Chinese is a highly complex language with internal variation unprecedented in most other languages. Yet, that does not mean Chinese is unique in the sense that it cannot be compared to other languages and new concepts need to be introduced for the description of it. This paper is dedicated to the question of how to apply the notion of…

Mixed-heritage individuals (MHIs) are known to face high levels of social exclusion. Here, we investigate how raciolinguistic ideologies related to one's heritage language abilities add to these exclusionary experiences. The results from 293 MHIs reveal frequent experiences of marginalisation from members of each of their heritage communities…

The study explores the extent to which linguistic globalisation and the ever increasing dominance of English shapes the perceptions of linguistic diversity in traditional sociolinguistic milieus. We set out to investigate the attitudes of 142 respondents from Vorarlberg, an Austrian province, towards their home dialects, High German, a local…

The study examined the relationship between children's explicit knowledge and awareness of diglossia (EKAD) and learning Arabic in school. Additionally, this study addresses the interrelationships between EKAD and oral comprehension, lexical, phonological, and morphosyntactic awareness upon the transition to reading to learn. Thirty typicaly…

The research presented here constitutes the first investigation of the standard language ideology (SLI) in Great Britain that takes account of a multiethnolect -- namely Multicultural London English (MLE). A corpus-informed discourse study was conducted to explore representations of MLE and its speakers in two corpora: one containing data from…

This paper focuses on the linguistic evolution of the Tianjin speech community in Sabah, Malaysia. From the perspective of restructuring of speech community, the paper integrates both micro and macro levels of language change into the analysis. Several methods were adopted in this study. Interviews were conducted with community leaders and various…

This study examines the multidialectal (i.e. diglossic) practices in the sociolinguistic repertoire of speech productions of 28 L2 Arabic learners who went through training using the integrated approach to learn two varieties of Arabic at the same time: Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Levantine Arabic. Specifically, the study investigated…

The many permutations of spoken English have called for an interrogation into the notions of 'standard English' and 'native accents'. Despite their problematic nature, these terms remain commonly used, and familiarity with 'standard', inner-circle varieties of English is typical among L2 English speakers, differences in education and language…

This article examines the potential of pedagogical translanguaging in a community/heritage language context. With focus on Arabic as a multidialectal and multiglossic language, the paper primarily examines the function of translanguaging practices in teacher-learner and learner-learner interaction to construct and negotiate linguistic knowledge in…

Recent language attitude research has attended to the processes involved in identifying and evaluating spoken language varieties. This article investigates the ability of second-language learners of English in Spain (N = 71) to identify Received Pronunciation (RP) and General American (GenAm) speech and their perceptions of linguistic variation…

This article investigates 90 Shanghainese participants' cross-generational use and knowledge of 140 English loanwords in Shanghainese which are deemed as an important part of Shanghai Regional Culture (SRC). The quantitative results reveal that the older participants use and know much more of English loanwords than the younger ones, and that many…

The Vanuatu government has recently implemented a policy of vernacular literacy. Children are now to receive the first three years of schooling in a vernacular language. Needless to say, in a country with less than 300,000 people [Vanuatu National Statistics Office 2016 Accessed January 4, 2016. http://vnso.gov.vu/] and more than 100 indigenous…

This study covers two issues: (1) the language shift process relating to two highly endangered aboriginal languages of Taiwan and (2) the correlations between some variables and their language shift. Both Kanakanavu and Saaroa peoples underwent two waves of migration: (1) a massive in-migration of another Formosan ethnic group (Bunun people) in…

Past research has tended to ignore the emergence or existence of "middle zone" varieties such as topolects or regiolects. In addition, attitudinal dynamics have received little attention, including their contribution towards the re-evaluation of the status of language varieties. Regarding the status of Cantonese, linguistic, political…

Students enter pre-service teacher education programmes with certain preconceptions about what the world is like, what classrooms are like and how students acquire literacy. In our increasingly multicultural society, teachers in pre-service teacher education courses are often not representative of the wider population. The present paper reports on…