Recent calls from applied linguistics and from CALL have emphasized the importance of situating the understanding and use of digital tools for language learning within layered contexts. An important component of these layered contexts is societal discourses of technology, which are multiple and far from neutral. In response to these calls, this…

Through the study of pedagogic discourse and practice in "introductory classes" (ICs) aimed at new migrant students at a linguistically diverse primary school in Sweden, we discuss pedagogic principles and power dynamics, drawing on Bernstein's conceptual frame. Our ethnographic data consist of teacher interviews and observational…

EFL classroom teaching in China, no matter whether it is traditional one or a flipped one, is a dynamic communicative process by using English with the aim of learning it. The interactive discourse between the teacher and the student has its own pragmatic functions, especially the feedback given by the teachers which may influence the teaching and…

English Language Teaching (ELT) materials are not only pedagogical sources, but they also actively build a vision of reality, often reproducing, legitimizing and perpetuating certain hegemonic discourses. Even if injustice and inequalities are denounced in some materials, global issues are just mentioned rather than problematized and discriminated…

This study examined how students of English as a foreign language (EFL) with different first language (L1) backgrounds use interactional metadiscourse markers in argumentative writing. Specifically, to explore unique patterns of metadiscourse features that reflect context and development, the essays written by Chinese, Japanese, and Korean EFL…

The Canadian government implemented the Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program to help immigrants integrate into Canada. However, research indicates that the LINC program fails to achieve its integrative goals. Using Fairclough's analytical concepts of genre, discourse and style, this article closely examines a unit of LINC…

School and university classrooms remain the standard around the world for second language instruction. However, over the past 20 years various methods of language learning have permeated the educational landscape to include self-study textbooks, language learning software and online teachers. Some models are evidence based while others lack…

This article is an exploration of the possibilities encountered through shifting from a "logic of quality" to a "space of meaning-making" within early years education. Focusing on ideas of "readiness", this discussion aims to challenge normative understandings that relate this concept to the predictable achievement of…

This article examines critical inquiry and truth-telling from the perspective of two complementary theoretical frameworks. First, Aristotelian phronesis, or practical wisdom, offers a framework for truth that is oriented toward ethical deliberation while recognizing the contingency of practical application. Second, Foucauldian parrhesia calls for…

Outstanding education is a high-level policy narrative in England rehearsed by school leaders, politicians, policy-makers and inspectors alike. The "legitimacy" of knowledge, performativity and discourse-based analysis are mobilised to examine outstanding. The paper explores how informants in the English state secondary education sector…

This study focuses on a type of request referred to as a "wellness check," commonly made to a large university police department located on the east coast of the United States. A "wellness check" occurs when a loved one calls with concerns about a person they believe to be in distress or in need of assistance. The focus of the…

Fast-food giant McDonald's announced in 2010 that they would start hosting wedding ceremonies and receptions for couples who would like to get married in their restaurants in Hong Kong. This paper conducts a study comparing the differing representations of McDonald's wedding services through a narrative analytical approach. Specifically, this…

In the introduction to the special issue "Languaging the worker: globalized governmentalities in/of language in peripheral spaces", we take up the notion of governmentality as a means to interrogate the complex relationship between language, labor, power, and subjectivity in peripheral multilingual spaces. Our aim here is to argue for…

France has a long tradition of linguistic prescriptivism, linked to a casuistic metalinguistic literature going back to Vaugelas, Gilles Ménage, and others. This type of normative discourse has survived into the twenty-first century, but is affected by changes in the media. Since the emergence of mass media in the late nineteenth century, national…

The study was an enquiry into the subjective stance, ideological clues and social representations within Schimmel's interpretive discourse on Sufi poetry. Evident discursive construction may well be witnessed through ideological clues embedded within analysis of Sufi poetry, diverse social representations and investigation of the level of adequacy…