The role of English as a medium of communication among diverse linguacultural users has resulted in a significant rise in the number of new Englishes. Using a semi-structured interview for data collection, this qualitative study investigates the perceptions of six foreign English lecturers at four universities in Thailand towards Thai English and…

China's impressive growth over the last three decades warrants the need to re-evaluate the position and positioning of English in the country's educational system. For long, English has been taught and learned compulsorily alongside Chinese and maths in primary and secondary schools in the mainland of China. It was not until recent years that the…

One of the many education reforms in Thailand is a policy aimed at improving English language proficiency among university students. One direction in this policy requires that each university administer a standardized English language test to their students before they graduate, and that the students' scores should be aligned to the Common…

In Japan, neoliberal discourses rationalize English language proficiency as a pathway to meritocratic reward and success in the global knowledge economy. With this ideology in mind, this review engages the market orientation of English domestically and the causative implications of class-distinguished capital. Specifically, Bourdieu's theory of…

This research examines the visibility of English in the schoolscape of two Israeli teacher training colleges. English in Israel is part of a complex, multilingual reality. Not an official language, it carries prestige and is common in media, commerce, industry, and science. In higher education, its presence, however, is limited, despite being a…

This article examines different aspects of the oralman students' socio-linguistic adaptation. Scientific research has identified various obstacles oralmen face when studying at Universities in Kazakhstan, especially in the context of the English language studying process. The data used in this paper explores certain peculiarities of oralman…

This article reports on a qualitative study that investigated English learners' attitudes toward English as an International Language (EIL). Four major findings were identified in the current study. First, majority of the participants thought that English belongs to all its users, regardless of being its native speakers or not. Second, lack of…

The purpose of this research was to identify the role of the level of proficiency in the English language with high-performing third-year students in the Mayan area of Yucatán, near a tourist region called the Riviera Maya. The aim was also to explore the relationship between learning a second language and the subsequent overall improvement in the…

This paper examines the language planning situation in the Sultanate of Oman with emphasis on the planning of Arabic, English, French and German, and their choice and spread in serving different interests and purposes. The paper explores the historical, social, political, and ideological processes and complexities of the language policy and…

There is growing research aimed at understanding the challenges international graduate students (IGSs) face in learning English and applying it to their academic studies in the United States. Most studies, however, focus solely on IGSs and English in the context of U.S. higher education, giving less attention to their experiences prior to entering…

This paper reports on an experimental study investigating alternative communication modes to English as a Lingua Franca. The purpose was to examine the effectiveness of different modes of communication and to gain insight in communication strategies used by interlocutors to solve referential conflicts. Findings show that ELF may not necessarily be…

This article examines certain aspects of the debate surrounding English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). It argues that in some ways, neither ELF nor its opponents have come to terms with the complexities of English in a globalized world. By defining ELF according to how it differs from native-speaker language use, ELF researchers have tended to…

A considerable amount of time has elapsed since the existence of a distinct variety of English, Brunei English (BNE), was mooted in the early 1990s. A subsequent study conducted by Svalberg in 1998 suggested that BNE was then in its infancy and that its speakers were largely unaware of the differences between it and Standard British English (STE).…

Discussions of multilingualism in education, as exemplified by the articles in this issue, can be critically reevaluated using perspectives available from poststructuralism. These perspectives focus on the potential ambiguity of language and language practices. This, in turn, encourages us to question simple notions of the relationship of learners…

Properties of maintenance and loss of Spanish/English bilingualism were investigated in 308 high school students of Mexican background. Key variables investigated included: (1) actual and self-reported proficiencies in Spanish and English; (2) self-reported language choice behavior in various settings; and (3) language attitude. The biggest…