Foreign language anxiety (FLA) is a well-documented phenomenon that can significantly affect academic performance. This study examined the extent to which Taiwanese postgraduate students experienced speaking anxiety during thesis defense presentations, along with potential gender differences and variations across postgraduate programs. It…

In this paper, we examine whether a student's language background and other demographic factors have any relationship to their performance on prose questions in math, which we define as questions with open-ended answers containing one or more complete sentences of English. Prose questions stand in contrast to non-prose questions, which are more…

Purpose: This study aims to explore how gender is represented in 64 English Language Teaching (ELT) coursebooks used in schools across seven Middle Eastern countries. It examines whether these materials promote gender equality, as outlined in the official curriculum. Design/methodology/approach: The coursebooks were analysed through content…

The United Arab Emirates have long been in contact with English. Its economy requires high rates of migration, resulting in large numbers of migrants who impact the local linguistic ecology. English acts as lingua franca and occurs in several forms, as labour is recruited from nations having experienced British or American influences. Arabic is…

The present paper aims to determine and compare religiosity levels in university students (n = 2098) from the United Kingdom (n = 1010) and Poland and to attempt an explanation of how nationality differences in the cultural context and affiliations with different religious traditions influence their religiosity. The current global trends regarding…

In Polish, where different inflectional paradigms apply to female and male names, attributing male gender to female referents such as eminent scientists and authors that pass unnoticed in English becomes visible in scholarly as well as popular scientific texts, exposing the society's gender bias. While gender bias in machine translation has been…

This study investigates the linguistic attitudes and perceptions of Qatar University students regarding the utility and vitality of the two languages that define the education and communication scenes in Qatar, namely, Arabic and English. It also reports on the predictors of these attitudes in terms of demographic traits. 861 students completed a…

Teaching English in second language contexts seems to have succeeded in implementing only target-language policy allowed during class time. However, the problem persists in teaching English in foreign language contexts where English is not the official and/or first language in those countries. Such situations kept the question unanswered; whether…

EFL learners worldwide find it difficult to acquire proficiency in speaking English, due to various barriers that impact their speaking skills, one of which is hesitation. The aim of this study was to examine the psychological and sociocultural factors that might lead to hesitation during speaking English among Saudi EFL learners. A mixed-method…

Purpose: Framed by social cognition theory, this study examines the impact of environmental factors (e.g. social norms) on students' entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ES) and entrepreneurial intention (EI). Design/methodology/approach: We obtained responses to a survey from 811 senior secondary students in Hong Kong. We then employed structural…

The study aimed to identify the primary obstacles encountered by junior high school students when learning English. Conducted as a cross-sectional survey, data were gathered from 102 9th-grade students in three public schools in Parongpong using a Likert questionnaire and analyzed through mean scores. Findings revealed that the key barriers…

This article presents select findings from a case study about applied theatre at a school for girls with refugee backgrounds in the United States. The data were collected through direct observations, semi-structured interviews, and analysis of students' work. The study uses an intersectional analysis to explore relationships between gender, race,…

This paper aims to explore the perception and usage of epicene pronouns in English among Chinese EFL teachers, as gender fair language becomes increasingly important for promoting inclusion, respect for identity and expression. This study employed a survey of 284 EFL teachers along with a follow-up written task to assess their views and actual use…

Today's changing sociolinguistic reality of English calls for a shift in paradigm in the field of English language teaching. Therefore, this study aims to examine Moroccan EFL learners' (MEFLLs) attitudes towards World Englishes (WE) and native and non-native English-speaking teachers (NESTs & non-NESTs). Firstly, building on the assumption…

In seeking to investigate the use of "sorry" in interlanguage refusal by Thai EFL users in an intercultural communication context, the present study collected data from Thai flight attendants who served passengers on international flights for a Thai airline, so as to examine how "sorry" is adopted in refusals in the context of…