Informed by translingual practice [Canagarajah, S. 2013a. "Translingual Practice: Global Englishes and Cosmopolitan Relations." New York: Routledge] and poststructuralist conceptualisation of identity [Norton, B. 2000. "Identity and Language Learning: Gender, Ethnicity and Educational Change." "TESOL Quarterly" 35…

Most studies on talent competition shows (e.g., Culpeper & Holmes, 2013; Garces-Conejos Blitvich et al., 2013; Tang, 2016) do not delve into the role of judges giving positive comments to contestants. This paper investigates Simon Cowell's compliments given to Golden Buzzer winners on America's Got Talent (henceforth AGT) and Britain's Got…

The focus of this article is on deafblind people who are or have been involved with deaf signing communities and, when vision changes, transition to tactile reception of sign language. This brings about a disconnection with the signing community, exploration of (other) possibilities, and seeking or creating deaf blind spaces. In the United States,…

This study explores the academic transition experiences of African international students at a U.S. community college, with a focus on institutional support and associated challenges. Using a qualitative single case study approach, in-depth interviews with eight students revealed three central themes: supportive academic environments, academic and…

Bilingualism has been the subject of a lot of research in the last century. Bilingualism is having the competence to speak two languages. The reasons for bilingualism of individuals may differ. Some of them may have parents from different languages, some may be children of ethnic minority or immigrants. In daily life it is possible to encounter…

Social and emotional learning (SEL) has become an avant-garde term in the last few years. It is how people acquire and apply knowledge, attitudes and skills to understand and control emotions. Incorporating the SEL perspective, teachers can not only help students set and achieve positive goals, but also help students understand how empathizing…

In this article, we use grounded practical theory to develop a practical theory for using "difficult data" in Language and Social Interaction university classes. "Difficult data" are transcribed, audio/video-recorded data that contain language and ideologies that could be offensive, bigoted, or otherwise disturbing. We provide…

This study reviews 17 studies since the year of 2000 on the perceptions and practices of immigrant parents who reside in the United States or Canada with respect to their children's heritage language maintenance (HLM). The findings suggest that parental perceptions may change due to practical considerations and vary with different degrees of…

Compliments as speech acts have the reflection and expression of cultural values. Many of the values reflected through compliments are personal appearance, new acquisitions, possessions, talents and skills. It is especially important in linguistic interaction between people. This research aims to analyze the speech acts of complimenting in…

Using both quantitative and qualitative methods of inquiry, this dissertation study undertakes an exploration of the dynamics of the social interaction in discourse co-constructed by pairs of college students in telecollaborative tandem exchanges. Two groups of participants, Mexican learners of English as a foreign language and American learners…

Multiplayer online games form complex semiotic ecologies that include game-generated texts, player-to-player communication and collaboration, and associated websites that support in-game play. This article describes an exploratory study of the massively multiplayer online game (MMO) "World of Warcraft" ("WoW"), with specific…

Brown and Levinson's ([1978] Politeness: Some universals in language use, Cambridge University Press, 1987) politeness theory has been criticized as being ethnocentric by displaying a Western preoccupation with autonomy and individualism. Many non-western societies, it is argued, are better understood by appealing to cultural discernment or group…

Gender communication, an area of focus in the mass communication interdisciplinary field, is one that has continued to grow and expand since its inception. The mid 1970's thrust this communication focus into the research limelight with Lakoff's (1975) work on gendered language use. Since then, research in this area has matured to offer not only…

Contemporary issues in education should include conversations about immigration which has shaped our past, defines our present, and will enrich our collective future. This article explores a cadre of K-12 and collegiate United States (US) educators' participation in a graduate course on the construction of immigrants in multicultural literature…

Building on contemporary to approaches to narrative theory and analysis, this article examines how university students enrolled in an advanced Spanish-as-a-foreign-language course textually position themselves and are positioned by others as legitimate or illegitimate users of Spanish in the stories they tell about speaking the language outside…