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The goal of the study was to investigate the relation between morphological awareness and listening comprehension with 152 (N = 152) advanced Chinese learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Two facets of morphology, derivational and compound, were found to have different relationships with listening comprehension measured by a listening test from China’s Ministry of Education—including two tasks: (a) the multiple-choice task after interviews, and (b) the gap-filling task following a mini lecture. The study provides empirical evidence that derivational awareness is significantly correlated with listening comprehension but also is an important factor for successful performance on the gap-filling listening task. In contrast, compound awareness was observed to be of weak correlation with listening comprehension. The role that the two kinds of morphological awareness play in listening comprehension has commonality with and difference from that in reading comprehension.

With growth in English-Medium of Instruction (EMI) in higher education, there have been increasing calls for research on this expansion, particularly the challenges facing students. Despite the growth in international students and ambitious target recruitment numbers in places like Japan, much of the EMI research to date focuses on home students. This article reports on a study with international students enrolled on EMI programmes in six Japanese universities. Data was collected using open-ended questionnaires (n=102), interviews (n=10) at four of the six universities, and 3 focus groups (Japanese and international students) at three of the six universities. Results show that unlike home students, international student enrollment in EMI programmes is not linked to goals to improve English proficiency; many are simply interested in Japan or learning Japanese. While students recognized the benefits of EMI, they discussed numerous challenges, particularly language-related issues in classrooms where they study with students of varying levels of English proficiency. This study provides key insights into EMI policy implementation and the needs of an important group of stakeholders who have long been high on the government’s internationalization agenda in Japan.

In recent decades, the traditional perception of academic writing as impersonal prose conveying facts has given way to a view that sees it as an interactional process laden with cultural influence. Due to this shift, authorial voice has become a major research focus in applied linguistics studies. This study involved a corpus-based textual analysis of self-representation markers in research papers by Russian and Chinese authors in the field of engineering. Using Hyland's interactional metadiscourse model (2005) and Tang and John’s (1999) taxonomy of writer’s roles as the analysis frameworks, the study aimed to compare the features of authorial voice in English-medium research article (RA) abstracts by non-native writers from two different cultural backgrounds. To achieve this purpose, 98 RA abstracts were collected from four reputable Scopus-indexed engineering journals. The differences in the use of self-mention markers are explained in terms of the national and international academic writing traditions and the level of competitiveness among scholars influencing an authorial stance in English-medium academic prose. The study has important implications for novice non-native English academic writers who aspire to take their work to an international audience.

Over the past few years, we have witnessed a crescendo of femi(ni)cides in the news. With the onset of the pandemic, the UN has defined this escalation as ‘a Shadow Pandemic’ (UN Women, 2020). While something is being done at the institutional level, many news reports perpetuate the framing of femi(ni)cide as a set of isolated cases, fueled by jealousy or temporary insanity, ignoring its socio-cultural origins. This is the case of Italy, which to date is the first and only European country to which the UN has addressed specific warnings on the phenomenon (Manjoo, 2012). Against this background, the present study examines how femi(ni)cide is framed in Italian news coverage, through a corpus retrieved from the newspaper La Repubblica’s online section ‘Osservatorio Femminicidio’ (2021). Drawing upon Bacchi’s (2009) “What’s the Problem Represented to Be” approach, the study analyses the discursive patterns used to frame femi(ni)cides, their implicatures, wording, and negative effects, to highlight what aspects are left unchallenged and what can be done to change the typical news reporting representations of femi(ni)cides in Italy.

This study aims to investigate to what extent Swedish upper secondary school learners of L2 English understand the meanings of polysemous words and whether puns can be used to teach such words. A test and two questionnaires were constructed to retrieve data from both students and teachers. The results of the study show that Swedish upper secondary school learners of L2 English generally have an acceptable knowledge of polysemous words, but that the students’ comprehension depends on the program they attend. Based on these results, it was also concluded that puns can be used to teach students about the meanings of polysemous words. The results of the questionnaires display that students in general have a positive attitude towards using puns in the classroom, and that they find them entertaining and humorous. In addition, the students also saw this approach as beneficial to their motivation and retention. Lastly, the teachers expressed that using humor can strengthen the learning process, and if the students find the teaching situation enjoyable, they learn faster, and their retention is thus increased.

Student-Centred Learning (SCL) has brought a shift of perspective in the teaching-learning process. It is a shift from traditional learning where teachers are the sole providers of knowledge. Such a conventional method of teaching has given way to a system where the student, not the teacher is the central focus. The present study adopts the model given by Jacobs and Renandya (2016) to assess the efficacy of teaching the English language to Functional English (FE) students at Fazl Ali College, Mokokchung. The ten elements given by the model are adopted to study and analyse the effectiveness of teaching the English language. The study has brought to light some of the strong points of teaching and learning functional English. The student’s response has been very positive and forthcoming towards SCL in the department of functional English, Fazl Ali College. This study revealed that the model of learning should change and transform the process of education. It is concluded that such an approach will surely open up manifold possibilities for learning.

This study investigated the unique features of the Sibreh subdialect from the Greater Aceh dialect spoken in Aceh, Indonesia. The data for this qualitative study were collected through elicitations from 70 native Acehnese speakers living in Sibreh, Aceh. The findings showed six unique features of the Sibreh subdialect that are different from the standard Acehnese and the Greater Aceh dialect itself. These features include (1) the production of uvular fricative /ʁ/, (2) the reduction of some consonants at word-initial positions, (3) the realization of alveolar nasal and velar nasal to replace some consonants at word-final positions, (4) the monophthongization of the diphthong /ai/, (5) variations in plosive consonants, and (6) realization of alveolar fricative /s/ as lamino alveo-dental stop /S/. These features are unpredictable and considered of other Acehnese dialects. The unique features of this subdialect have caused mockery from other Acehnese dialect speakers, and this has led the Sibreh speakers to feel insecure and self-conscious towards their subdialect. The paper argues that there is a lack of public literacy on their subdialect and concludes that cultivating the awareness of linguistic diversity is important to strengthen the kinship, positive attitude, loyalty, and pride of the Acehnese people towards their rich culture as a whole.

This study aimed to compare the predictive power of Involvement Load Hypothesis (ILH) and Technique Feature Analysis (TFA) using five different vocabulary learning tasks that had similar and different rankings based on the two models. The experimental tasks included reading and true/false statements, reading and choosing definitions, reading and fill-in-the-blanks, and reading and rewording the sentences. The control task was a reading and comprehension questions task. Participants were 114 young adult EFL learners from five intact classes, assigned to one of the five tasks. During-task performance was assessed. Initial learning was measured by administering an L2/L1 word translation immediate posttest, and medium-term retention was measured by administering the same test with rearranged items one week later. ANOVA and hierarchical multiple-regression results showed that TFA was a more powerful predictor of both initial and medium-term learning. Pedagogical and theoretical implications of the findings will be discussed.