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Although it dates back to the early 1980s, language socialization research is still regarded as one of the relatively recent realms of scholarship in applied linguistics. It is based on the premise of bringing together an analysis of social, cultural, and cognitive dimensions of situated language learning. Employing this perspective, the current research has a three-fold purpose: (a) to maintain language acquisition aspects that are represented by social, cognitive, and social-cognitive underpinnings, (b) to shed light upon the theoretical backgrounds of both sociocognitive theory and complexity theory, which have been purposefully selected to be discussed due to their bearings on language socialization, and their sharing of the view that the cognitive and the social are intricately interwoven and mutually constitutive, and (c) to depict the commonalities and differences of the two theories in order to point out the extent of convergence and divergence that they have with language socialization as well as the extent they reach in shaping a meaningful language acquisition research agenda.

Validity has been declared to be the single most important consideration in language testing and educational measurement. Messick (1989) famously identified construct-irrelevant variance as one of the major threats against test validity. Hence, test users ought to make every possible effort to make sure that test scores are not unduly affected by construct-irrelevant factors. This study applied multivariate Generalizability Theory to examine the effect of academic background on test scores obtained from the Iranian national university entrance exam. The results revealed that the relative contribution of the various sources of variance was not the same across the academic background groups. In addition, dependability indices were significantly different across the groupings Furthermore, the decision studies revealed that the groups do not necessarily need to take the same number of items so that a high reliability is obtained. Overall, the results indicate that academic background exerts a remarkable influence on the dependability of the scores.

This study explores the pragmatic functions of diminutives as used in Palestinian Arabic. Brown and Levinson's model of linguistic politeness is considered as a theoretical framework of the study. Discussion and analysis of naturally occurring data of diminutive use shows that, as an extension of their central use with children, diminutives in Palestinian Arabic have taken on the pragmatic functions of minimizing imposition, "hedging an utterance, expressing a pejorative attitude, showing affection and endearment, intensifying the speaker's emotions, showing modesty and avoiding bragging," and expressing intimacy and connectedness (Badarneh, 2010, P. 153). The diminutive in Palestinian Arabic is thus used both as a positive politeness strategy, oriented toward showing solidarity, expressing affection and endearment and establishing a friendly context for the interaction, and as a negative politeness strategy aimed at minimizing imposition and softening negative statements. These functions reflect the role of diminutives in Palestinian colloquial discourse as a device utilized by Palestinians to mark, establish, or assert social relationships including connectedness and solidarity. It is noted that the diminutive is mainly hearer-supportive, boosting the force of the utterance in positive politeness contexts while mitigating the force of the utterance in negative politeness contexts (cf., Badarneh, 2010).

This paper discusses the emerging themes on second language teacher education (SLTE) between 1960s-2010s. It seeks to answer the following question: What does the literature on second language teacher language education tell us about teacher preparation to teach English as a second language students and address their needs and challenges? The review focuses particularly on the influence of practice changes because of the shifts in the SLTE landscape and theoretical bases from the 1960s to 2010. It also aims at getting an in-depth understanding of how language teaching is learned in formal preparation programs. Moreover, it shows the gaps and the methodological changes in the research over this period, and suggests some implications for future research.

This paper explores how the interpersonal constructs (i.e., appraisal system, speech function) of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) afford the analysis of one novice Chinese English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) teacher’s writing beliefs and practices. Specifically, by analyzing the Chinese EFL teacher’s writing belief discourse and teaching discourse (obtained, respectively, through interviews and observations), the study shows how the Chinese EFL teacher’s beliefs about the importance of linguistic form and text flow in writing were mapped to his writing instruction. The discourse analysis also demonstrates that the EFL teacher’s writing-belief discourse and classroom discourse are both contextually shaped by his schooling exposure and self-agency, while his teaching practices were further conditioned by his students’ English proficiency and shyness. The study concludes, that, firstly, the Chinese EFL teacher’s writing practices arise (albeit indirectly) through his beliefs, and that, secondly, SFL offers a useful framework for discursive exploration of teachers’ beliefs and practices. The study suggests the role of effective self-agency and teacher education in reshaping teachers’ beliefs so that they can better act upon their beliefs when offering writing instruction.

This paper examines the extracts of the communiqué made by the Ibadan Catholic Bishops to the congregation on the Ebola epidemic. The paper identifies the practs, gives a semiotic interpretation of the signs visible, and discusses the impact of the communiqué on the Catholic faithful in the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. The data were collected from the Catholic Sunday Bulletin and the interviews conducted with, and the field notes collected from, the Catholic faithful informants (N=30) in the University of Ibadan. It utilised Mey’s pragmatic acts theory (PAT) and Saussure’s model of semiotic signs as the theoretical framework. The study shows that the communiqué is information-motivated discourse on Ebola which comprises of direct acts that make use of the contextual features of shared situational knowledge, inferences, relevance, shared cultural knowledge, and references thereby exhibiting the pragmemes of cautioning, commanding, counselling and threatening; the semiotic sign ‘Holy Communion’ signifies the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ present in Bread and Wine, the semiotic sign ‘self-signing of oneself with holy water’ signifies spiritual cleansing, and the ‘sign of peace’ signifies love and unity among the people of God in the Church. Both the pragmemes and the semiotic signs have an impact on the Catholic Faithful in University of Ibadan.