The present study continues research that takes non-serious language more seriously (Cekaite and Aronsson 2005) by focusing on a central second language (L2) Metaphoric Competence factor, Metaphor Language Play (MLP). For willing learners, MLP offers a diversity of benefits (Bushnell 2009; Bell 2012a) despite being one of the most challenging…

Studies have shown that informing language learners about the literal underpinning of idioms can help them to remember these expressions. It has also been suggested that prompting learners to guess the meaning of lexical items may be beneficial because it can pique their curiosity and promote cognitive engagement. In the case of idioms, the…

Social media is widely used in many different sectors worldwide. In language education, it can impact students' language learning, and students may have diverse opinions about its use. This study aimed to explore how Thai university students conceptualise social media and their perceptions of it. An elicitation task, "social media is like ……

Second language (L2) learners hold different learning beliefs that influence their interpretation of classroom experiences and their L2 learning process. Developing a thorough understanding of such beliefs is therefore imperative. This article reports the representations of Iranian English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners' beliefs about L2…

"A Dictionary and Thesaurus of Contemporary Figurative Language and Metaphor" (2024) upgrades ED628218 (ERIC) with labels and analysis and brings the work up to date to reflect language change at the speed of the internet, ChatGPT, social discord, and bloody wars. The dictionary identifies language used figuratively in everyday…

The relation between English language teaching and religion has not been given sufficient attention. Most of the existing explorations of this relationship have tended to reify Western-biased outlooks of this phenomenon, which rightly highlight serious moral dilemmas derived from a focus on Christian evangelization, neo-imperialist dynamics…

Most L1 (first language) Japanese speakers in Japan seem to think that they are monolingual. While it appears that Japanese people accept monolingual-ness as normative in the nation, there is little situated understanding of what makes up this Japanese monolingual-ness. This study reports on repeated, long, and mostly unstructured interviews with…

"A Dictionary and Thesaurus of Contemporary Figurative Language and Metaphor" (2023) upgrades ED619049 (ERIC) and finishes its work. The dictionary identifies language used figuratively in everyday contemporary English--to include the language of "inclusion & exclusion" and "contempo-speak"--along with its…

"A Dictionary of Contemporary Figurative Language" is meant to be an appendix to an earlier, more comprehensive work: ED648945, "A Dictionary and Thesaurus of Contemporary Figurative Language and Metaphor 2024." This appendix simply updates the dictionary of that previous work to better reflect the language used during the 2024…

This study investigates language learners' perception of Turkish teachers' roles in an online setting using metaphor analysis. The aim of this qualitative study was to see how learners viewed their teachers' roles in the setting. Using this data collection tool through convenient sampling, this study elicited 161 language learners' perceptions of…

To communicate effectively in any language, one needs to be competent in using four language skills; that is, reading, listening, reading, and writing- and accordingly the integrative skills instruction has come into prominence in L2 teaching. EFL teachers' beliefs, ideas, perceptions, attitudes are known to have a significant impact on their…

"Variability" and "fractality," two key concepts in Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST)--the former concerning changes and variations, and the latter concerning recursiveness and self-similarities--may seem contradictory at first glance. This forum piece attempts to elucidate how the two seemingly contradictory properties can…

There has been an increased interest among researchers concerning the relationship between faith and English language teaching (ELT) in the context of the global spread of English; however, to this date, very few studies have focused on ELT and Islam. Considering the wider sociopolitical, ideological or religious issues connected to the global…

This case study aims to explore English language vocabulary acquisition experiences and conceptualizations of a single adult English language learner with mild dyslexia by drawing on metaphors and semi-structured interviews. In the study, we aimed to view the learner's perception through different lenses to gain deeper insight into her ulterior…

Expressions of impossibility refer to events that can never or rarely happen, tasks that are difficult or impossible to perform, people or things that are of no use and things that are impossible to find. This study explores the similarities and differences between English and Arabic expressions of impossibility, and the difficulties that…