This paper investigates the role of English in voice assistant (Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant) use from the perspective of language ideology. Major commercial companies in the voice assistant market use English as a training language for their speech technologies and offer the most optimised support for standardised varieties of English. This…

English has been for centuries seen as the native language of speakers in the English-speaking inner circle countries, as the second language of speakers in the former British-colony outer circle countries and as an international business lingua franca among speakers in the techno-economically powerful extended circle countries. Little is known…

Purpose: This study explored ESL learners' utilization of Online Discussion Forums (ODFs) in Interactive Reading for Academic Disciplines (iREAD) to assist reading of online scientific texts within an English for Specific Purposes course at a public university. Method: This qualitative research employed two data collection methods during lessons…

Medicine is a science dealing with uncertainty and the art of judging probability. For effective communication, doctors, researchers, or health sciences writers, need to master the use of modality whereby unreal situations can be discussed. How modal verbs -- the most commonly used type of modality applied in the writing of health and medical…

Syntactic complexity is a crucial aspect of linguistic proficiency and thus understanding and supporting such development in learners is a keen concern for language teachers. Research conducted has shown growing sophistication of noun phrase structures by writers of different abilities in academic writing (Biber & Gray, 2010; Liu & Li,…

Websites offer research groups a powerful tool for self-promotion and dissemination of their research to a diversified audience. The aim of this study is to explore how research groups affiliated to a research institution in a non-Anglophone country compose their websites to achieve visibility and impact and reach multiple audiences. Content…

In contemporary educational contexts, technology, globalization, and mobility have brought about a blurring of the boundary between language learning and activation in and beyond the classroom. (We prefer the term "activation" to "use" as it has a more dynamic connotation.) This contrasts with the pre-globalized, pre-Internet…

In computer engineering education, specific English language practices are needed to enable computer engineering students to succeed in professional settings. This study was conducted for two purposes. First, it aimed at investigating to what extent the English courses offered to computer engineering students at the National School of Applied…

Analysis of a recent scientific event, and some of its linguistic and conceptual frames from both a lay and specialist perspective, shows that English for Science and Technology analyses could benefit from adopting a scientific method of investigation, some background knowledge of science, and reconsideration of ideas found in linguistics on the…

Analysis of tense usage in 20 scientific articles from the "Journal of Pediatrics" reveals a hierarchy of sociolinguistic relationships among context-dependent rhetorical functions, context-independent temporal meanings, and actual tense choices. (Author/CB)

Analysis of how students of English for Science and Engineering use certain categories of nouns in their technical writing projects revealed a significant use of "sub-technical" and "text-structuring" words serving both referential and discourse-oriented functions. The use of matching or cloze-type and open-ended writing exercises to improve…

Discusses problems that U.S. companies may experience in getting computer programs and other related products accepted in other countries because of difficulties in translating the English language used in the products. Topics discussed include slang, acronyms, and abbreviations; economic and financial differences; cultural differences; and…

The use of the cognate recognition strategy to enhance reading comprehension in a Latin American English-for-Special-Purposes context is considered. Focus is on the subtechnical vocabulary found in 40 texts from English engineering magazines, first describing vocabulary identification techniques and then assessing whether the items have Spanish…

Materials development in English for Science and Technology (EST), particularly for English-as-a-Foreign-Language university students, is discussed with reference to the current EST situation in Taiwan. Issues include content vs. skills approach, textbook selection or innovation, process- vs. product-oriented materials, and authentic vs.…

Ngee Ann Polytechnic, a leading postsecondary technical institution in Singapore, offers English for academic and occupational purposes to prepare students for writing their final year projects. This article discusses the approaches used in Mechanical Engineering and Biotechnology projects. A sample exercise is appended. (Contains two references.)…