China has had an ambivalent policy for the learning and teaching of English as a foreign language (EFL) over much of its history. The explicit and implicit implementation of language policy has had a significant impact on the content of EFL textbooks and the ideologies underlying them. However, studies exploring such ideologies remain sensitive…

The present article is a result of historical investigation into the cultural aspects of English language education in secondary schools of Ukraine in the 1930s-1980s, when Ukraine was one of the republics of the former Soviet Union. The course books, the school curricula and the articles published in scientific journals during this period built…

Language education policy in Arizona has been on a rollercoaster over the last five years. Between 2019 and 2024, the state shifted from strict English-only enforcement to loosening restrictions and encouraging dual language approaches, then back to strict English-only enforcement. In this forum piece, we use approaches from critical discourse…

This article examines how Chinese language textbooks, produced for ethnic Koreans by ethnic Koreans in China, portray environmental issues in China. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Visual Image Analysis (VIA) are used to investigate what environmental content is integrated and what ideologies these textbooks construct. Chinese language…

This paper explores how Japan employed language education to justify Japanese imperial surveillance practices by examining the depiction of policemen and military police officers in Japanese language textbooks used by Korean primary students during the colonial period under Japanese rule. The analysis of the Japanese language textbooks used during…

Using literature, more specifically poetry in English as F/L2 has grown over time. However, scholars disagree as to whether it makes any difference to language learning or what functions it serves. The purpose of this study is to examine what discourses poetry embodies, what identities it shapes, and whether it can confront dominant ideologies in…

English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers and students are often pressured to use generic, globally published textbooks featuring 'inner-circle' social realities. While some studies look at specific instances of content that socially marginalizes their intended audiences, few attempt comprehensive examinations of the multimodal ensembles on…

Beginning in April 2020, the Japanese government continued its English education language policy reform by introducing foreign language instruction as an academic subject for Grade 5 and Grade 6 students. The purpose of this study was to investigate how stakeholders across the education system have contended with policy creation, policy…

This dissertation is a single-case study and employs a poststructural approach to discourse analysis to investigate how language ideologies of a world language (WL) preservice teacher develop. Prominent discourses about language teaching and learning in U.S. K-12 schools support monolingual ideologies (e.g., Rivers & Robinson, 2012). While…

This paper investigates the differentiated educational ideologies projected during the Japanese colonial era by comparing the Japanese language textbooks used by Korean and Japanese primary students at that time. By comparing the texts and images in "Kokugotokuhon" (Japanese language textbooks for Korean students) and…

This paper explores the dissemination of human rights through English language learning in Pakistan and builds on the knowledge that contributes to the development of democratic educational outcomes. Textbook discourses have long been the domain of critical linguistics; critical linguists understand textbook discourse primarily as a language in…

This study explores the interplay of nationalism and English Language Teaching (ELT) classroom practices, as reported in 11 interviews with ELT educators in various locations (e.g., United States, Serbia, France, and Saudi Arabia). The study approach is informed by theories of discursive nationalism which interpret nations and nationalized things…

This study critically examines the discursive reconstruction of ethnic hierarchies in English language textbooks used in public schools in post-conflict Sri Lanka. Set against a social and political backdrop of larger nation state-building and national reconciliation taking place in Sri Lanka after it ended a three-decade ethnic conflict, this…

Governments are challenged with pursuing macro-level interests for the good of the group, while also needing to accommodate and to acknowledge the needs and preferences of people at the micro-level. Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's (MEXT) "English Education Reform Plan corresponding to…

This paper examines classroom discourse from English lessons that implemented a critical literacy unit focused on a contextualised social issue. Utilising the theoretical notion of frame, the analysis of classroom excerpts highlights how ideologies about English teaching and learning at times enter the discourse of the classes, not only overtly…