Based on data from a qualitative case study of two Chinese university EFL learners from rural backgrounds, Andy and Jimmy, this study traces their progress from being struggling English language learners to confident speakers of English. Drawing on Darvin and Norton's (2015) model of investment that recognizes the intersection of identity,…

Young people use slang for identifying themselves with a particular social group, gaining social recognition and respect from that group, and expressing their emotional state. One feature of Internet slang is its active use by youth in online communication, which, under certain conditions, may cause problematic Internet use (PIU). We conducted two…

This study aims at investigating how loanwords from Japanese and Korean are used in informal written Cantonese media discourse, including print and social media. Data from these media were collected from designated websites for 15?min every other day over a two-week period. The results show that loanwords from Korean, being written in a…

This study investigates the language ideologies manifested in the linguistic hierarchies produced by relevant EU governmental/political institutions through their language requirements for visa application documents. Based on the theoretical framework of Language Management Theory (LMT), this study employs a mixed-methods approach, combining…

Since the emergence of online live text commentaries on football games in the late 1990s, the genre has undergone continuous change. While linguistic research on the genre of live text commentaries emphasizes its novelty, the genre has existed in football for at least 20 years. However, diachronic studies still lack. This paper presents a corpus…

We propose a novel method for repurposing online course discussion posts to explore educators' language ideologies. Drawing on asynchronous discussion posts from a subset of 30 educators enrolled in an online, masters-level, sociolinguistics-for-educators course at a US Southwest university, we "smooth" posts into a dialogue resembling a…

The paper investigates YouTube teachers' identity construction within dominant language ideologies. Drawing on the constructs of language teacher professional identity, social media micro-celebrity persona, linguistic entrepreneurship, and raciolinguistic ideologies and online persona, the study analyses banner images, biographies, and…

The main argument of this paper is that the Virtual Linguistic Landscape (VLL) of advertising allows the utilisation of persuasion strategies that transcend the traditional separation of named languages to produce the maximum effect on potential customers. The paper challenges the segregational view of language, which assumes that communication…

With increasing global interconnectivity, effective cross-cultural interaction has become crucial for global citizens. However, learners in non-English speaking countries often lack practical English communicative skills and opportunities for authentic language practice. This study explores the effectiveness of a virtual exchange programme in…

Online eikaiwa, or English conversations via teleconferencing platforms, is a popular informal English learning avenue among Japanese nationals. Although online eikaiwa has received scholarly attention in recent years, only a few studies have investigated the current diversification efforts in the industry in terms of hiring teachers from various…

Previous research in English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) has revealed that deviations in lexicogrammar are not always random, but a result of underlying communicative processes (Cogo & Dewey, 2012; Guziurová, 2020; Jafari, 2021; Ranta, 2013, 2022). Most previous studies relied upon spoken interactions, particularly in business and academic…

The starting point for this research is an eTandem initiative between learners of Mandarin Chinese and German. The participants mainly learnt the dominant variety of their target languages (German Standard German, Mainland Chinese Standard Mandarin), however, their tandem partners are speakers of a non-dominant variety (Austrian Standard German,…

This study discusses the impact of spatial, temporal and virtual mobility on how mobile individuals talk about language in their world, and how they use language offline and online to communicate over time and across space. We introduce the notion of "chronotopic translanguaging" to highlight the significance of merging time and place in…

Swearing uses language forms that are taboo and potentially offensive. These are often used for emotional expression. Multilingual research shows that because the first language retains most emotional force (Dewaele [2004]. "The Emotional Force of Swearwords and Taboo Words in the Speech of Multilinguals." "Journal of Multilingual…

The present study investigates the adoption of Japanese by users from a popular Chinese video-sharing website, bilibili.com. Over a two-month period, 5,808 instances of language use that involve Japanese language features were sampled from 28,579 video comments. It was found that features of Japanese were often utilized -- either entirely in…