Express Yourself: An Auto-Ethnographic Narrative Account of Learning English as a Second Language

The present paper offers a modest contribution to the existing and ongoing attempt to find a place for narrative research in language education. The purpose is mainly to explore and highlight insights gleaned from narrative research with regard to narrative data and analysis. Due to the diverse and unique nature of second language learning and teaching, I would argue that gathering narrative data from second language learners are paramount and in line with the existing attempt to view second language teaching and learning in its own right and not as imitation of first language learning. To develop my argument, I will first discuss the position of narrative research in second language education highlighting the contribution and insights that narrative research brings to second language teaching and learning. I will proceed to define narrative research and explains the various tools to elicit narrative data as well as issues that narrative researcher needs to consider when collecting narrative data. The paper ends by looking at issues and strategies in analyzing narrative data. In all of the discussion, relevant research is cited to illustrate the point being discussed. The paper will end by highlighting that the discussion about narrative data and analysis are not aimed to replace other tools of data elicitation and analysis. Rather, it aims to invite teachers and researchers to see narratives as a viable option in research as the methodology continues to move forward.

Rick Kern's (2024, this issue) critical engagement with the implications of technological advancements such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine translation in the postpandemic era should prompt many to reflect on the so-called "existential crisis" we face, both as language teachers and as human beings. Language teachers, like many other professionals (e.g., accountants and lawyers), may fear that they will be replaced by AI (e.g., Felix, 2020) while modern language education programs already face funding cuts in many contexts such as the United States and Australia (e.g., Gao & Zheng, 2019; Lanvers et al., 2018). For this reason, I completely agree with the premise that there is a need for language educators to identify the affordances and constraints presented by technological tools in language education. It is also critical to ascertain how we can draw on intellectual sources to help language teachers make informed use of technological tools to provide the best possible learning experience for language learners. At the same time, however, I wonder if the challenges that technological advancements present for language teachers may require more in-depth elaboration. Such an elaboration might help us better "articulate and communicate the value of language study" (Kern, 2024, this issue, p. XX) for the public and implement the pathways in language (teacher) education advanced by Kern. It should be noted that technological developments such as the rise of generative AI pose challenges for most professions. Generative AI tools have already been tested for their ability to replace humans in the fields of accountancy and law (e.g., Choi et al., 2021; Vasarhelyi et al., 2023), and language teachers may also feel their profession is at risk. A counterargument against "fearmongering" discourses about this technological development is the assertion that AI can replace human beings for the completion of individual tasks but cannot replace their jobs altogether. Indeed, professions such as teaching involve complex orchestration of multiple tasks (e.g., delivering content, facilitating thinking, and guiding and supporting learning), which is beyond the current capacity of generative AI tools. As an increasing number of tasks can be executed by these new technological means, however, the ways in which human beings are needed in these jobs are also likely to change. In the context of language learning and use, technologies such as machine translation may generate inaccurate texts, but they are sufficient for communication tasks that do not require high levels of precision. For instance, as a journal editor, I may need to look up a colleague in a Turkish university to find out whether their research background and expertise match a manuscript that needs to be reviewed. I would not be able to understand the content of this colleague's webpage on their university's staff directory, which would be in Turkish, if I did not use Google Translate in my Chrome browser. While it is possible that Google Translate would not accurately translate the entire website from Turkish into English, it would be adequate to help me to decide whether this colleague had sufficient expertise to review the manuscript. In a similar way, I imagine that hundreds of such day-to-day professional tasks do not require translations that are 100% accurate. For example, generative AI tools can help people to create texts such as letters of complaint or appreciation in different languages. Machine translation and generative AI tools can help people overcome language barriers without necessarily needing to learn new languages to complete these tasks. Most of these tasks involve the transactional use of language (i.e., the communication of information for exchange), a form of language use that has motivated many learners to learn languages in traditional classrooms. It should also be noted that machine translation and generative AI tools are undergoing further development and refinement. Kern's (2024, this issue, p. X) article suggests that generative AI tools such as ChatGPT are "harmful to a social understanding of knowledge and learning" because they do not make the sources of knowledge explicit, have "no notion of empirical truth," and "no conception of a theoretical frame" (Peters et al., 2023, pp. 14−15), and cannot apply ethical principles in the course of reasoning. Moreover, generative AI tools tend to appear to be "uncritically affirmative" (Peters et al., 2023, pp. 14−15). In my view, these issues cannot be fixed through continuous technological developments, but it is likely that generative AI tools will function as if they have appropriate understandings of empirical truth and use theoretical frameworks when presenting views on particular issues. They may also appear to have balanced views on different topics and to use ethical principles when elaborating upon these views. As an applied linguist, I cannot evaluate how well generative AI tools are "learning" and what they are capable of in terms of functionality in the future. However, it is very likely that the community of language teachers faces a crisis, as the rise of generative AI tools will lead to a worldwide diminishing of the scale of language education. Opportunities to learn languages will likely be reserved for those aiming for an expert level of proficiency and competence that enables them to outperform and manage machine translation and generative AI tools in language use; or those who are intrinsically motivated to learn languages. Will this create a world in which people are categorized into those who have the resources and expertise to manage technological tools, and those who depend on such tools? The growing inequity as a result of this knowledge gap is beyond the scope of this response, but the crisis engulfing language education has important ramifications for language teachers, which I shall now rely on Chinese cultural wisdom to discuss. The dialectical idea of "crisis" in the Chinese language "危机 wei ji" means both "danger [危 wei]" and "opportunity [机 ji]" (Wang, 2014). In the spirit of Kern's (2024, this issue) article, the crisis here presents an opportunity for language educators to rethink the values involved in the study of language and how these values can be articulated and realized. Such critical reflections and conversations will help reenergize language education with new understandings and commitments. It is my contention that the changes that must take place in language education have been well presented in Kern's (2024) article. For this reason, I will focus on the critical question of how we can "articulate and communicate the value of language study" to the public to develop a clear agenda for language teacher education moving forward. My first response regarding the value of language study against the backdrop of technological developments is that language learning needs to be promoted as a fundamentally humanistic endeavor. Many tasks involving the transactional use of language can be performed with improved functionality by rapidly evolving machine translation and generative AI tools. Although generative AI tools may appear to be increasingly humanlike when interacting with us, our deep, intrinsic needs—such as a sense of belonging, identity aspirations, and desirable attributes associated with speaking languages other than our own (such as "coolness," creativity, etc.)—cannot be satisfied by these tools. The value of language study lies in the human life journeys that language teachers undertake together with learners. I recall what my English language teacher used to say many years ago: You can live multiple lives if you learn to speak multiple languages. Nevertheless, I understand that we must develop a much more persuasive message if we are to persuade the public to value language studies. Let us shift our attention to other professions where automation can replace human beings, but human beings still play a critical role. For example, autopilot technology is already quite well developed in the aviation industry. We now have the technology to pilot a plane from takeoff to landing, yet we still rely on human pilots to operate planes. The obvious reason is that we do not want human beings to lose the essential skills and capacity required to operate increasingly sophisticated modern aircraft in complex situations. If we fully rely on automatic instruments to fly the plane, pilots may not have the opportunity to operate these planes themselves. Reliance on human pilots for the operation of aircraft helps ensure that the world still has reliable pilots if technology fails. We also want to remain the "masters" of technological tools. The same reasoning can be applied in defense of language study: It can be argued that language makes us human, and language use is an essential characteristic of our humanity. If we rely on technological tools for human interaction, we will have fewer opportunities to develop critical skills, competence, and practices for cross-cultural communication and mutual understanding. Which tasks can be replaced by technological tools that can perform them more efficiently than human beings? Which tasks can be replaced by technological tools but should be retained by human beings as essential skills? Which tasks cannot be performed entirely with technological tools but can be approached by using these tools to facilitate the growth of our skills, knowledge, competencies, attributes, and dispositions? A lack of rigorous answers to these questions will undermine the efforts of language educators to respond to the challenges posed by technological developments. Robust responses to these questions will help language teachers identify where they stand in relation to technological developments and the need for effective pedagogy. For example, generative AI tools may help us remove grammatical infelicities in our written language and improve the quality of our writing as users of English as an additional language. It is perfectly reasonable for us to use these tools to help us write texts in languages other than our own. However, this does not mean that learners should also give up learning the skills needed to notice and appropriate target language forms. Another example involves the use of technologies that may help learners to spend less time drilling and practicing their linguistic knowledge. This does not mean that learners do not need to develop the capacity and disposition needed to monitor and reflect upon their language development, either. In this way, language education researchers may now need to identify a repertoire of essential skills, knowledge, competencies, attributes, and dispositions that human beings should retain as language users, regardless of whether technological tools can replace human beings in the completion of many tasks connected to language use. For instance, language learners want to be heard and listened to, while language teachers also want to promote language learners' acquisition of linguistic knowledge and skills, as well as fostering their personal growth in teaching. In order to achieve such aspirations, language teachers and learners need to work together to find the most effective ways to develop language learners into agentic and lifelong learners who are capable of creating learning opportunities for themselves—learners who are resilient, persevering, and highly motivated; who can regulate their learning processes, and believe in their own capacity to take control of language learning (Larsen-Freeman et al., 2021). Indeed, the use of technological tools such as generative AI can give language teachers the time and opportunity to focus on the development of the list of essential skills, knowledge, competencies, attributes, and dispositions that may otherwise receive insufficient attention. The effort to identify this list of qualities addresses the critical question language educators must answer to the public regarding the value of language study. Further research is required to demonstrate the value of the essential skills, knowledge, competencies, attributes, and dispositions language learners can develop through their learning process. For instance, language learners' perception of self-efficacy, which relates to their beliefs about what they can learn and how they can manage their learning process, is essential for their development through learning both subject content and languages. While learners may develop a positive perception of self-efficacy through language learning, this can also be promoted in other arenas, such as learning mathematics or participating in sports. For this reason, I suggest that language teachers focus on the variety of skills, knowledge, competencies, attributes, and dispositions that are unique to the learning of languages, rather than more generic counterparts. As an example, intercultural communicative competence is a highly desirable attribute that language learners can develop through learning languages. At this point, it is not clear whether future technological tools will be capable of detecting and appropriately responding to subtle cultural nuances in the context of intercultural communication, but this is a valuable, essential skill for human beings to retain (e.g., Gao & Yang, 2023). When language teachers possess a list of what can be best learned through language education, we can achieve a clear articulation of the value of language study for the public. Language teachers also need this list to clarify the roles that they must perform in this brave new world. In my perspective, the shifting responses to the roles of language teachers by generative AI tools presented in Kern's (2024, this issue) article are at once deeply comforting and concerning. The article indicates that generative AI tools are learning how to respond based on the available language data at their disposal, which suggests that we are still refining our thoughts on this critical question. I can imagine that their responses will become increasingly sophisticated as language educators' engagement with this critical question deepens. At present, these responses highlight the role that teachers have in providing emotional support to language learners in terms of motivation, confidence, and engagement. Additionally, human teachers are responsive to individual language learners' needs, preferences, and styles when monitoring, regulating, and facilitating language learners' learning processes. Human teachers promote language learners' critical reflections on values and norms to develop a better sense of self and belonging toward community building. Human teachers are also believed to facilitate language learners' development of knowledge, skills, and dispositions for adaptive and creative responses in real-world environments. However, these represent patterns of responses that human beings have been producing to the question as captured and identified by the AI tools. As such, they likely reflect our limited understanding of what technological tools are capable of at present, and how they may evolve into in the future. While these responses are valuable, I also wonder if they partly reflect the wishful thinking of language educators. As generative AI tools are further refined in terms of their functionality, I imagine that these tools can perform the aforementioned tasks that have been ascribed to human teachers so far. These tools may appear to behave as if they were language teachers who attempt to provide emotional and human support to language learners; offer feedback responsive to language learners' needs, preferences, and styles; facilitate their critical skills of reflection and reflexion; and enable language learners with knowledge and skills to promote their adaptability and creativity. The fundamental difference between generative AI tools and human teachers is found at the fact that these are not essential qualities of AI tools but rather represent their behavioral functions. Importantly, these are qualities that human teachers cannot afford to lose. As a result, language teacher education programs should reorient themselves to focus on the development of these essential qualities that language teachers must offer as human teachers (Gao, 2019). While the changes induced by technological developments do not fundamentally change the roles that language teachers play in education, they do indicate that language teachers must prepare for the shifting priorities in their professional practice. Consequently, language teacher education programs must also adjust their pedagogical priorities so that they can better prepare language teachers for the need to adapt their teaching practice to the new world to come. Language teacher education programs help language teachers to develop a critical awareness of technological affordances and constraints so that they can be clear about the mission they undertake as human teachers: They need to develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that are essential for human beings to maintain. Without these essential attributes, humans may be unable to claim ourselves as human agents in control of our own life and existence. The humanistic aspects of language education should become more prominent as human language teachers focus on the satisfaction of language learners' intrinsic and integrative needs, while technological tools address the instrumental needs of language learners. Language teacher education programs may need to focus on developing language teachers' adequate understandings of technological tools so that they use these tools effectively in collaboration with language learners to facilitate their personal growth (Tao & Gao, 2022). Effective use of these tools will create time and space for the development of the skills, knowledge, competencies, attributes, and dispositions that have not been well addressed in traditional language classrooms, in which the main tasks of learning and teaching relate to linguistic knowledge. Language teacher education programs prepare preservice language teachers who need to teach languages other than their own for using technological tools to help develop and refine their knowledge of these languages. Pedagogical priorities will shift toward the learning and teaching of language-related outcomes, including intercultural communication, as well as nonlinguistic outcomes such as perseverance, adaptability, and creativity. Teaching can also focus on the growth of inner resources such as agency, so that learners have opportunities to develop these crucial inner resources (Larsen-Freeman, 2019). For example, teachers might use learner-oriented feedback to allow language learners to choose the aspects of their learning that they would like to receive feedback on and how they would like feedback to be given to them. As technology increasingly replaces human beings in the performance of a variety of tasks, it is critical for language educators to reorient our focus toward developing the essential skills, knowledge, competencies, attributes, and dispositions that make us human through learning languages. For me, the crisis brought about by technological developments presents an opportunity for language educators to revive the fundamentally humanistic cause of language education—that is, to promote critical cultural and human understandings and to bring people together so that we can respond to the existential crises facing the human race, such as climate change and war. Open access publishing facilitated by University of New South Wales, as part of the Wiley - University of New South Wales agreement via the Council of Australian University Librarians.

This study examines the role of parents’ English language experience in shaping the English competence of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students. It focuses on how parental involvement, regardless of their English proficiency, supports their children’s English development. The research also explores how parents’ educational background, parent-child relationships, and the level of parental involvement contribute to children’s motivation and progress in learning English. Using a qualitative approach, this study investigates how parents with varying levels of English experience contribute to their children’s language learning. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with four 12th-grade students, selected based on their relevance to the study. These students come from families with different educational backgrounds and English language experience. The interviews were semi-structured, focusing on students’ experiences in learning English, the support they receive from their parents, and how their parents’ English language experience shapes their learning process. In addition to the interviews, documentation such as students’ report cards and parents’ salary slips were analyzed to provide context regarding the socio-economic background. The findings show that parental involvement, regardless of their English proficiency, plays a significant role in students’ English development. Parents with limited English experience still provide moral support, emphasize the importance of English for the future, and create a supportive learning environment. The study suggests that schools should enhance parental involvement by offering training and resources, particularly for parents with limited educational backgrounds and English experience, to improve the learning ecosystem and support English learning more effectively.

The present paper offers a modest contribution to the existing and ongoing attempt to find a place for narrative research in language education. The purpose is mainly to explore and highlight insights gleaned from narrative research with regard to narrative data and analysis. Due to the diverse and unique nature of second language learning and teaching, I would argue that gathering narrative data from second language learners are paramount and in line with the existing attempt to view second language teaching and learning in its own right and not as imitation of first language learning. To develop my argument, I will first discuss the position of narrative research in second language education highlighting the contribution and insights that narrative research brings to second language teaching and learning. I will proceed to define narrative research and explains the various tools to elicit narrative data as well as issues that narrative researcher needs to consider when collecting narrative data. The paper ends by looking at issues and strategies in analyzing narrative data. In all of the discussion, relevant research is cited to illustrate the point being discussed. The paper will end by highlighting that the discussion about narrative data and analysis are not aimed to replace other tools of data elicitation and analysis. Rather, it aims to invite teachers and researchers to see narratives as a viable option in research as the methodology continues to move forward.

In addressing the recent special issue in Frontiers in Psychology, namely “Positive Psychology in Foreign and Second Language Education: Approaches and Applications,” calling language education researchers around the globe to study positive emotions, positive personality traits, and positive institutional tendencies and their implications for language education systems, stakeholders, and policy practices, the present conceptual review paper aims to acquaint language education researchers, practitioners, instructors, and learners with the main tenets of positive psychology and their application in second/foreign language (L2) education research. Accordingly, by drawing on the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, we explain how individuals' positivity can result in their flourishment and development in any aspect of life, including L2 learning and teaching. Then, we introduce and conceptualize seven instances of positive psychology variables, namely academic engagement, emotion regulation, enjoyment, grit, loving pedagogy, resilience, and well-being and explain how these positive factors contribute to desirable L2 learning and teaching experiences. Subsequently, potential theoretical and pedagogical implications are drawn to enhance the quality and effectiveness of language education systems and their respective stakeholders. In the end, the limitations of the studies in this area are explicated, and suggestions for future research are provided to expand the extant literature on positive psychology in the domain of L2 education.

This article sheds light on a survey study on the reflection of English teaching and learning by teachers and students in high schools in China. Forty-Two English teachers and 156 students from four high schools in Hunan Province participated in the study. They responded to questions through an online survey about their English learning and teaching experience. The survey also asked the participants to share their comments and opinions on how to make improvement and changes to make English education more effective and efficient. The data were discussed and analyzed in comparing with English learning experience and process of native speakers of English in the United States. Findings of this study suggest that more exposure to authentic English, extensive reading, and daily oral communication be enhanced to improve the learners’ proficiency. This study indicates that the current learning process and instructional sequence are not effective and efficient. Some fundamental issues related to learning sequence, learning efficiency, curriculum policy and design are addressed, and suggestions are made for future research and English education reform.

This article explores college EFL students' metaphorical perceptions of learning English in a minority area in Northwest China.120 students ( 30English majors and 30 non-English majors), participated in the study by completing a prompt "learning English is (like)… because…".Through metaphor analysis, it is hoped to have an insights into how students currently perceive their experiences of learning English and what thinking the students' metaphorical perceptions of learning English may stimulate.115 metaphors were used for analysis in terms of attitudes towards English, types of metaphors and perceptions revealed through metaphors.It was found that students had a good understanding of English learning.Their metaphors revealed their beliefs about the English learning, about English learning process and about themselves as language learners.They understood that language learning was hard process and that being a successful learner requires a variety of demands such as hard work, perseverance, patience, and a positive attitude.The results of the study may help students in exploring an important aspect of their past, present and even future lives and teachers who work in a similar context in understanding these perceptions and using them to facilitate and foster their students' English learning.

This study aims to shed light on the reasons that influence Saudi students’ learning experiences, self-esteem, and attitudes in English language education in the EFL context as linked to their language proficiency. However, Saudi students’ experiences differed in the ESL context, as the study’s findings revealed. This study was conducted to understand the students’ perspectives about their different language learning experiences in ESL and EFL settings. The participants in this study were ten students who had learned English in both EFL and ESL classrooms, which gave the study a clear understanding of the English language learning circumstances in both environments. A qualitative approach was used in this study to enable the researcher to discover the participants’ English language learning experiences and to assist the researcher to learn extensively about those experiences. Moreover, the data analysis revealed that the students’ experiences were influenced by certain factors in the EFL context. The data findings showed that the Saudi students’ experiences in EFL differed from those in ESL in terms of their self-esteem, attitude. The students reported that each learning context contributed to their learning in a different manner. EFL contributed to their basic English to some extent, regardless of its accompanying negative factors; however, ESL contributed more effectively to their language acquisition, with positive factors that they found more relevant to their success in the language.

Qualitative research continues to be of relatively lower visibility in areas of language and literacy education. A review of published studies in major journals as well as research methodology books in related fields may illustrate a landscape of inquiry overshadowed by experimental and statistical approaches. In this chapter apart from voicing the need for the further recognition and visibility of qualitative inquiry in language and literacy education research, I argue that qualitative research in these areas should be understood as an epistemological necessity rather than a mere technical reaction to the shortcomings of quantitative studies. Moreover, I raise the concern that qualitative inquiry in the field needs to adopt conceptions of language and learning which are epistemologically congruent with a qualitative methodological position. This introductory chapter also presents an overview of the three parts of the book that probe theoretical, methodological, and practical aspects of qualitative language and literacy education research. The chapter foregrounds the discussions in the rest of the book by justifying the combination of literacy studies and language education research and by highlighting the prospect of contributions of such a volume to inquiry in the broad area of language and literacy education.

The language learning largely took place in the classroom, especially prior to Covid-19 pandemic and that this occurrence resulted in simplicity for the learners to learn and interact with each other because they could directly make in contact with their classmates and their teachers. However, since the pandemic developed in March 2020, all the learning process was subsequently altered into online learning. To date, studies on language learning has been undertaken by the researchers both at intra and international level. Despite the existence of these former studies, little work reports the comprehensive picture of language learning experiences prior to and during Covid-19 pandemic. To fill this lacuna, the current article reports on a narrative inquiry of EFL learners’ experiences of learning English prior to and during Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing upon data from a semi-structured interview with two Indonesian EFL learners of the sixth semester majoring in English education program, the finding indicates that EFL learners have sustained multifaceted learning experiences prior to and during the pandemic. They have gone through face-to-face learning prior to the pandemic, asynchronous learning during the pandemic and hybrid learning experience during the Covid-19 pandemic. This article concludes with suggestions for promoting hybrid learning model in the EFL setting, particularly in a higher education during the Covid-19 pandemic.

This study provides a comprehensive overview of research on language education (2000–2024), aiming to observe the development trends, describe collaborations among authors, institutions, countries, and disciplines, and map the knowledge landscape. Additionally, the study interprets research hotspots and outlines future directions in the field of language education. The research collected 3,326 scientific publications from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) and employed bibliometric analysis to interpret the data. Tools such as CiteSpace, HisCite, the Alluvial Generator, and R were used to visualize knowledge maps of language education. The findings indicate a sustained growth trend in language education research and identify key contributors, highlighting the significant achievements of scholars and institutions from North America, and China. The study also presents the leading journals, articles, and disciplines contributing to language education research. Furthermore, it identifies current research focus areas, including positive psychology in language learning, English as a second language teaching, translanguaging, machine translation, and AI-assisted language learning, especially the roles of VR, AR, and chatbots. The study emphasizes the growing importance of technology in language learning and predicts an increasing integration of various technological tools in future language education research.

Successful second language (L2) acquisition demands effective self-regulated language learning (SRLL), often influenced by students’ motivation. Through structural equation modeling, the present study explored the relationships between the L2 motivational self system (L2MSS) components, including the ideal L2 self, English learning experience, ought-to L2 self, and SRLL. To this end, 613 high school English language learners completed the L2MSS questionnaire designed by Taguchi et al. (2009) and an SRLL questionnaire developed by Salehi and Jafari (2015). Pearson correlation analysis revealed strong positive relationships between the ideal L2 self, English learning experience, and all SRLL subscales. Much lower but statistically significant correlations were also found between the ought-to L2 self and SRLL constituents. The structural models revealed that both the ideal L2 self and English learning experience can significantly contribute to the affective, (meta)cognitive, and behavioral aspects of SRLL through intrinsic motivation (IM). Nevertheless, the ought-to L2 self was revealed to have negligible effects on all variables. The results emphasize the mediating role of IM in a motivational model depicting the paths to SRLL. The study concludes with a discussion of implications for language learning and teaching.

Reviewed by: Between Two Grammars, Research and Practice for Language Learning and Teaching in a Creole-speaking Environment by Beverley Bryan Don E. Walicek Beverley Bryan. 2010. Between Two Grammars, Research and Practice for Language Learning and Teaching in a Creole-speaking Environment. Kingston: Ian Randle. 194pp. ISBN: 978-976-637-352-8. This book—which consists of an introduction, eight chapters, and a detailed index—offers a multidisciplinary perspective on language learning and teaching, in particular the teaching of English in Jamaica. Its author, Beverley Bryan, indicates that the work has five main aims: (i) to present an enriched view of the multiple meanings of language and English in teaching in the Caribbean; (ii) to provide tools necessary to navigate the language arena, allowing teachers to interrogate their responses to language; (iii) to generate a set of principles appropriate for teaching English in Creole-speaking environments; (iv) to review specific language teaching methodologies; and (v) to empower teachers to develop a critical perspective on their practice. The author makes a direct appeal to those who work in education, but the volume will certainly be appreciated a variety of readers, including those with interests in sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, and pedagogy. Chapter 1, ‘Characterising the Language Situation in Jamaica,’ engages literature from Caribbean linguistics, citing the work of influential researchers in the field, including Mervyn Alleyne, Derek Bickerton, and Hubert Devonish. It includes an informative overview of the grammatical features of the island’s Creole (hereafter referred to as Jamaican) and discusses shifts in public discourse about the status of the language. Exploring the latter, Bryan examines discourse about Jamaican that have appeared in letters to the editor and notes a diachronic shift in these newspaper debates. She points out that while language issues remain contentious, today such letters tend to assume that the Creole is a full-fledged language. While the chapter does provide details about Jamaican, it does not squarely address questions how to define and distinguish the languages spoken on the island. Of course some readers are likely to already be knowledgeable of Jamaica’s linguistic history and sociolinguistic dynamics. The second chapter, which begins with an interesting section on the emergence of formal education in Jamaica, deals with the school environment. The author indicates that language teaching on the island [End Page 236] began with the establishment of a system of elementary education “under the aegis of the abolition arm of the church” and with the aid of the Negro Education Grant 1835–1845 (p. 24). Tensions exist between Bryan’s account of the establishment of an educational system and assertions made by Dunkley (2012). Dunkley views the Negro Educational Grant as an “additional enhancement” to a venture already in place; furthermore, he charges that to conclude that no real system was in place prior to abolition undermines the agency of the enslaved and forfeits the opportunity to “analyze one of the most important ways in which enslaved people demonstrated slave freedom” (p. 70). Readers unfamiliar with the history of the system may be surprised to learn that “payment by results,” an arrangement by which student achievement translated into money for schools, dates back to the first half of the nineteenth century. Keeping this in mind, Bryan describes competency in English during this period as a commodity, reminding us, “each mark gained was a pound for the school” (pp. 24–25). Chapter 2’s discussion extends into the twentieth century, addressing curriculum development, access to education, and patterns of classroom interaction. In a section highlighting recent research, Bryan underscores the existence of varying degrees of bilingualism, analyzes several examples of classroom discourse, and emphasizes the importance of the teacher as a bridge between languages. The next chapter considers how English is taught in secondary schools. It begins with an overview of relevant theories of English as an international language and a survey of scholarship on “the New Englishes.” Bryan also addresses the debate about the use of Jamaican as a language of classroom instruction. She makes a distinction between efforts to promote Jamaican as an official language and language of instruction (research by H. Devonish and projects at UWI’s Jamaican Language Unit) and opposition to such...

Intersectional highlighting in queer immigrants’ English learning through dating: Dominant ideologies, individual agency, and implications for second language education

Drawing on ethnographic data, this article chronicles a Japanese queer immigrant’s English learning experiences in a metropolitan area in western Canada. Informed by sociocultural theories and identity-centred approaches to Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research, I highlight the significance and interconnection between social identity, ideology, and language learner agency in second language (L2) learning, teaching, and education. Over a seven-month span, I investigated two research questions targeting the ideological constraints and potential coping strategies in the key participant’s English learning. Nexus analysis is applied as the methodological framework. Following a three-step procedure, I first illustrate my positionality as a researcher and the rationale of the project. I then conduct critical discourse analysis delving into two featured social actions selected from the database generated through ethnographic observations, semi-structured interviews, and participant’s reflective journals. I conclude with a discussion of how SLA researchers and educational practitioners can better support marginalized immigrants’ L2 learning. Building on this case, I propose an allyship-centred approach in L2 teaching and researching and a model of collaborative working between researchers and educational practitioners to provoke more equitable nexuses of practice in immigrants’ L2 education.