ABSTRACT This paper examines the conceptual metaphors underlying the perception of English language proficiency, usage, and attitudes in Nigeria, and provides their pedagogical implications. The data comprise transcripts of focus group discussions involving selected Nigerian students on attitudes towards varieties of Nigerian English. The conceptual metaphors in the data were identified and analysed by maximising the merits of conceptual metaphor theory. The analysis indicates that diverse aspects of Nigerian English are conceptualised using six conceptual metaphors, namely: USAGE OF NIGERIAN ENGLISH AS A MASK/DECORATION, FLUENT COMMUNICATION IN NIGERIAN ENGLISH AS LIQUID, PROFICIENCY IN NIGERIAN ENGLISH AS AN INHERITANCE, PROFICIENCY IN NIGERIAN ENGLISH AS BUILDING, PROFICIENCY IN NIGERIAN ENGLISH AS MORALITY, and PROFICIENCY IN NIGERIAN ENGLISH AS EATING/FOOD. While these conceptualisations reflect the participants’ positive attitude towards Nigerian English, on the one hand, and their negative attitude towards Nigeria's indigenous languages, the MASK metaphor highlights a subtle negative perception that English is used to obscure one's true social-economic identity. This study concludes that evaluations of Nigerian English and its speakers are shaped by sociocultural factors reflected metaphorically. By bridging metaphor studies and language attitude research, this work offers a new interdisciplinary perspective that highlights critical implications for English language pedagogy in Nigeria.

ABSTRACT This study examines lexical–semantic network organisation in multilingual learners by comparing verbal fluency in a fully consolidated first language (Spanish) and a less consolidated foreign language (German), acquired as a third language. Thirty-four university students completed semantic, phonological, and verb written fluency tasks. Network science metrics assessed word output, lexical diversity, and topological properties including clustering, modularity, small-world characteristics, and core–periphery structure. Results revealed significantly higher written verbal fluency in the native language across all tasks, with greater word production and lexical diversity. Native-language networks displayed stronger structural properties, including higher modularity and denser core integration, reflecting a more efficient, hierarchically organised lexicon. Conversely, foreign language networks exhibited fragmentation and reliance on a limited set of high-frequency items, consistent with less consolidated lexical organisation. Semantic fluency tasks produced more cohesive networks, whereas phonological tasks showed greater variability, particularly in the foreign language. Verb networks demonstrated strong cohesion in both languages, highlighting the influence of communicative relevance. These findings support spreading activation and prototype-based accounts of lexical organisation and demonstrate that key network properties, such as small-world and core–periphery patterns, emerge even in developing foreign language systems.

ABSTRACT The role of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in education has received a surge of scholarly attention in the past decade. However, the emotional aspect of adopting AI in multilingual education has been overlooked. To fill the gap, this study aimed to examine Chinese multilingual language learners’ perceptions about AI-induced emotional challenges and their regulation by drawing on the second wave of positive psychology (PP) 2.0. Forty multilingual students from different countries, each fluent in at least three languages and studying Chinese at universities in China, were interviewed. The results of thematic analysis demonstrated four common emotional challenges involved in AI-mediated language education and four regulation strategies to manage them. It was found that AI caused emotional challenges by increasing negative emotions, isolating and reducing interpersonal communication skills, threatening multilingual and multicultural identity, and over-relying on AI tools and reducing self-efficacy among learners. To regulate such challenges, the participants suggested acknowledging negative emotions, balancing the use of AI tools with human interaction, talking and sharing experiences with others, and taking breaks and setting realistic goals. The study discusses each theme and provides implications for multilingual learners and teachers to better understand and regulate AI-induced emotional challenges in AI-mediated classes.

ABSTRACT This study aims to investigate the beliefs of both pre-service and in-service language teachers regarding multilingualism in Montreal, Quebec. It also explores whether teachers’ beliefs vary depending on the language they teach (French, English or both), their teaching experience (pre-service, novice teachers and experienced teachers), and their dominant language (French, English or other). Data were collected from 57 participants through an online questionnaire and follow-up focus groups. Findings show overall positive beliefs towards multilingualism as well as protective views towards the French language. While teachers generally do not perceive multilingualism as a threat to French, some expressed concerns about the growing influence of English.

ABSTRACT This study explored the connections between multilingual learners using AI-enhanced language tools and their social-emotional and motivational results, such as grit, foreign language enjoyment, anxiety, and emotional disengagement. To this end, 459 international learners of Chinese as a foreign language from diverse geographic and educational backgrounds completed verified questionnaires. Descriptive and inferential analyses showcased that more frequent use of AI tools was related to higher perseverance and enjoyment, and lower anxiety and emotional disengagement. The findings evidence that AI-supported learning can boost learners’ motivation and emotional regulation in language-learning situations. Theoretically, the study emphasises the importance of self-determination theory (SDT) and cognitive load-reducing frameworks. Practically, it suggests integrating AI tools strategically to support learner engagement and well-being.

ABSTRACT While traditional Chinatowns have been widely studied, less is known about how Chinese diasporic communities become visible in emerging Chinatowns. Since restaurant signage is both prominent and economically driven, the culinary linguistic landscape is an ideal site for examining how multilingual and multimodal resources convey cultural authenticity and commercial branding. This study analyses 109 photographs of signage from 32 Chinese restaurants in Huai Khwang, an emerging Chinatown in urban Bangkok, Thailand, using a multimodal linguistic landscape approach. Four semiotic practices were identified: commodification of regional authenticity; multimodal semiotics (e.g. lanterns and couplets), the (localised) recontextualisation of Chinese semiotic resources, and internet catchphrase-themed fake street signs. Simplified Chinese predominates, suggesting an orientation towards co-ethnic audiences and mainland China, while Thai and English function as access, regulatory, and marketing resources. Huai Khwang’s ‘emergence’ as a Chinatown is thus characterised by the dominance of Simplified Chinese in combination with recognisable Chinese semiotic resources, in contrast to the prevalence of Traditional Chinese in many long-established Chinatowns. Restaurant signage therefore functions as a multimodal semiotic resource communicating Chineseness while serving commercial goals. These findings extend discussions on commodification and diasporic place-making and offer insights relevant to urban governance in rapidly transforming migrant commercial districts.

ABSTRACT Intercultural encounters and intercultural communication are becoming widespread. For language learners, especially those learning English as a foreign language, intercultural encounters play a vital role in the way they use the target language, their communication with individuals from different cultures, and their personal development. Conflict and silence in intercultural encounters arise from cultural differences, language deficits, and personal characteristics. In this study, the conflicts and silences experienced by two pre-service English language teachers in their intercultural encounters were examined in depth in terms of intercultural communication. In the present study, the qualitative research method was used. The data were collected from the participants through semi-structured retrospective interviews and follow-up interviews. The collected data were transcribed and analysed through content analysis. The study found that the participants employed avoidance strategies to mitigate conflict. Another finding of the study was that they used silence to avoid interrupting intercultural communication. From an intercultural communication perspective, remaining silent during a conflict is an important strategy for conflict management. This study showed that in intercultural encounters, silence and hesitation strategies in conflict situations ensure the continuity of intercultural communication.

ABSTRACT Linguistic landscape is an active and tangible agent that shapes space through the strategic performance of linguistic symbols. Applying scene theory, this study examines how the linguistic landscape of Hankow Concession in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province in central China, utilises linguistic and semiotic resources to (re)construct this former semi-colonial area as a space of consumption through institutional planning and unofficial linguistic practices. By taking photographs and conducting interviews, the researcher finds that multilingual signs operate as symbolic and cultural amenities that mediate interactions between people, place, and culture, establishing the three dimensions of experience emphasised in scene theory, namely legitimacy, theatricality and authenticity. With the construction of these three dimensions, linguistic landscape transforms consumption from a purely economic activity into a symbolic and affective practice. The findings further reveal a distinctive language ecology in which semi-colonial heritage, urban redevelopment, and contemporary consumption intersect, highlighting the role of the linguistic landscape as an active mediator that presents multilingualism and multiculturalism and facilitates communication between consumers and cultures in the production of hybridised urban consumption spaces shaped by both Chinese and foreign cultures.

ABSTRACT This study investigates how participation in a Professional Learning Community (PLC) shaped English language teachers’ identities and pedagogical practices in a multilingual university preparatory programme. Drawing on Communities of Practice (CoP) theory, it examines how teachers negotiated professional roles, experimented with responsive instructional strategies and navigated institutional constraints in an internationalised higher-education context. Eight teachers engaged in a semester-long PLC involving collaborative dialogue, lesson analysis and reflective inquiry. Data from semi-structured interviews, PLC meeting transcripts and classroom observations were analysed thematically. Findings show that teachers initially experienced uncertainty and identity tensions, but PLC participation supported the development of more coherent and agentive identities as multilingual mediators. Teachers co-constructed a repertoire of multilingual-responsive strategies – such as translanguaging-informed scaffolding, flexible grouping and differentiated tasks – and adopted more inclusive, student-centred practices. Although the PLC enhanced emotional well-being and collaborative problem-solving, pedagogical enactment was still constrained by exam-driven curricula, workload pressures and limited multilingual policy support. The study underscores PLCs’ potential to foster identity development, pedagogical innovation and teacher agency in multilingual university EFL settings, while highlighting the need for sustained professional development and stronger institutional backing.

ABSTRACT This study investigated whether mastering more languages would lead to a higher level of metalinguistic awareness, and the relationship between metalinguistic awareness and second/third language acquisition in Mandarin-English bilinguals and Uyghur-Mandarin-English trilinguals in high school. Participants were given a range of tests of metalinguistic awareness. Their L2/L3 proficiency was measured twice, two months apart, to ensure reliability. Results showed that bilinguals had higher compound morphological awareness than trilinguals, and they did not differ in the other components of metalinguistic awareness. Multiple linear regression analyses showed that metalinguistic awareness could predict the L2/L3 proficiency of bilinguals and trilinguals, but only derivational and inflectional morphological awareness served as significant predictors. Furthermore, the mediation analysis demonstrated that derivational morphological awareness partly influenced English performance through vocabulary for bilinguals and trilinguals; inflectional morphological awareness worked differently: its effect was partially mediated by vocabulary only in bilinguals, but not in trilinguals. All the other predictors, including phonological awareness, orthographic awareness, and syntactic awareness were not significant. These findings suggest a predictive effect of derivational and inflectional morphological awareness on L2/L3 acquisition for Mandarin-English bilinguals and Uyghur-Mandarin-English trilinguals. Moreover, acquiring more languages does not automatically induce stronger metalinguistic awareness.