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The present study examined the traces of neoliberal ideology in O-level English language textbooks taught in elitist private schools in Pakistan that follow the UK-based international educational system administrated by the University of Cambridge under the General Certificate of Education (GCE). Analysis in the study was informed by Fairclough's CDA writings. Moreover, Bourdieu's views on neoliberalism were also considered to shed some light on neoliberal ideology in the textbooks. Findings suggest that several neoliberal themes were evident in the textbooks under scrutiny, including marketization, consumerism, branding, celebrity culture, competition, individualism, self-responsibility and self-entrepreneurship, mobility, new ‘Othering’ strategy and English as a neoliberal skill. Based on the findings, we argue that the global ELT industry that produces teaching materials, including textbooks for the periphery is a major contributor to the neoliberal world order maintained by the local (political) elite in the government(s) e.g. Pakistan in case of the present study. The textbooks prepare learners for a competitive world rather than a world based on cooperation, mutual progress, and happiness. The study thus questions such neoliberal hegemony encoded in the textbooks and argues for critical examination and selection of the materials for contexts where English is taught as a foreign language. peerReviewed

Languages vary widely in terms of gender systems showing differences in the number of classes, underlying assignment rules and how and where gender is marked. The legislative drafting policy conventionally known as the ‘masculine rule’, whereby ‘he includes she’, raised opposition in the 1970s (under the pressure of feminist movements in the United States and Europe), and the adoption of plain English style forced legislative drafters to basically avoid sentences of undue length, superfluous definitions, repeated words and gender specificity with the aim of achieving clarity, minimising ambiguity, and enhance gender-neutrality. Given the prevalence of English as lingua franca, an increasing number of international organisations (i.e. the European Union) and non-English-speaking jurisdictions (i.e. the Italian jurisdiction) have recently shown some instances of a drafting style much more inclined to gender equality. Anything that causes drafters to challenge fixed old habits (i.e. formulaic expressions, grammar rules and social norms, repetitive use of form-meaning associations, common patterns of thought) might be seen as an opportunity for innovation and improvement (unusual collocations, unpredictable compounds). That must be welcome in the environment of English-speaking legislative drafting techniques where considerable reliance on precedent is inevitable and often desirable, a factor which certainly introduces a resistance to change in legislative language and makes it inclined to archaism. In light of the above, the aim of this research is to analyse the lexico-grammatical specificities of the selected languages (English and Italian), and the lexico-grammatical strategies proposed by the EU institutions to implement the EU normative acts into the Italian legislation aiming at gender fair and symmetric representation of men and women.

In recent decades, English taught programmes have rapidly increased in number throughout Europe and East Asia as universities aim to internationalise their curriculum, which has given rise to an increase in English-medium instruction (EMI). This study aims to compare the teaching experiences at three EMI programmes in The Netherlands, China, and Japan in response to calls for more comparative research on the pedagogical issues associated with teaching through English in non-Anglophone contexts. Interviews were conducted with 19 teachers in managerial and classroom-facing roles, working within comparable undergraduate English-taught business degree programmes across the three contexts. Data were thematically analysed for convergent and divergent experiences. Findings indicated similarity between the Chinese and Japanese contexts compared to the Netherlands, highlighting greater concerns surrounding student proficiency, teacher competence, and the overall impact of EMI on educational quality. Unique solutions were uncovered to inform better content and language integration in EMI practices.

With an increasing public interest in the roleplaying game ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ (D&D) comes the claim it holds psychological benefits. While therapeutic roleplay is empirically well established, the evidence surrounding D&D is unclear. The current study aims to summarize the literature pertaining this topic and present possible avenues for the implementation of D&D in psychological interventions. A Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) was conducted following the standards by the Centre for Evidence-Based Management. Relevant search strings were entered in seven databases (e.g., PsycArticles, PsycInfo, Child Development & Adolescent Studies). Only papers published in English language till September 2020 were considered and their quality appraised. The thematic analysis of 13 studies yielded four themes: No unified personality type of D&D players, \ud stakeholders’ attitude about D&D, lack of maladaptive coping associated with D&D, and potential psychological benefits of D&D. The results appear promising, but preliminary. Practical implications are contextualized with the wider literature.

There has been ample research establishing the effectiveness of the task-based language teaching approach on improving learners’ language skills. Some studies have also taken account of teachers’ e...

Flipped learning is a pedagogical approach, which suggests the allocation of class time for knowledge application activities and the learning of basic knowledge via lecture videos or assigned readi...

This article explores the interplay between English language proficiency and social class. First, it discusses flaws in cognitive approaches to English language learning and applied linguistics. It...

Universal screening for emotional and behavioral risk (EBR) within K–12 schools can identify students who might benefit from interventions within Multitiered Systems of Support. As few studies have...

Most Chinese pre-arrival training programs are focused on English language training without preparing students with psychological readiness to overcome potential adversities. This paper explores th...

This study adopts a critical discourse analysis approach in comparing the portrayal of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in two English language newspapers, China Daily (CD) and New York Times...

The purpose of this investigation was to explore how reflective practice (RP) could be implemented and systematized in diverse ELT Mexican contexts in order to foster continuous professional develo...

This study considers translation as a joint enterprise in the management of both linguistic translation and associated meaning-making resources in English language teacher talk from a translanguagi...

The ideology of native speakerism and its effects on the professional lives of ‘native’ and ‘non-native speakers’ in English language teaching (ELT) have been widely documented. Nevertheless, littl...

In a small rural village in the Cambodian province of Kampong Cham, a group of 7th-grade students huddle around Android tablets, engrossed in an English language lesson. Guided by their teacher, th...

This paper investigates the lived experiences of three Kuwaiti women as they construct and negotiate their professional identities as Muslim English language teachers in Kuwait. Building on the pau...

The purpose of this paper is to report themes identified in questions K-12 mainstream teachers in one U.S. school district posed about differentiating instruction for English language learners (ELLs) in order to hear directly from teachers about topics they would like to learn more about. Teachers in the district completed a selected-response and open-ended survey to inform future professional development opportunities. Findings suggest that most teachers work with ELLs but are underprepared to teach them. Teachers posed questions about curriculum and assessment; instruction; building community; language difference versus disability; and where to start in teaching ELLs. Conclusions are drawn about how well ELLs are being educated in the district. Implications for teacher professional development and policy are also discussed.

These days, many pre-service and in-service language English language teachers now complete at least part of their professional training overseas. There is, thus, an important question concerning the impact of intercultural encounters on teachers’ perspectives towards the English language and the teaching of English. This paper reports on a study of how a small group of in-service teachers interpreted their experiences of intercultural communication in the UK whilst completing an MA TESOL degree, illuminating the nature of teachers’ perceptions of language and culture and how teachers translated insights derived from reflection on experience into pedagogic insights for the teaching of English as a global language. The findings reveal that participants’ views shifted away from highly normative conceptions of English language use as they recognised the variability and fluidity of communication in real-life intercultural encounters. Based on critical moments in their communication experiences, teachers articulate the importance of broadening their own learners’ perspectives on diversity within the English language and helping them develop cognitive and attitudinal tools to interact appropriately with diverse others. The paper contributes to understanding of the facilitative potential of teachers’ reflections on their own experiences of linguistic and cultural diversity in coming to formulate pedagogical ideals and concrete methodological possibilities.\ud \ud

Middle school is a place where many students are first introduced to more complex novels. Novel instruction in middle school English language arts classrooms is potentially influenced by the elemen...

Disproportionality in the identification of disabilities among children who are culturally and linguistically diverse is an ongoing challenge for educators. A practice that may help address issues ...

This paper, using the case of South Korea, empirically examines how university students in EFL countries understand the neoliberal emphasis of English and EMI, and interpret and respond to differen...

In the Philippines, previous studies have revealed that the implementation of gender mainstreaming in education has remained vague. Also, there is a lacuna in the literature about informed accounts...

Ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP) is the most common poisoning from seafood consumption with an estimated 50,000 cases per year worldwide. Attention to this malady in the English language literature has grown over the past five decades. Endemic areas include the South Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. It is likely that CFP has been present since ancient times, but records to substantiate this are scarce.This historical review looks for clues in earlier writings about potential encounters with CFP as Europeans sailed farther from home into these endemic regions with little idea of what awaited them. We divide these records into the Age of Discovery and the Age of Enlightenment.Review of available historical texts written by or about early European explorers with descriptions of illness attributed to eating fish.Fish poisonings appear in translated writings of early Spanish and Portuguese explorers in the 1500s, the writings of Captain James Cook's voyages to the South Pacific, and in Captain William Bligh's fateful voyage after the Mutiny on theAlthough the quality of the observations varies, Parra in Cuba likely experienced CFP. Plausible CFP for Cook in the South Pacific and Locke in the Bahamas as both have elements of CFP. The descriptions from Quiros, Anghira, and Bligh lack sufficient detail to verify or to refute completely the possibility of CFP.

The rapidly growing needs of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce have attracted educators and policymakers to reinforce STEM education from elementary to postseco...

This research, deeply examines to what degree, Iranian EFL teachers improved their design knowledge, for knowledge, for online education. For this reason, a survey questionnaire which was based on ...

This study demonstrates how stakeholders’ treatment of English language as the sole marketable/saleable commodity in educational setting can have implications for multilingualism and existing lingu...

The unprecedented spread of English across geopolitical boundaries has contributed to the recurrent rise of English as a lingua franca (ELF) studies. However, pressure from native English speakers' norms remains feasible in many English instructional activities in non-English-speaking countries including Indonesia. Using semi-structured interview with four teachers in UMI University, this article examines the perception of Indonesian English teachers towards ELF and the extent to which the ELT practices (may) accommodate multilingual justice. The findings demonstrated that teachers have a complex perception and ambivalent attitude towards ELF as they think ELF is important for the students, but, due to lack of support from institution and colleagues, they tend to orient their teaching activities to native English norms. Also, the current practice of ELT doesn't (yet) accommodate justice for multilingual learners. A more systematic institutional policy needs to be undertaken to reinforce the teachers' existing positive perspective towards ELF.

Developing curricula that responds to the demand for internationalisation in higher education institutions (HEIs) has been gaining wide attention around the world. Taiwan, a country that houses mor...

This study examines differences in English language comprehension, reading fluency, and executive functions among Spanish-English bilinguals with reading difficulties. Reading difficulties examined...

Studies of crisis communication have increasingly used a critical approach to shift the focus of research from how crises are managed to the role of social power and ideology, but little is known a...

This paper examines intersecting concerns in global citizenship education (GCE) and English Language Teaching (ELT) in the face of globalisation. While these two educational agendas cannot be assum...

English language proficiency has long been recognised as important to the academic success of non-native English-speaking international students through the setting of minimum English language requ...

This autoethnographic study explores the lived-experiences and academic perceptions of a first-year non-Lebanese assistant professor working in a private English language university in Lebanon duri...

Historically and as a developing country, the Sultanate of Oman has always been culturally dependent on Britain to plan and implement its English Language Teaching (ELT) and in-service teacher educ...

Nurturing critically engaged and reflective English language teachers is vital if the educational systems they work in are to change dynamically in response to learners’ evolving needs. Given that ...

Informal Digital Learning of English (IDLE) is a global phenomenon that represents one of the greatest advances for autonomous language learning outside the classroom in the past few decades. The p...

Introduction: Candida species have been regarded as global health threats due to their ability to cause invasive infections. It is challenging to treat Candida bloodstream infections, which are associated with high mortality levels. Monotherapy with antifungals is sometimes not effective against severe Candida infections, and combination therapy is needed in clinical practice.Areas covered: This review was undertaken based on data from a PubMed search for English language reports published before March 2021 by using the terms 'caspofungin,' 'Candida species,' 'combination therapy,' 'antifungal effect,' and 'novel antifungal agent.'Expert opinion: Combination therapy is an empirical strategy for treating refractory Candida infections. Caspofungin has been recommended to treat candidaemia. Caspofungin in combination therapy has some applications, while the efficacy of combination therapy in the treatment of refractory Candida infections needs more study, such as randomized controlled trials. In addition, novel compounds or drugs with potential antifungal activities have been examined, and some of them exhibit synergistic interactions with caspofungin. Thus, the antifungal activity of caspofungin in combination with antifungals or non-antifungals against Candida species in vitro and in clinical therapy is summarized.

The English language is widely disseminated globally, where it is the major medium of cross-communication in international/intercultural contexts. The purpose of this study is to assess (1) non-Eng...

One of the many education reforms in Thailand is a policy aimed at improving English language proficiency among university students. One direction in this policy requires that each university admin...

Technology-mediated learning has become a valuable tool, especially in the English language classroom. Nowadays, mobile learning is considered a significant educational tool for promoting education...

In response to recent reforms to English language education in secondary schools in Iran, this study investigated how a small collaborative professional learning community prompted shifts in teachers’ practices. The study relied on Engeström’s professional learning intervention to examine the practices of three junior high school teachers. Through the analysis of teacher observations and interviews, the findings revealed that the teachers’ collaboration and engagement, and the time devoted to review and reflection on their teaching, encouraged minor changes in the teachers’ practices that aligned with the reform agenda. The study has implications for professional learning in Iran and similar contexts. It informs a need for a movement from top-down professional learning programs to more collaborative approaches to teacher education when the aim is to address reform-driven educational changes.

Recent years have witnessed a heightening of interest in the role of teachers working in EAP (English for Academic Purposes), particularly with regard to defining and debating their professional id...

English language education in developing countries like Malaysia has often been cited as a valuable asset and instrumental in improving the lives of its citizens. While providing quality education ...