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In this conceptual work, we describe cross-disciplinary meaning and language related to the innovation phenomenon located in a business context. Our work attempts to find common meaning and language for innovation that can be applied across all business innovation projects irrespective of the business discipline, and to synthesize these common terms into an innovation communication and planning tool. The objective of providing a common meaning and language for innovation is to give practitioners, researchers, and stakeholders a shared communication platform, and common language and meaning that assist incumbents to discuss and collaborate during innovation projects without the boundaries created by siloed, nuanced, and discipline-specific understandings. The outcome of the paper is a conceptual framework and canvas tool constructed from universal meaning and language for business innovation with the aim of providing a set of common questions that business practitioners could ask during times of innovation. Furthermore, the Business Innovation Canvas provides new directions for future study and the development of tools that take advantage of common meaning and language to aid innovation practitioners and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The way a young child uses language has an impact on their future life. Early language acquisition is a determinant in adult employment, mental health and relationships with others. At the same time there is a broad evidence base that play and learning in the natural environment is beneficial for young children's physical, emotional, social and cognitive development. However, literature about how these two contributions to children's early development intersect and combine, in particular whether and how early language learning in children aged between 3 and 7 years might be enhanced in nature, is harder to find. For this paper, we undertook a systematic literature review to explore and report on research within this important area. Based on an in-depth study of 181 articles, we found that scant literature exists about how children's language is developed within natural environments. Although this appears to be a topic that is discussed in practice-oriented publications, it was found that very few researchers are focusing on and reporting within this area. Twelve papers were thoroughly analysed and three themes identified and discussed; desire to communicate, communication skills and literacy skills. This paper concludes by suggesting areas for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The four papers printed in this themed issue of the journal are on the general topic of seventeenth-century attempts to devise a philosophical language scheme or what was known as a 'real character'. Each article approaches the topic from a distinctive perspective: two of the papers focus on the work of a single thinker; a third paper examines the technical notations being concurrently developed in the areas of mathematics, music, and chemistry; and the fourth explores the way such schemes rest on semi-submerged and controversial assumptions about the nature of speech and writing. What is common to the four papers is a consensus that, while previous work in this area has tended to focus primarily on a handful of the fully worked-out schemes, there are rich avenues yet to be fully exploited if the scope of research is re-oriented towards the study of notational systems in the context of their specific application. It is in this sense that we invite readers to view our topic as an open cross-roads of intersecting avenues for study, rather than as a closed market-place for the display and comparison of the models available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the following questions: What is reading all about, as our technical milieu becomes increasingly digital and our reading increasingly automated? What is entailed in closely reading a book, in studying and handling the book as an object? And what is the role of philosophy—and in reading philosophy—as we grapple with new technical modes of reading? Guided by philosopher Gilbert Simondon, this paper compares the language heuristics of large language models (LLM) with human reading practices, revealing parallel and diverging technical tactics, with the aim of increasing our understanding of how and why these algorithms are part of our technical reality. This comparison moves beyond concerns with automation and alienation, using Simondon's notions of technicity and transindividuality to philosophically analyze the nature of collaborative reading in a distraction economy, and the extent to which transformer neural network models achieve an implicit embodied or grounded sense of language-use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The papers in this special issue of Language and Cognitive Processing on the neural bases of language production illustrate two general approaches in current cognitive neuroscience. One approach focuses on investigating cognitive issues, making use of the logic of associations/dissociations or the logic of neural markers as key investigative tools. The other approach has as its primary goal identifying the cognitive and computational functions performed by specific brain areas and understanding the underlying neurobiological mechanisms. The research described in the papers of this special issue applies these approaches to the study of fundamental questions concerning sign language, multilingualism, speech motor control and the interaction between speech production, and comprehension. We discuss how, in doing so, this research sheds light on the cognitive and brain mechanisms of language production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This discussion attends to the way the author addresses issues of bilingualism, multiple self-states, primary nonverbal attachments, and the complexity of countertransference identifications in a treatment with several overlapping language worlds. Language or rather speech practice is considered as a carrier of object ties, as a repository of affect and unconscious meaning. I approach Hill's clinical report by thinking about how Hill situates aspects of identity within particular language worlds. Why exactly is it that language demarcates identity, the distinctions of self and other, and the positioning of identity in history so acutely? We see that language has amazing constitutive power in this case, a case where language and attachment, language and early loss, language and traumatic memory, and language and development are so intertwined. This discussion also takes on the author's use of her countertransference and her dream material illuminate conflicts and ruptures in a treatment with a French-speaking patient. Various theories of language and the philosophy of language as well as attachment theory are used to examine the dynamics and processes in Sarah Hill's case. I consider also the role of a lost language world in the analyst's early childhood may have pressed powerfully on the treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This selection unpacks scientific prose and claim substantiation for Nobel Prize winner, Stan Prusiner, in the transmissible spongiform encephlopathies field (i.e., mad cow disease). Applying linguistic strategies such as M. A. K. Halliday's"favorite clause type,"the author examines argumentative strategies in dense scientific prose both in bold and cautious rhetorical styles and invented lexical changes in new scientific development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Everywhen: Australia and the Language of Deep History" is a book that explores Indigenous perspectives on time and history. The book consists of twelve essays and an introduction by the editors, who aim to incorporate Indigenous temporalities into modern historical thinking. The essays in the book alternate between Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives, highlighting the differences in understanding and conceptualizing time and history. The book emphasizes the importance of blending different understandings of the past to enrich our overall historical understanding. [Extracted from the article]

Indeed, Nathan Vedal's work illuminates the veiled context of Ming philology and reflects its moral motivation, thus offering another mirror for observing the culture and knowledge of language in China. In terms of knowledge (Chapter 6), Ming scholars and their works above were tentatively categorized in the various schools ( ), since "there is no category in which it can be placed ( ) within the I Siku i ( )". Zhang Taiyan, whose thought served as the testimony at the end of Chapter 2, was inspired by Buddhism to reinvent his linguistic reception of Qing scholar Dai Zhen, which can not be simply summarized by superficial similarities to Ming philology. [Extracted from the article]

This article describes and reviews the Singapore–Cambridge General Certificate of Education Advanced Level General Paper (GP) examination. As a written test that is administered to preuniversity students, the GP examination is internationally recognised and accepted by universities and employers as proof of English competence. In this article, the GP examination is first described in terms of its characteristics, uses, components, and recent development, and is then reviewed on the basis of Kunnan's (2004) Test Fairness Framework. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper looks at the role of fathers in the family. Structured around three poems, it emphasises the need for a triangular structure in the mind, enabling the child (and any individual) to look at 'reality', internal and thus external too, from a third position. The Oedipal situation, what Hanna Segal called 'the core complex', lies deep within the mind of any individual, and continues to have vital relevance in the lives of modern families. Clinical material is included in the paper to illustrate the points made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constitutes an introduction to our special issue on Transcending circulations of southern and northern concepts: Towards mobile and dialogic perspectives on language puts the spotlight on the hegemonies and marginalizations of mainstream academic productions and the circulations of concepts in the contemporary fields that are labelled Multilingualism, Applied Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, etc. Transcending the demarcations that have emerged in the Language Sciences broadly conceptualized across time, it particularly attempts to illuminate, through different scholars' engagements, the circulations of concepts inside and across academic circles located in various places on the planet, identified as central or marginal places of production of academic norms, including what is understood as global epistemic circuits. The editors present reflections from their own positionalities and recent trajectories as illustrative points of departure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how in-service teachers enrolled in an MA in TESOL program demonstrated critical language awareness (CLA) as they designed and implemented ethnographic action research projects anchored in funds of knowledge. The action research project aimed to introduce teachers to school-based ethnographic research and to provide an opportunity to incorporate community funds of knowledge into their unit plans. Drawing from program documents such as the in-service teachers' research proposals, papers, and unit plans, the study highlights how awareness of the intersections of language and local power dynamics in their schools informed their decision-making about their research and curricular designs. At each stage of the research process, the teachers narrated how they restructured their interactional roles within established classroom routines, school-playtime, community, and family-school events for purposes of inquiring about student and family funds of knowledge. By integrating theories of funds of knowledge and CLA, the analysis shows how teacher understandings of sociopolitical and sociolinguistic contexts shaped which, how, and whose knowledge became resources (or not) in their curricular plans. The study suggests the benefit of professional development that includes CLA for purposes of supporting teachers as they aim to incorporate and leverage funds of knowledge of students, families, and communities in their curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to systematize the political practice of three initiatives related to the concept of plain language on the Latin-American legislative arena. On the one hand, I explore part of literature on legislative studies to account for one of the communicative limits faced by legislation (Xanthaki, 2010, 2019) and on the other, present the instrumental nature of plain language to overcome this limit and achieve the widest possible dissemination of legislative messages for lay audiences. The work is based on a descriptive-analytical review of three public initiatives that inhabit three Latin America countries that, in turn, have in common a collective phenomenon called «Plain Language Networks». These Networks involve the parliaments of each country, and they are implementing (or have implemented) a very similar initiative: 'Ley Fácil' (Chile), 'Ley Simple' (Argentina) and 'La ley en tu lenguaje' (Uruguay). The paper draws, methodologically, on the results of a questionnaire sent to those responsible for the three initiatives, designed to understand their implementation in greater depth. Arguably, the initiatives are aimed and are framed by principles of open parliament, institutional strengthening, transparency, trust, and citizen participatory; my argument is that Ley Fácil ('Eays Law' (Chile)), Ley Simple ('Simple Law' (Argentina)) and La Ley en tu lenguaje ('Law in your Language' (Uruguay)) are, essentially, political pedagogy tools to increase the «ability of people to (i) access and (ii) understand the laws that govern their lives» (Roznai & Mordechay, 2016). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The two aims of this study were to: 1) identify the 100 most impactful contributors to English-language gerontological journals, and 2) map their respective disciplinary affiliations to help illuminate the perspectives shaping gerontological discourse. Toward that end, we conducted a secondary data analysis of a publicly available database of the world's leading scientists. After extracting all scientists in the gerontological category, we rank ordered them according to a composite measure of scholarly impact that controls for self-citations and author order while also calculating other bibliometric statistics. Disciplinary affiliations were assigned based upon the Classification of Instructional Programs codes developed by the National Center for Education Statistics at the United States Department of Education. The results reveal the mean contributor to the gerontological literature published 241.15 (SD = 203.95) papers and – after correcting for self-citations – had an h-index of 50.05 (SD = 25.00), and an hm-index 23.67 (SD = 7.50). A diverse array of professional affiliations characterized the contributors with a plurality being located in the health professions category, followed by the biological and biomedical science, and social sciences categories. The results reveal that gerontology is home to some of the world's leading scientists. Leveraging their expertise can help advance the field's collective knowledge development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses contemporary societal roles of German in the Baltic states (Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania). Speaker and learner statistics and a summary of sociolinguistic research (Linguistic Landscapes, language learning motivation, language policies, international roles of languages) suggest that German has by far fewer speakers and functions than the national languages, English, and Russian, and it is not a dominant language in the contemporary Baltics anymore. However, German is ahead of 'any other language' in terms of users and societal roles as a frequent language in education, of economic relations, as a historical lingua franca, and a language of traditional and new minorities. Highly diverse groups of users and language policy actors form a 'coalition of interested parties' which creates niches which guarantee German a frequent use. In the light of the abundance of its functions, the paper suggests the concept 'additional language of society' for a variety such as German in the Baltics – since there seems to be no adequate alternative labelling which would do justice to all societal roles. The paper argues that this concept may also be used for languages in similar societal situations and, not least, be useful in language marketing and the promotion of multilingualism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies on language learner emotions mainly focus on Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) and Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE). They are primarily conducted in offline learning settings. This paper reports the empirical findings of an exploratory investigation conducted in a fully synchronous online learning environment for ab initio Korean. Through an Achievement Emotions Questionnaire administered to 117 students in an Australian university, this study measures learners' pride as well as their enjoyment and anxiety during four teaching weeks. In addition, this paper examines how learner emotions correlate with academic achievement as well as crucial learner and teacher variables. The study confirms many patterns of learner emotions in offline teaching environments, such as the association of positive emotions with positive outcomes and with some teacher characteristics, and the association of anxiety with negative outcomes. However, it also reveals patterns that appear to be new, warranting further empirical studies. The pedagogical implications of results for L2 teaching and learning are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anti-oppressive global citizenship education (GCE), a specific strand of critical GCE, is a new field, especially concerning empirical studies within English classrooms. Based on an anti-oppressive GCE framework and the research question, "what does anti-oppressive theory look like in practice in English classrooms and how can this be woven into GCE?", this paper explains the results of a project which used a portraiture methodology to collect and analyze approximately 6 hours of semi-structured interviews, detailed impressionistic records, and several lessons collected with one secondary school English teacher in Ontario, Canada. The portrait showcases how the educator implements a three-pillar approach to anti-oppressive GCE language education and the need to shine light on minoritized identities, create healthy soil for the foundation of learning about systemic oppression, and give the proper amounts of water/support to each student. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has demonstrated that immediate effects of language interventions tend to fade, but has also suggested that differentiating language skill types may be essential for understanding fade-out processes. This paper examines the longer-term effects of participating in a shared-reading intervention. The study included 464 dual-language learners (DLLs) (49.6% girls) in Norway with a mean age of 52.60 months when the intervention started. They were randomly assigned to an intervention condition receiving a shared-reading program in preschool and at home or a business-as-usual control condition. The children spoke a number of first languages and were second-language speakers of Norwegian. Children's second-language skills were assessed seven months following the completion of the intervention. We asked whether the developmental advantages induced during the intervention faded or remained when the intervention conditions were no longer present, using autoregressive structural modelling and second-order latent growth modelling to answer the question. While some immediate intervention effects disappeared (grammar) or showed tendencies to fade (vocabulary and perspective taking), second-order latent growth modelling suggested that narrative skills emerged. The results demonstrate the need to consider skill type in future research on fade-out and offer a longer-term perspective on how DLLs respond to shared-reading interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates Gibraltar in a state of linguistic transition. This transition is feared by many to culminate in the loss of Llanito among younger generations. Llanito is a local variety made up of code-switched Gibraltar-Spanish, Gibraltar-English, Genoese, culturally specific words, and loanwords from other Mediterranean varieties. To evaluate the scope of this loss, this paper presents interviews with Gibraltarian politicians, as elected representatives who can influence the language situation, and grandparents who have contributed to the generational replenishment of Llanito. Llanito reflects Gibraltar's culture of hybridity, and this paper interrogates why Llanito is in decline among younger generations. Gibraltar has the ability to transform this situation: educational policy, community effort, and oral and written preservation of Llanito can help to maintain Llanito and save its linguistic loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africans' voices and contributions to communication scholarship are of interest to many Africanists. Some discourses have explored reasons for this interest. This article continues this conversation. It recognizes the challenges contributing to the limited influence of the African voice in global communication scholarship and contributes to the theorizing of the African media. There are a range of factors impeding robust African engagement in global communication scholarship. These factors are explored in this paper. However, African scholars should look beyond these factors. The first part of the article explores reasons for the lack of active African input in this discussion. The second part of the paper explores the peculiarities of Africa that should form building blocks for the emergence of African media typologies. The extant normative media theories fail to consider the realities of African governance structures and philosophies. These should lead to a media framework more reflective of the realities of Africa. Indeed, the article proposes a conversation of four media typologies that closely match the continental conditions: pragmatic authoritarianism, pragmatic progressive, pragmatic libertarianism, and civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue explores post-conflict recovery in northern Uganda from the perspective of survivors themselves. Normative notions of resilience are widely critiqued as reductive, depoliticising and simplistic. Although the papers here, based on ethnographic methodologies, are largely sympathetic to this understanding, they also suggest that consideration of resilience should not be abandoned. The papers offer insights into how communities' experiences and strategies of resilience often diverge from the ambitions of international actors. They demonstrate that micro-level studies of real people's experiences of post-conflict recovery allow space for wider comparative and theoretical insights to emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an extension of our 2021 research into pre-service teachers' linguistic autobiographies in a culturally diverse South African university. The paper, which is presented as conversations, examines what we learned about ourselves and our students through their reflective writing, our reflective writing, and our ensuing conversations. For the previous research, the participants, all pre-service teachers of English, wrote their linguistic autobiographies. Prior to reading what students had revealed, we individually reflected on what we thought we would learn from these writings and wrote our linguistic autobiographies. Thereafter we engaged in conversations about our reflections. The findings were surprising as our conversations revealed as much about ourselves as about our students' linguistic journeys. We learned about our shortcomings and strengths and realised the value of critical friend conversations. We now know that these conversations should continue because lecturers and students benefit from such reflections and conversations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented on open learning. Topics include addressing the theme of language learning within distance education; subject of language learning and the intersection between information technology and distance learning being a long history within the journal; and representing a useful summary of research contributing to the important subject of computer assisted language assessment.

In children's early years, they frequently pretend, create and take on roles while engaging in the dramatic play area where symbols, language and culture are spontaneously developed and applied. Although abundant research has been conducted on sociodramatic play incorporating digital tools and using props, previous research has given less attention to children using non-functional communication devices as play props. This paper aims to explore children's language development using non-functional communication devices, such as cell phones, through sociodramatic play, and the study was conducted in two preschool classrooms with 4–5-year-old children. We find that children who incorporate non-functional communication devices into their sociodramatic play expand their language use, extend storylines, develop new characters and practice new words and ways of speaking. Additionally, the inclusion of these devices affords children opportunities to explore imaginary storylines and cultural language usages, rules and norms in different relational ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new form of volunteer-based intervention is mushrooming across Europe: social mentoring. Such programmes turn 'ordinary' citizens into mentors for individuals from disadvantaged groups. Related initiatives are becoming more institutionalised and social mentoring has gained popularity as a social policy measure, especially in the face of crises. However, the social work discussion has taken little notice of this burgeoning phenomenon adjoining our professional field. There is a lack of concepts and data that could fuel a debate at the intersection of mentoring for social inclusion, human services, and welfare policies. This paper presents a first attempt to outline what social mentoring means, why social work should engage with it and how we can research into it. It offers theoretical reflection on ongoing developments in the EU, based on observation of the literature and field. To expand the available knowledge, it is suggested that research should pay equal attention to all three constituent elements of the topic: personal relationships, programmes, and policies. In line with critical traditions, this paper suggests a holistic, multi-scalar perspective that is sensitive to social inequalities and power imbalances, while also embracing innovative and transformative aspects of social mentoring as a 'popular' form of social problems work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the transnational multimodal literacy practices of non-Korean college students in America who use the webtoon app, which showcases Korean webcomics (also called webtoons). The findings suggest that these practices promoted agency in reading, learning the Korean language, and developing critical cultural awareness. Along with the burgeoning outgrowth of Korean pop culture in the United States, Korean webtoons have become popular among adolescents and young adults. Yet, there is no literacy research on webtoon readers in a Western country. This qualitative study is drawn from three cases of non-Korean avid webtoon readers to examine their experiences. The findings showed that these young adults do not read webtoons just for pleasure. They had an explicit learning goal related to improving their Korean language skills and learning about Korean culture, which they had little opportunity to learn about during primary and secondary school. The purpose of this paper is to reiterate the importance of out-of-school literacy and transnational multimodal literacies by introducing how webtoons promoted reading and learning for its readers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the origin, sustenance and implications of a persistent rumour that is responsible for low measles mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination uptake in the Somali diaspora in a number of countries across the globe. The rumour stipulates that the MMR vaccine – the silent shot – causes autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Although the association between MMR and ASD is non-causal, and various public health initiatives have promoted health information campaigns, the rumour continues to circulate in the Somali diaspora in many countries, including Sweden. This paper shows that there are valid reasons for this. The findings from this paper draw on a systematic scoping review and qualitative interview data from Sweden. The results show that the Somali community experiences higher than average rates of ASD compared to the general population. Moreover, ASD does not exist in the Somali language or their home country, is considered a Western disease that only affects Somali children in the diaspora, and is a highly stigmatised disease. Also, the Somali diaspora has had negative experiences with ASD diagnosis and care. The rumour has been sustained by the absence of an answer to their ASD fear and through active diaspora networks on social media. The network that surrounds the rumour has arguably further helped to create an epistemic community for a community whose concerns have been silenced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harmful content warning statements, which alert the public that materials with harmful language or images are present, may be considered to have their roots in the film industry and are beginning to be utilized in library archives as an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion initiative. This paper will provide an historical overview of those roots. Its main thrust is to serve as a case study or model of the implementation of harmful content warning statements for Irvine Sullivan Ingram Library at the University of West Georgia in order to help other librarians and archivists who desire to craft similar statements for their institutions. The paper will also introduce examples at other institutions and close with a discussion of the opportunities and difficulties that harmful content warning statements present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper aims to explore Michel Serres' approach to issues of text, writing and language. In a first step, his own textual parasitism—his use of other texts without adhering to the academic conventions of citational practices—shall be assessed on grounds of the notion of intertextuality, comparing his position to Roland Barthes and Julia Kristeva. It shall be shown that Serres—understanding writing as an act of invention—seems to return to a traditional author position by conceiving of himself in terms of a creative writing subject. A second step of the paper will explore Serres' search for a language of the natural, material world by discussing his critique of the anthropocentrism of language. Serres' own project of reconnecting language with the material world shall be discussed within the context of his own intertextual dependency on other authors and his interest in information theory as connecting different signifying systems. The paper will end with observations on Serres' experimental style of writing, which attempts to bring the body and nature into language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an innovative way to engage schoolchildren in discussions on multilingualism and multilingual identity using research data they helped generate. Adopting an exploratory, participatory approach to research, our study uses digital data visualisations in interactive sessions aimed at engaging lower secondary students in identity formation and negotiation. The paper starts with a contextualisation of multilingualism and language learning in Norwegian education and the contributions of our study to relevant research in the field. Next, we discuss the epistemological and pedagogical implications of our participatory approach and its integration within the general mixed methods framework of the Ungspråk project, a three-year study that investigates different aspects of multilingualism in Norwegian lower secondary schools. The paper then focuses on the development of the main pedagogical tools used in the interactive sessions: digital visualisations based on data from an online questionnaire previously answered by participants. Particular attention is paid to the design of the visuals in promoting students' engagement with the data and autonomy in interpreting research findings. The paper concludes with a discussion of the main findings from interactive sessions in which participants engaged in reflections on multilingualism and multilingual identity via interaction with the visuals, researchers and their peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of digital technologies has frequently been hailed as a 'game-changer' in education. However, like previous technological innovations, such as television, these recent developments have failed thus far to demonstrate any significant large-scale improvement in the quality of educational provision or in educational outcomes. The papers in this special issue suggest that there is potential to change this scenario. Digital platforms such as Binogi have been able to exploit technological advances such as vastly improved crosslinguistic machine translation ushered in by artificial intelligence to make curriculum content much more accessible to multilingual students. Drawing on the papers in this special issue, I highlight three dimensions of digital learning environments that have demonstrated pedagogical credibility to enhance multilingual learners' development of literacy and their acquisition of academic content in the target language: (a) they provide extensive access to and promote engagement with written (and oral) input in the target language, (b) they provide instructional scaffolds within the digital environment to promote both awareness of how language works and intentional learning of academic concepts and subject matter content, and (c) they encourage and enable students to become autonomous learners who are capable of self-regulating and evaluating their own learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on British news reports on the Mandarin Excellence Programme carried out in England by educational institutions at various levels. This research systematically examines the ways in which the learning and teaching of Mandarin Chinese is portrayed as important in English secondary schools due to globalisation and economic demands and, on a more personal level, owing to future career opportunities and the success of the British people in news discourse. The ideologies embedded in these news stories are explored, and the modalities of representing and communicating information through both written language and images are discusses (Van Dijk, T. A. 1988. News Analysis. Case Studies of International and National News in the Press. New Jersey: Lawrence, Van Dijk, T. A. 2005. "Discourse Analysis as Ideology Analysis." In Language & Peace, 41–58. Routledge, Van Dijk, T. A. 2013. News as Discourse. Routledge; Fairclough, N. 1995. Media Discourse. London: Edward Arnold. pp. 9–14; Blommaert, J. 2005. Discourse: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Kress, G. R., and T. Van Leeuwen. 1996. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. Psychology Press, Kress, G., and T. Van Leeuwen. 2001. Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication. Edward Arnold). It is argued that the ideologies reflected in the news discourse are beliefs and values that are constructed and reinforced by choices in language and in images. The analysis shows that the news about Mandarin Excellence is reported according to its political, economic and cultural worth and that the news reports on Mandarin Excellence represent a way to strengthen the existing power and cultural governance of the UK government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current paper offers a summary of the problems associated with the language used to refer to individuals who simultaneously seek support for psychological distress and alcohol use. Healthcare services frequently adopt language that perpetuates stigma, obstacles to services and can constrain psychological conceptualizations of experiences which hinders person-centered care. An overview of the challenges associated with the conflicting discourse between mental health and alcohol recovery services are presented, alongside a consideration of the impact of adopting biomedical discourse and the use of stigmatizing language. The paper outlines a number of recommendations, including: the displacement of the term "alcohol misuse"; the promotion of an emphasis on individual's idiographic experiences; the advocation of a greater sensitivity to non-stigmatizing language use and the call for a shared language that can be successfully employed within integrated services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parser-grammar transparency and the development of syntactic dependencies The paper by Lidz also advocates a tighter connection between language acquisition and processing. Two central questions addressed in psycholinguistics pertain to acquisition and process. Lidz reviews evidence from his group pertaining to children's representation and processing of syntactic dependencies, making the case that the moment grammatical knowledge is acquired, even partially, children deploy this knowledge when making real-time sentence processing decisions. As Lidz notes, there has been a long history within psycholinguistics of looking for transparent connections between grammar and process (e.g., Chomsky [6], Kaplan & Bresnan [22], Steedman [34]). [Extracted from the article]

This paper reports a qualitative study of what constitutes an ideal EMI classroom from the perspective of university students. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 26 university students from various disciplines at a large public university in China. The analysis reveals three core themes, which were perceived to be integral to an ideal EMI classroom: 1) an integration between content, language, and learning strategies, 2) a process-oriented course design permeated with a translanguaging approach, and 3) moving beyond specific EMI classrooms with a future and community orientation. This paper argues that EMI needs to be approached as a full educational experience with multiple dimensions (i.e. cognitive, social, and affective), through which, students gradually build up their professional knowledge and disciplinary literacy as well as foster their sense of belonging and direction in their situated subject field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Travel section of a newspaper is composed of texts which purport to at least partly comply with the ethical value of journalistic objectivity, yet the border between this type of writing and the overtly promotional texts produced in the tourism sector is somewhat blurred. This paper compares linguistic features in samples of text from Tourist Board websites and the Travel section and nine other sections of The Guardian to determine whether Travel Journalism can be categorised as a type of journalism, or whether it bears distinct similarities to Tourism Discourse. The results suggest that Travel Journalism differs from the other newspaper sections and is quite similar to the Language of Tourism on the basis of some features. However, in relation to others, it is decidedly different, thereby suggesting that Travel Journalism can be cleared of the allegation of being unduly influenced by the texts produced by the tourism industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A word analysis of six UK government White Paper policy statements on aid (selected between 1960 and 2006) compares the top 20 words and key word pairs used in each document. Characteristic sentences are composed of the top 20s to represent the spirit of each paper. Results illuminate changes in the content of White Papers on aid, and point to trends in the history of the UK's approach to international development. A characteristic sentence to illustrate the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness is contrasted with a sentence of words that did not appear in that document. Readers are invited and challenged to identify words they would like to be used and acted on more commonly in development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online activities have spiked due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including language learning activities. As the world is aging, this affects senior citizens too. Yet, few studies have been conducted studying online (language) learning in this age-group. Moreover, no concrete pointers exist on how to go about such an online language learning course. This paper examines what should be considered when designing and implementing online language learning courses for seniors. To that end we present data from 73 senior language learners from two independent language learning contexts: the Netherlands and Scotland. The data were collected between May 2020 and August 2021. Data includes spoken and written samples from lessons, focus groups, interviews and questionnaires. Given the qualitative nature of the data and the aim of identifying patterns of meaning across the respective datasets, a reflexive thematic analysis (TA) approach was adopted. We employed an inductive approach to coding, using both semantic (explicit or overt) and latent (implicit, underlying) coding frameworks, in order to inform two overarching themes: "Navigating the digital highway" and "Camera ready for new friends." We discuss these themes and their sub-themes and arrive at concrete recommendations for the third-age language learning classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subfield of Sociology of Education (SOE) concerned with the growth of neoliberalism through critically analysing its policies, discourses, and processes of subjectivation has made a significant contribution to education in the last 40 years. Whilst this scholarship has generated new knowledge about what happens to people, contexts and educational systems when they are regulated by neoliberal logics, it has also subsumed the sociological imagination under what this episteme considers valuable. The paper aims to challenge this excessive focus on the neoliberal episteme by broadening our research scope to recover the subjects' magmatic expression in SOE research. To do this, we introduce Hugo Zemelman's notion of subject to examine how SOE can overcome this neoliberal closure. The paper discusses three epistemic movements: focusing on the subject, researching the undetermined possibilities of the present in a given order, and, paying attention to the evocative and symbolic aspects of thinking and language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the content knowledge of English language learners and immigrant students is assessed in their less proficient language, the validity and fairness of assessments related to those students have been widely discussed. However, such assessment issues have not received much attention in rapidly expanding bilingual education programmes, where students learn content subjects through a second/foreign/additional language (L2) and are often assessed in that language. This paper addresses this research gap by examining the mediating effect of language of testing on students' performance in content subject assessments. 387 question items in the Biology papers of a public examination in Hong Kong were analysed according to their cognitive and linguistic demands. The performance of 480 students (half taking the test in their first language and half in their L2) on the questions with different demands was then analysed with MANOVA and multiple regression. The results show that linguistic demands, especially productive linguistic demands (e.g. writing sentences and texts), had a more significant effect on the performance of students taking the test in their L2. These results underscore the role played by language in the academic achievement of bilingual education students, which in turn illuminate valid assessment design and pedagogy in these programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a methodology for directly aligning 'can do' frameworks to each other. The methodology, inspired by the manual for relating examinations to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment (CEFR) (Council of Europe, 2009) and Kane's (2004, 2013) interpretative argument, takes account of both the horizontal dimension (content analysis) and the vertical dimension (benchmarking with Multifaceted Rasch Modelling – MFRM). The paper exemplifies the application of the methodology by introducing the research conducted to align the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB)/ Niveaux de compétence linguistique canadiens (NCLC) to the CEFR, presenting the resulting alignment, and discussing the rationale for the choices made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since January 2020, Canadian Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) have rapidly evolved into public figures. However, the gendered makeup of this role seems to map onto CMO communication: 10 CMOs are women and 7 use Twitter to communicate, as opposed to 7 men, of whom only 3 have Twitter accounts. Adopting the theoretical lens of language ideology, this paper explores language and gender dimensions of Canadian Chief Medical Officer (CMO) health discourse by analyzing pandemic tweets from CMOs (January 2020-June 2021, 21,389 tweets, 930,0883 words) using corpus-assisted discourse studies. Results suggest that male and female CMOs have not communicated to the same extent, nor have they used the same (range of) languages. Also, there are differences with regard to expressions of authority and compassion. While a paucity of male data poses methodological challenges, it also raises questions about the specific and disproportionate communication work accorded to and undertaken by women. The paper concludes by arguing that female CMOs' adherence to stereotypically gendered ways of speaking is a strategy for navigating volatile online and offline environments, but that this raises questions about the longer-term impacts of authority in gendered discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses topics within the issue including Anthony John Sanford's interest in discourse coherence, quantity expressions, and his role in language processing.

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It was in the 1990s, that the possibility of increased transmission of HIV with the use of injectable contraceptive Depo-Provera®, was first flagged in medical literature. This has posed a challenge for its use in countries, particularly in the African region, where the prevalence and transmission rate of HIV is high. In 2015, a randomised 'clinical' trial, the Evidence for Contraceptive Options and HIV Outcomes (ECHO) was launched in four African countries to resolve the question whether the increased risk was causal. Contrary to expectations, the ECHO trial successfully recruited and randomised the specified number of girls/women participants. This paper argues that this was made possible by exercising undue influence, by using incentives, coercive language, and by concealing the real nature of the clinical trial during recruitment. The ECHO trial is unique in subjecting a group of healthy girls/women knowingly to a contraceptive drug with an intention not of finding out whether it is efficacious as a contraceptive, but to find out how risky or life-threatening its use could be. Thus, the ECHO trial has violated one of the central tenets of the Helsinki Declaration by privileging pursuit of knowledge over the interests of the girl/women trial participants from Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bilingual language development is different from monolingual language development. The lack of appropriate assessment tools geared to the bilingual population has led to inaccurate over-diagnosis of bilingual children with typical language development (TLD) as children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) and under-diagnosis of bilingual children with DLD. The present paper addresses this challenge by focusing on Hebrew as a second language (L2) of bilingual preschool children whose first language (L1) is either English or Russian, taking into consideration both chronological age (CA) and age of onset of bilingualism (AOB). This study aimed to generate bilingual standards for a monolingual screening test, Goralnik Screening Test for Hebrewby arriving at appropriate bilingual typical development cut-off points. A total of 443 bilingual Hebrew speaking children (397 with TLD and 46 with DLD), ages 61–78 months (M = 70; SD = 4), 199 with L1 English and 244 with L1 Russian, took part in the study. The results demonstrate low diagnostic accuracy when a monolingual test with monolingual norms is used for bilingual children, in contrast with increased diagnostic accuracy when bilingual standards are used for bilingual children. The paper concludes by showing the importance of bilingual standards when assessing clinical populations with varying ages of acquisition, and in particular, for those who were exposed to their second language after the age of four. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights the erasures of normal-languaging and normal-diversities that mark the contemporary human condition. Its aim is to make visible North-centric assumptions regarding the nature of language by asking what, when, why and where language exists and how it plays out in global-local, analogue-digital timespaces. In particular, the study presented in this paper troubles the interrelated 'webs-of-understandings' regarding language, identity and culture that are embedded in both traditional concepts and neologisms. It illuminates the looped taken-for-grantedness of established and emerging discourses in the Social Sciences and Humanities. Drawing attention to boundary-markings in scholars languaging that have become naturalized, the paper critically appraises how conceptual epistemic hegemonies continue to flourish across northern-southern places-spaces. It thus, also discusses the relevance of such questions in doing research itself. Inspired by an overarching reflection on various 'turns' (like the multilingual-, boundary – and mobility-turns), this paper calls for moving from North-centric knowledge regimes to engaging analytically with global-centric epistemologies where gazing from a mobile-loitering stance is key. This means that this paper poses uncomfortable and revised analytical–methodological questions that potentially destabilize existing global/universal understandings related to language, identity and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]