According to Question-Under-Discussion (QUD) models of discourse interpretation, clauses cohere with the preceding context by virtue of providing answers to (usually implicit) questions that are situated within a speaker's goal-driven strategy of inquiry. In this article we present four experiments that examine the predictions of a QUD model of…

New conceptualizations of English are challenging traditional norms of what the language is, as well as how it is taught and by whom. These changes, coupled with the expansion of teaching English across the educational spectrum from younger grades to tertiary levels, present challenges to many national education systems. The role of teachers'…

Generative approaches to language have long recognized the natural link between theories of knowledge representation and theories of knowledge acquisition. The basic idea is that the knowledge representations provided by Universal Grammar enable children to acquire language as reliably as they do because these representations highlight the…

This quasi-experimental study adopted a pretest/posttest design to investigate the effect of instructional intervention in teaching polite refusal strategies explicitly on Iranian EFL learners' performance of the speech act of refusing. The participants, consisting of 24 male elementary EFL learners aged 12-18, responded to a discourse completion…

Background: Within the wider education industry, a large quantity of ideas, practices and products are routinely promoted as useful innovations. These innovations span many forms such as software applications, open source courseware, online learning platforms and web 2.0 technologies. Coupled with this promotion, there is increasing interest and…

The study investigated the language choices of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of Chinese family business and the factors guiding their choices. Interviews were conducted with 17 CEOs of family businesses located in Sarawak, some of whom are the sons and grandsons of the founder of the business. The results showed that all the CEOs can speak their…

Some coloured and black learners in South Africa use a light orange or pink crayon to represent themselves in art. Many learners name this colour "human colour" or "skin colour". This is troublesome, because it could reflect exclusionary ways of representing race in images and language. This case study, conducted with two…

This article investigates the covert language policy and micro-language planning practices of one female Brazilian-American entrepreneur, Magda, within her multilingual cleaning company. Because Magda is plurilingual (Spolsky in "Language policy." Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004), she is able to draw on her metalinguistic…

This study investigated the effectiveness of providing L1 explicit information (EI) with practice for making more accurate and faster interpretations of L2 French "Imparfait" (IMP). Two treatments were investigated: (a) "L2-only," providing EI about the L2 with L2 interpretation practice, and (b) "L2+L1," providing…

The paper examines the connection between discursive and non-discursive features and the construction of writer identity. In particular, the paper compares and contrasts the writer identity development of two groups of undergraduate students of applied linguistics in the Mexican context, one made up of locally educated ones and the other composed…

This article explores some of the hidden background behind the highly praised school results in South Korea. An ethnographic case study is used to cast light on how schooling is actually experienced by South Korean students. Two main results are reported from these data. First, evidence is presented of damaging "cultural elements" such…

This state-of-the-art review is based on the fundamental idea that political economy should be adopted as a frame for research and discussion in applied linguistics as part of a general social turn which has taken hold in the field over the past three decades. It starts with Susan Gal's (1989) early call for such a move in sociolinguistics and…

Using the concept of "racial microaggressions" as an analytical tool, this study reports on white monolingual pre-service teachers' self-identified linguistic microaggressions by exploring their attitudinal and affective responses to those who speak languages other than English. The assumption is that teachers' pedagogical practices and…

This paper has two aims. One aim is to consider non-structural (language attitude and use) variables as valid in the field of dialect and linguistic geography in an inner Himalayan valley of Nepal, where four languages have traditionally coexisted asymmetrically and which demonstrate different degrees of vitality vs. endangerment. The other aim is…

One of the objectives of the South African science curriculum is to provide equal access to science for students from all backgrounds. However, this goal remains elusive as many students, particularly those from low socio-economic backgrounds, continue to perform poorly in science. One of the reasons for the persistent differential achievement in…