Offers suggestions for future investigations of theory-of-mind development. Maintains that there needs to be: (1) greater focus on the development of understanding of desire and intention; (2) research on the role of language in theory-of-mind development integrating representational-development and social-interaction views; and (3) investigation…

This paper attempts to provide a theoretical framework for the use of intercultural allusion in narratives of transcultural identity. Identity is taken to be narrative in performance, one element of which, intercultural allusion, serves pragmatically to broker the transcultured subject's insertion into the host culture. The paper then shows how…

The focus of this paper is on the effects of the use of the home language (i.e. isiZulu) on teachers' and learners' understanding and use of core concepts in mathematics and science at the senior phase, in contexts where the language of instruction is English. It reports on a national, collaborative, multilingual research project which attempts to…

This monograph examines the language planning situation in Sri Lanka with particular emphasis on the planning of Sinhala as an official language of the country. It explores the historical, social, ideological and political processes, changes in language policy decisions, as well as the complexities of the language policy and planning situation in…

This paper discusses the role of foreign languages, especially English, in Cypriot society. The discussion touches on a broad range of topics including the history of Cyprus, the current situation of the language and attitudes towards English. All are examined in the context of modern Cypriot culture. In the second part of this work, attitudes,…

This paper examines a specific group of English users in Germany: students studying English at the Freie Universitat Berlin. The first section outlines the various domains in which these students encounter English in their daily lives, both within and outside university, as they make and maintain intercultural connections. This analysis suggests…

Twenty-six years ago, Ronald Reagan signed the Adolescent Family Life Act, and the abstinence education movement began its rapid ascendancy to political dominance, a process marked by increasingly generous federal funding, which reached a peak of $176 million in FY 2006. Throughout this period, a debate ensued over the appropriate approach to…

This article explores the impacts of economic and cultural globalization on language and language education. It acknowledges the spread of English and the negative impacts of this upon other languages and language communities. The case is made that new conditions of economic dominance by multinational corporations raise the stakes for schooling…

This article considers the role of English as the global language within the industrial-consumer paradigm. In the 21st century, the English language plays a different function in the global economy than it did during the 19th century when it was used as an instrument of cultural imperialism. Today, English serves as a vehicle for participation in…

This paper introduces a theory about the role of language in learning physics. The theory is developed in the context of physics students and physicists talking and writing about the subject of quantum mechanics. We found that physicists' language encodes different varieties of analogical models through the use of grammar and conceptual metaphor.…

It is unfortunate that Wee's commendable effort (2005) to explore the theoretical underpinning of Linguistic Human Rights (LHRs) so as to explore different variants of English in Singapore empirically is marred by a substantial number of misrepresentations of what is stated in our work. We will exemplify this briefly, and otherwise refer the…

While research on globalisation can hardly be said to have ignored the phenomenon of the global corporation or the globally distributed supply chain, the focus has overwhelmingly been on "globalization from above"--on corporate structures and on the movement of global capital in global "knowledge economies". My focus in this…

This essay attempts to answer some of the basic assumptions made about English as a global language. It is argued that such assumptions, especially those concerning political and economic power, are not sufficient in themselves to explain why English has acquired such global importance. Rather, what has greatly contributed to the possibility for…

Taking its point of departure from some critical remarks about some of the most important recent theorising of learning, this article presents an alternative framework for theorising learning as a subjective process in a social and societal context, based on life history research. The key concepts of subjectivity and experience, derived from…

Mauritius is a multilingual postcolonial island of the Indian Ocean. Although the French-lexified creole, Mauritian Creole/Kreol, is the native language of 70% of the Mauritian population, it is excluded from the education system. Kreol lacks prestige because it is seen as broken French and associated with the local Creoles, a socioeconomically…