Abstract Over the past decade, the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, as it relates to the speech and voice recognition industry, has established itself as a multibillion-dollar global market, but at whose expense? In this forum article, we amplify the current critiques of the architectures of large language models being used increasingly in daily life. Our commentary exposes emerging AI accent modification technology and services as agents of racial commodification and linguistic dominance, as it rests on the perceived superiority of standardized US English. We discuss our concern for such services leaching into academia. We argue that this technology follows a standardized language framework, which poses a fundamental problem of being informed by purist monolingual principles. These principles often help to perpetuate and maintain harmful raciolinguistic ideologies that result in language discrimination and the continual framing of the language practices of racially minoritized speakers as deficient. Thus, we write this piece with the intent to expose the fabricated humanity of accent modification technology whose existence perpetuates capitalism’s reliance on dehumanization for economic advancement and the legacy and reproduction of white language superiority.

Abstract While addressing issues of prejudice and exclusion is crucial for helping adult second language (L2) learners acquire and critique socio-interactional norms of their pluralistic communities, there is still a lack of work examining how teachers can problematize prejudiced talk when it arises in the classroom. Within the detail-oriented frameworks of conversation analysis and membership categorization analysis, this study examines teacher practices for problematizing students’ hearably prejudiced, stereotypical, or exclusionary talk—that is, students’ possible -isms. Drawing on data from 55 hours of video-recorded English L2 classes in the United States, I explore three problematizing responses to possible -isms: (i) introducing complexities, (ii) offering counter examples, and (iii) treating -isms as absurd. While introducing complexities neutralizes students’ hearable -isms as somehow inadequate, the latter two practices treat the -isms as entirely inaccurate through illustrated and invited corrections. The analysis reveals these practices to be finely attuned to the institutional goals and features of the adult L2 classroom, allowing teachers to incorporate a critical perspective and delicately problematize possible -isms without threatening solidarity with their diverse adult learners.

Abstract A small number of studies have explored the effects of digital gaming on second/foreign language (L2) pragmatic competence. However, the effectiveness of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) germane to L2 pragmatic development remains unclear because most game-mediated pragmatics studies have focused on educational games. Adopting the interactionist approach, this pretest-immediate-posttest-delayed-posttest study investigated the influence of an MMORPG on L2 learners’ pragmatic competence in compliment responses. Specifically, 105 English-as-a-foreign-language learners from a university in China interacted with L1-English-speaking players in World of Warcraft for four weeks. Unlike most studies that have conducted discourse completion tasks for data collection, compliment responses were gathered through computer-mediated communication with L1-English-speaking interlocutors on WeChat. Results showed that the learners tended to deny compliments on the pretest, whereas they preferred to accept praise on the immediate and delayed posttests. Implications for language policy-making and teaching are discussed regarding the usefulness of MMORPGs for learners who are not immersed in the environment of the target language or have few opportunities to go abroad to experience various social contexts in an L2.

Abstract Although peer interaction has received attention in second language (L2) collaborative writing (CW) research, the manner and quality of peer interaction have been less investigated. Previous studies usually examined peer interaction by looking at language-related episodes, overlooking the ways students negotiate for different types of knowledge for successful writing, such as content, organisation, and discourse. Moreover, the association between quality of negotiation and students’ writing process is elusive. This study aims to examine the way students discussed different aspects of writing during interaction and explore the impact of quality of negotiation on students’ subsequent writing and revisions. Data were collected from an intact academic writing class at a New Zealand university, where students formed groups to produce a single text per group over 12 weeks. Results showed that students discussed content and organisation more than language, and different qualities of negotiation were associated with different writing and revision outcomes. In addition, students discussed both local and global aspects of writing, and quality of negotiation is an important factor that mediates students’ writing and revision behaviours.

Abstract The present study continues research that takes non-serious language more seriously (Cekaite and Aronsson 2005) by focusing on a central second language (L2) Metaphoric Competence factor, Metaphor Language Play (MLP). For willing learners, MLP offers a diversity of benefits (Bushnell 2009; Bell 2012a) despite being one of the most challenging Metaphoric Competence aspects (O’Reilly and Marsden 2021). While studies provide rich descriptions of naturally occurring MLP, elicitation approaches are needed to target comprehension/production of specific forms/meanings/usages and types of play, for example, comprehension of US sitcom humour (Dore 2015). With 69 advanced first-language Mandarin L2 English learners, we addressed these issues via an Exploratory Factor Analysis to uncover hitherto unknown relationships between written/spoken/receptive/productive MLP measures, and a thematic analysis of the linguistic, conceptual, and metalinguistic themes in learners’ MLP. The findings revealed three underlying MLP factors, two positively related, and a rich set of linguistic, conceptual, and metalinguistic themes. The implications of findings for future research and pedagogy are discussed.

Abstract This special issue responds to an increasing interest in decolonial and Southern thinking in applied linguistics. In this Introduction, we first discuss some basic historical facts about colonization, and we highlight some key concepts. We then present the six contributions in the special issue. Three contributions compellingly expose the pervasiveness of coloniality and give reason to doubt that it can ever be overcome; the other three contributions open spaces for the decolonial possibilities of healing, hope, and futurity. We then discuss some key issues in decolonial and Southern scholarship, including the role of non-conventional writing in decolonial research, the differences between decolonial and social justice projects, the difficulties of decolonizing Eurocentric knowledge through Euro-Anglo-Northern tools, and deep inequities in the geopolitics of knowledge. We hope that the special issue will enable readers to re-see long-standing applied linguistics questions through decolonial and Southern lenses. We also hope to make the case why decolonial projects are worth the trouble.

Journal Article International Perspectives on Teaching and Learning Academic English in Turbulent Times Get access James Fenton, Julio Gimenez, Katherine Mansfield, Martin Percyand Mariangela Spinillo (eds): INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON TEACHING AND LEARNING ACADEMIC ENGLISH IN TURBULENT TIMESRoutledge, 2023. Faith Nightingale Faith Nightingale Queen Mary University of London, UKNottingham Trent University, UK E-mail: f.nightingale@qmul.ac.uk Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Applied Linguistics, amad070, https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amad070 Published: 16 October 2023

Abstract There are still language-related safety issues in international aeronautical radiotelephony communications. This article revisits the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) language policy, a set of language proficiency requirements mainly reflected in the ICAO Rating Scale (Pronunciation, Structure, Vocabulary, Fluency, Comprehension, and Interaction). Although the ICAO Rating Scale has been used globally to assess professional aviation speakers’ communicative language proficiency for two decades now, it remains unclear what role the six ICAO criteria have played in high-stakes aviation English tests. We thus conducted an independent study based on secondary data analysis. We applied the Winsteps Rasch Rating Scale Model to 358 Chinese pilots’ test scores on an aviation English test in China. The results suggest that the six criteria carried considerably different relative values in contribution to test outcomes and that Interaction was different from the other five criteria. This exploratory study provides an example of how the ICAO assessment criteria were used in a locally developed aviation English test; its findings can have implications for supporting and implementing a language policy for global harmonization.

Abstract This article seeks to address the ever-expanding and shifting communicative demands of ‘liquid modernity’ by focussing on two key issues: the need to reconceptualize language and communication as a consequence of the diversification of media and resources people draw upon to meet these demands; and the need for a new analytical framework to capture how people perform multiplex roles simultaneously and spontaneously through dynamic and adaptive communicative practices. We do the former through further elaboration of the scholarship on translanguaging and the latter with a new concept of transpositioning. We argue that the latter is enabled by translanguaging practices and is a necessary capacity participants in the social life of liquid modernity need to develop in order to deal with everyday communicative demands. We develop the concept with analysis of two examples of lived experiences of multilinguals and explore the theoretical and methodological implications for applied linguistics.