This article begins with an overview of the literature on language commodification and the Marxist critiques of this concept. I argue that, while these critiques have raised pertinent issues surrounding the concept of language commodification, they are limited by their reliance on Karl Polanyi's notion of fictitious commodification, which suggests…

Purpose: This paper describes oral language as a multi-faceted and unconstrained phenomenon, including its social purpose in societies and the implications of this for education. It provides a critique of the concepts of oral language which have come to dominate literacy and language education policy across the Organisation of Economic…

With, "The Mind on Paper," Olson hopes to amass the strongest empirical evidence needed, in his view, to support a more promising version of Goody's insights on literacy's impact on social and psychological change (Goody, "The domestication of the savage mind," Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1977). The book is also the…

This paper attempts to examine in a descriptive way the pioneering model of "World Englishes" proposed by Kachru in the mid-1980s that allocates the presence of English into three concentric circles: The "Inner" Circle, the "Outer" Circle, and the "Expanding" Circle. The Inner Circle presents the countries…

One of the most interesting studies on the role of L1 and contrastive analysis in vocabulary teaching is by Laufer and Girsai (2008). However, due to some methodological issues, their research findings are open to criticism and controversy. The current study aimed to replicate the research with a more rigorous design to re-investigate the…

This article recounts the lived experience of a Rwandan English teacher's journey from his village to international opportunities for scholarship and work, enabled by his agency in navigating the country's changing linguistic landscape. Using the narrative inquiry research method, the study uncovers an insider's perspective on Rwanda's switch from…

This special issue aims to develop a research agenda that brings language to the centre of our inquiry and critique of neoliberalism. Based on empirical case studies from across diverse contexts in Europe, North America, and East Asia, contributors to this special issue address two issues: (1) What can be said about the nature of neoliberalism…

As populations around the globe become increasingly culturally diverse, just inter-personal relations seem dependent on our ability to find new ways of communicating with people from other cultures whose values and linguistic strategies may vary from our own cultural practices. Hence, in the increasing body of literature on intercultural…

New forms of intellectual inequality have become evident with the internationalisation of higher degree researchers (HDRs) education, in particular theoretical dominance and dependency. However, the linguistically and theoretically based inequalities associated with local/global currents of standardized monolingual English HDRs education are…

This article introduces Tofa'a'anolasi, a novel Samoan research framework created by drawing on the work of other Samoan and Pacific education researchers, in combination with adapting the 'Foucauldian tool box' to use for research carried out from a Samoan perspective. The article starts with an account and explanation of the process of…

Yoo's (2014) article raises a number of questions concerning local teachers' status and the ownership of English in the Expanding Circle. In this article, I address five issues that I see as most important relating to the ownership of English and empowering local teachers in the Expanding Circle. I provide up-to-date evidence of World…

A summary of the book "Linguistic Imperialism," by Phillipson (1992) is presented here. The purpose is to highlight its current scope and permanent values in consonance with intuitions, criticism and alternatives proposed by Latin America Modernity/coloniality Group. Criteria of analysis are based on a re-reading of the work in the light…

This article is inspired by Jane Sahi's commentary, "Dialogue as Education: Martin Buber," published under the feature "Classics with Commentary" in the Monsoon 2005 issue of "Contemporary Education Dialogue." I seek to further the discussion of the contributions of Martin Buber to the discourse of education through…

In 2006, Graddol predicted that numbers of "English as a foreign language" learners would begin to decline through the second decade of this century, as global English achieves basic skill status for children entering education in more societies across the world. As he further noted, having skills in additional languages may thus offer a…

This critical review of literature provides a detailed description of foreigner talk as a simplified register and critically discusses findings entrenched in studies done about this SLA issue. The studies cited are classified as researches concerning foreigner talk that occurs in both natural and classroom settings. Based on the critical review,…