The dissertation focuses on the Chinese literacy experiences of different generations of Thai Chinese families in Thailand, spanning periods characterized by varying ideologies toward the Chinese language, which have either constrained or facilitated its acquisition. This qualitative work examines how evolving national policies and international…

It has been widely recognised that plurilingual pedagogy offers many benefits both for language learning and learning in general. However, in contexts where the linguistic profile of students is diverse, it can still be challenging for teachers to view working with the language resources of their students as feasible. In this article, we discuss…

English is undoubtedly an important language for educational and socio-economic mobility in numerous countries including Malaysia. Regardless of its importance, studies to document English language acquisition among Malaysian children acquiring English in the local context remain scarce. This normative data is imperative for syllabus-designers,…

The present study employs regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997) to investigate the effects of L2 speakers' chronic regulatory focus on their L2 pragmatic versus grammatical awareness. It involved the participation of 121 Chinese students, who are English language learners, at a university in the United States. Haws et al.'s (2010) questionnaire…

The focus of this article is on the question of language and its relation to adult learning in what Peter Leyland describes as 'a post-modern way'. In other words, it is a pastiche or a multiplicity of ideas that he has been meeting with over a year working with adult students who are learning about different areas of poetry in his Worker's…

Zipf famously stated that, if natural language lexicons are structured for efficient communication, the words that are used the most frequently should require the least effort. This observation explains the famous finding that the most frequent words in a language tend to be short. A related prediction is that, even within words of the same…

The preverbal double negation construction (i.e., yo "tampoco no" voy a la fiesta hoy) is often cited as a characteristic of Basque Spanish, although its use is undocumented in linguistic studies. The present research aims to fill this void in the literature by analyzing and contrasting the results of two studies on preverbal double…

This literature review examined approximately 10000 titles in five representative journals in education. It is conducted at two levels. Section A identified the preferred terms and metaphors to describe teachers at different expertise levels. Results indicated a great inconsistency in terms of terminology as well as definition of the same terms or…

This paper proposes law drafting techniques, especially in Chinese, that aim to enhance the fluency and readability of Hong Kong bilingual legislation. The study is based on the plain language guide published by the Department of Justice of Hong Kong in 2012, with the goal of helping the current legislation to comply with the guidelines. Using…

Platonic "paideia" is a mainstream concept in traditional philosophy and humanistic circles generally. It is closely connected with social progress brought about by the dynamics of enlightenment and self-fulfillment, symbolized by the allegory of the cave. The main contention of this paper is that the philosophical grammar of this simile…

Five basic types of the English verb were summarized and illustrated with many examples on the basis of the writer's teaching experience and extensive review of various literatures from different English grammar books, reference books, and the consultation of English dictionaries, in order for those English language learners to further understand…

In her Exemplarist Moral Theory, Linda Zagzebski argues that we can empirically discover the meaning of moral terms like 'virtue' and 'the good life' by direct reference to moral exemplars -- those people we admire as morally exceptional. Her proposal is promising, because (1) moral exemplars play an important motivating role in moral education,…

The article analyses the term discourse and discourse analysis with reference to Foucault and other critics. Foucault used the role of discourses in wider social processes of legitimating power, and emphasizing the construction of current truths. The article argues that discourse analysis, as employed by Foucault, concentrated on analysing power…

This article explores how knowledge of institutional ecologies can help build connections across departments of large universities without direct communication. The authors, an instructor and a writing center tutor, consider "inventive collaboration"--impromptu work mediated by student writing--as a way to improve a multilingual…

Educators' understanding and use of language is particularly relevant in relation to historically marginalized groups, such as people with disabilities. However, previous research has suggested that teacher education programs do not adequately address the concepts of language and disability. Content acquisition podcasts (CAPs) may provide them…