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Bilinguals have many possibilities when it comes to choosing the language to use in diverse settings and with different speakers. In addition to general stylistic changes that monolinguals use, bilinguals can actually use code-switching as stylistic change. This paper investigates the interlanguage stylistic variation that exists between members of a bilingual Spanish-English family in order to qualitatively analyze code-switching and its relation to style-shifting. The participants in this study were analyzed based on several hours of home-videos recorded for family use. The language was transcribed and analyzed to determine the nature of the code-switches between family members. The results showed that the majority of the code-switches appear to be conscious in nature. These code-switches were also paralleled to style-shifts and used accordingly. The participants used code-switches to establish their identity and even employed them as reflections of their own ideology regarding bilingual language use. Audience design did have an effect but that was only one of many factors that influenced style-shifts. Finally, there appears to be an analogous relationship between code-switching and style-shifting as found in the data especially in regards to establishing bilingual identity.

This paper presents an analysis of the linguistic constituent; NOUN, as reflected in the texts produced by business and management students in two higher learning institutions in Malaysia. As a descriptive and a corpus-based study, it explored the output of L2 learners in the business context, providing examples of NOUN used. The precise area investigated was the frequencies of the neutral noun, the singular noun, the plural noun and the proper noun forms of the written texts, reflecting the learners’ knowledge of applying this linguistic constituent into their written output. The method applied in the analysis is a computer-based learner corpus analysis consisting of part-of-speech (POS) tagging and a frequency analysis using concordance software. The findings indicated an over-usage of the singular noun form. The pedagogical contribution of this analysis is also discussed.

Language learning is a complex process that is controlled or influenced by a host of linguistic and non-linguistic factors. Some of these factors are the main concerns of psychologists rather than linguists. Ever since psychology began to develop in the 20th century, more and more individual characteristics were identified and defined. Eysenck’s introduction of a way to measure temperament interested (applied) linguists, and some of them tried to investigate the influence of temperament on language learning. The present study, too, set out to investigate the probable effects of temperament on EFL speaking achievement. 139 Iranian intermediate-proficiency university students took the U-test, an IELTS-based structured interview, and the Eysenck Personality Test. They then took a speaking course. Another structured interview was conducted at the end of the course as the post-test. The results of a Mixed between-within Subjects Analysis of Variance (SPANOVA) indicated that introverts were advantaged in speaking achievement. The sanguine participants in the study outperformed the choleric ones who in turn outperformed the melancholic participants. The weakest results belonged to the phlegmatic participant group.

Although there are several research studies that intended to discover what comprises motivation to learn a foreign/second language, to our knowledge there have been no empirical studies in the field of EFL that examined United Arab Emirates (UAE) students’ motivation to read. Therefore, this study intended to investigate how four motivational constructs are related to UAE foreign language reading motivation and English achievement scores. Additionally, this study explored differences in motivational constructs based on gender variable. The data were collected from 513 high school students. The results of this study revealed that Intrinsic Value was the best predictor of UAE high school students’ motivation to reading English as a foreign language. The variables Intrinsic Value and Extrinsic Value were the significant predictors of reading English achievement scores. The results of the MANOVA indicated a significant difference in Extrinsic Value based on gender, with females scoring significantly higher on those items.

The study sets out to investigate the frequency of eight discourse markers (I mean, you know, I think, kind of, sort of, well, you see, so) in British and Pakistani speech. It also studies the place and function of discourse markers in Pakistani speech. For that purpose, ICLE-GB and a corpus of Pakistani Spoken English (PSE) were used. The data were analyzed using AntConc software. The results validate the claim that native speakers use more discourse markers than the non-native speakers. Furthermore, it was found that discourse markers occur at all positions in Pakistani speech (i.e., initial, medial and final). These discourse markers perform various functions in PSE in different contexts; they may function as gap fillers, may show agreement, consent or polite disagreement; they may also perform anaphoric functions, conclude a statement, convey surprise, soften the effect of a shocking statement, etc. This study certifies the differences in the native and non-native speech, and it may have pedagogical implications too. It may help teachers and learners to realize that Pakistani English is a different variety, and they need not aspire to achieve native like linguistic competence.

Following Salmani Nodoushan’s (2008) proposal of the Quantum Human Computer Hypothesis, this paper begins with a comparison (and contrast) of digital computers and quantum computers to lead to conceptual and empirical evidence in support of a minimalist model of mind. The paper suggests that the Quantum Human Computer Hypothesis (QHCH) must nevertheless be completed with a more local theory of mental faculties, and that is where Radical Minimalism (Krivochen, 2011a) comes into play. The author aims at building a stipulation-free theory of the quantum mind-brain under Radically Minimalist tenets. The author takes language to be a physical system which shares the basic properties of all the physical systems the only difference being the properties of the elements that are manipulated in the relevant system. The author also draws readers attention to the proposal that in the physical world of language, the operations are taken to be very basic, simple and universal, as well as the constraints upon them, which are determined by the interaction with other systems, not by stipulative intra-theoretical filters. The paper ends with the proposal of a Strong Radically Minimalist thesis (SRMT). The term Quantum Linguistics is proposed and elaborated on for the first time.

There is a consensus among the scholars that rater reliability is of a critical importance in rating subjective tests like an essay. Raters’ variances in their judgments as the main threat to rater reliability have been attributed to different sources, all of which have the complex factor of rater individuality at their core. Based on this, it is argued in this study that essay raters’ personality types can influence the degree of intra-rater reliability in scoring compositions. Guideline presentation effect on reliability has also been measured. Thirty raters participated in the current study and the NEO-FFI was used to measure their personality types. The results indicated a degree of relationship between raters’ gender and personality types and their intra-rater reliabilities. However, no significant relationship was found between the guideline presentation and their inter-rater reliabilities.