmatics and intercultural awareness. Her research interests include pragmatics and microaggressions, criticality in language education, and teacher development.
