Abstract Many studies have described primarily curricular and ideal forms of university student. Considerably fewer have focused on extracurricular and everyday/typical university student English writing. Describing this language may provide a different perspective of the target for EAP learners. Thus, the present study’s purpose is to describe the linguistic/functional nature of everyday American university student written language use by creating a Corpus of American University Student of Everyday written language (CAUSE) (580 texts, 405,954 words). Texts were collected from 53 students by eliciting all of their written language use. The texts were organized by register and Biber tagged. Texts and registers then underwent an additive multidimensional analysis and were mapped onto Biber’s (1988. Variation across speech and writing . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.) original dimensions of variation. Doing so revealed that everyday university student reading is highly informational but that their writing is not, that their writing is also not highly narrative or overtly persuasive, and that texts that university students engage with are frequently different than typical texts from those registers, providing a more complete picture of the nature of university students’ language use. These findings have utility for EAP learners/teachers when considering university student language more holistically, beyond the ideal and curricular to also include the everyday.

Abstract In reframing foreign-language education into translanguaging pedagogy, educators’ criticality of monoglossic ideologies is important. This article analyzes the discourses of scholars and practitioners raising objections against Japan’s neoliberal language-in-education policy of teaching English through English to examine whether their voices are underlain by the ideology of translanguaging. The data consisted of two sets: collections of teachers’ reports of their practices published by Shin-Eiken (or the New English Teachers’ Association), a grass-roots teachers’ association founded in 1959, and critiques written by a group of four scholars supporting Shin-Eiken . The practitioners’ data set comprised 61 reports of their handed-down pedagogical practice called self-expression published in 2013–2023 and 22 reports written by their predecessors in 1974–1979. The scholars’ data came from their eight books published in 2011–2020. We performed theoretical thematic analysis to identify themes of translanguaging ideology and of monolingualism ideology. The analysis found translanguaging-minded beliefs in recent and past Shin-Eiken teachers’ discourses where they acknowledged students’ multimodal expressions as voices from idiolects. The scholars, in contrast, emphasized prescriptive use of Japanese and English as two distinct languages. We conclude that the teachers’ ideology emerged from their on-the-ground engagement with marginalized students.

Abstract The following is an edited transcript of an interview with applied linguist and sociolinguist Prof. David Block. Over the past four decades David has published books, articles and chapters on a variety of language related topics, including: second language acquisition; language teaching; multimodal practices; identity; social class; and political economy. Most recently he has examined the shifting trajectories of politics from left to far-right in the infosphere in his forthcoming book Diagonalism in online populist discourse: Left moving right (Routledge, 2026). Our interest in understanding his wide range of interests across his career, from SLA to Marxist political economy, is one of the main reasons for this interview. How and why does a scholar make such large epistemic leaps? What insights can we glean? What benefits and pitfalls might there be for others who wish to work in a similar fashion? We asked David to look back and reflect on the changes and continuities throughout his career, and seek to understand the why and how of these changes. We also asked for his thoughts on the current direction within the field towards multi- and interdisciplinarity, as well as his thoughts on the current state and future directions of language focussed research. Aside from unpacking the breadth and depth of work throughout his career, we were also interested in the extent to which David has looked outside of language-related study, towards strands of thought on political economy, neoliberalism, social class, and Marxism. This led to a revealing discussion on the necessity of reading and thinking beyond our own disciplinary boundaries, and beyond work in, and of our own time.

Abstract Owing to increasing linguistic diversity in Norwegian classrooms, the national curriculum requires teachers to incorporate a resource perspective on multilingualism in their teaching Many of these classrooms have also become heavily digitized. Few studies, however, have concerned themselves with how these two developments interact, that is, how teachers utilize tablets for educational achievement in linguistically diverse classrooms. This study analyses in detail how two teachers in a multilingual fourth-grade classroom in Norway use tablets as an integral part of their didactic design to incorporate students’ heritage languages and funds of knowledge into the language arts class. The data consists of classroom observations, interviews with teachers and students, and selected screen recordings from students’ tablets. Applying a key incident approach, the analysis demonstrates that teachers make use of the opportunities offered by the tablets for pedagogical translanguaging practices and that the students respond by mobilizing various aspects of their semiotic repertoires. The students also expressed enjoyment during the design, in particular when drawing on their parents as resources and when taking on the role of language experts during metalinguistic conversations in class.

Abstract Narrative, a distinctly human activity, is the reason the species is sometimes labelled the storytelling animal or homo narrans. Research indicates that stories are characterised by features that mirror the functioning of the human brain. The digital transformation, with narratives proliferating across media formats and thriving in multimodal contexts, supports a “narrative turn” in English language teaching (ELT), since narrative can effectively contribute to the language acquisition process both in- and outside the classroom. Consequently, English teacher education in the twenty-first century ideally focuses on narrative when teaching multiliteracies. In a specific university setting, student teachers use a blog to report on their analyses of narrative media formats and thus create a resource for others and for their own future teaching. This assignment is motivated by the insight that learning should not only lead to present performance but should also result in future usage on digital platforms that permit global visibility and a worldwide audience. The data consists of these entries, combined with questionnaires completed by course participants, and the qualitative guided interviews of selected students. Reflexive thematic analysis permits first insights into the learning about narrative, multiliteracies and the affordances of a public blog.

Abstract Natural human communication is expressed through various modalities, primarily spoken language and sign language. Many spoken languages have a long history and have developed a written form due to knowledge storage and transmission using various media. The transfer of knowledge and literature by means of fixation such as writing has also led to the development of different text types and formatting rules. In the case of sign languages, which until now were oral languages without a written tradition and were found mainly in the private register, an analogy to written languages is developing thanks to technology and digitalisation, particularly fixation on video. This evolution is leading to the generation of different text types and formatting rules for sign languages such as American Sign Language (ASL), German Sign Language (DGS) and Brazilian Sign Language (Libras). As academic interest in sign languages grows, with increased involvement of sign language users, an academic register is emerging. This article gives an overview of the development of these sign languages, explores their fixation and examines how academic formatting and text types are taking shape on a visual and multimodal level, corresponding to traditional written rules. In addition, I discuss insights that are of interest not only to non-written languages but also for dealing with artificial intelligence (AI).

A contribution from multimodality studies, this paper offers a practice- and teaching-oriented approach to the stuff of words. I start by introducing language materiality, a heuristic framework proposed by linguistic anthropologists, but grounding it in four allied precedents: cultural studies, dispositif analysis, mediated discourse, and social semiotics. Then, drawing on illustrative case studies from my own work, I demonstrate a two-part framework for working with students. In Part 1, the focus is on little “m” materialities and the transmodal interplay between words and things. In Part 2, the focus is on big “M” materialities and the more structural effects of language – specifically, symbolic violence. By using banal, everyday examples students can be helped to pinpoint the multimodality of words; how words function as material artefacts in their own right; and the way words materialize societal structures. In this way, students also learn to engage the stuff of words as more than just an analytical curiosity, but rather as an explicitly political-critical consideration.

Abstract Research demonstrates a growing disparity between the number of multilingual learners (MLLs) and bi/multilingual teachers in America’s schools. While there has been considerable research related to pedagogy that honors all students’ linguistic repertoires as resourceful for learning both content and the target language, it has primarily been directed by and toward bilingual educators and programs and/or as theoretical ideology confined to academic journals and within institutions of higher learning. Accessibility of scholarship on translingual and functional linguistic methodology to the majority monolingual K-12 content area teachers, however, is lacking. Moreover, educational policy and standardization have teamed up to produce rigid English-only requirements of both teacher pedagogy and student product. Therefore, those most often charged with the proficiency of MLLs on high stakes assessments find themselves underprepared and under supported in this task. What is needed is both research and pragmatic discussion of the potential for monolingual teachers to empower linguistically diverse classrooms with a shift in positionality from deficit mindset and English-only policies to culturally-sustaining pedagogy. To that end, those contributing to applicable research must consider ways to make findings and recommendations accessible to all stakeholders, including, especially, teacher education programs, K-12 school districts, and the teachers themselves.

Abstract While ESL writing teachers often deal with a heavy feedback workload on student writing, training students to self-assess their own work can ease the burden and empower students, especially if self-assessment increases self-efficacy and self-regulation. A self-assessment method is rubric training where teachers guide students in reading and grading sample essays. This research explores whether rubric training leads to positive emotional and regulatory gains. Twenty-one multilingual writers enrolled in a first-year writing class received incremental, short-term exposure to rubric training during which established self-efficacy and self-regulated learning scales were administered three times. Scores were compared to 15 writers in a control group, where students completed the same questionnaires on the same class days but received no rubric training. Results showed rubric training had a significant impact on students’ self-efficacy but not self-regulation. In post-assessment interviews, most students expressed feeling positive about rubric training because of the model essays. Some did not like the rubric because they thought it was difficult to read. A lexical analysis of the rubric showed it was likely beyond students’ reading level. Still, self-efficacy bridges students’ self-assessment and language gains; therefore, rubric training may be a useful tool when teachers use it to increase students’ self-efficacy.