The main objective of the article is to illustrate how language ideologies and language management at the macro-level (state language policy), micro-level (in families) and meso-level (local communities) influence language change and the conceptualization of multilingualism of immigrants from Upper Silesia residing in Germany. Language biographies…

James P. Lantolf is George and Jane Greer Professor Emeritus of Language Acquisition and Applied Linguistics and former director of the Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research at the Pennsylvania State University, USA. He is currently Adjunct Professor of Applied Linguistics in the same academic unit at Xi'an Jiaotong…

This interview provides a panoramic view of Antony's research interests, which includes his language-related experiences of early life, his study at UCLA, the PhD dissertation research he conducted under Lyle Bachman's supervision, and his idea of fairness. Given the specific context in which the interview was conducted, the interviewer approached…

The sociocultural orientation in general education, which has gradually leaked into second language teacher education, argues that teachers usually employ social relations, cultural artefacts, and theoretical concepts to mediate their thinking and practice. Against this background, the present study aimed to explore how three male Iranian English…

Christine Goh is known internationally for her work on researching and developing oracy (listening and speaking) among English language learners, in particular the role of metacognition in language learning. She has published 10 books and over 70 peer-reviewed journal articles and international book chapters on these and other related topics. Her…

This comparative study examines the learning trajectories of two groups of Mexican novice language teachers, three locally raised and educated ones and three repatriates from the USA. The study makes use of a combination of retrospective life-history research and the analysis of academic documents to look at the interrelationship between teachers'…

Research conducted by English-speaking researchers about other language speaking subjects is essentially cross-cultural and often multilingual, particularly with qualitative research that involves participants communicating in languages other than English. In research using non-English data, scholars have noted that the translation process can be…

This study draws on a narrative constructionist framework to examine the active representation of self and experience in second language (L2) ethnographic interviews and autobiographic narratives of immigrant experience. Analysis centers on two versions of a complaint narrative of institutional mistreatment told 2 years apart by a man who…

In examining life history narratives of 14 linguistically and culturally diverse pre-service teachers, this study addresses two research questions: How do pre-service teachers construct difference between themselves and others? How do they express a sense of belonging and community membership (or construct citizenship) in representing themselves…

This article is concerned with the conditions and stakes of building competence in multiple languages in learners who, due to their language biographies or the educational system, are studying in prestigious institutional school environments, such as the French-German schools of Buc (Versailles), Freiburg (Breisgau) and Saarbrucken (Saarland). In…

The current scientific assessment policies in contemporary Spain increasingly push junior and senior researchers of the Spanish academia to the "global" knowledge production model based on highly specific and monolingual academic works. This turn towards a "Journal Citation Reports"--English written articles mode of knowledge…

This article considers language learner agency from a poststructuralist perspective, focusing on how agency is discursively constituted as individuals position themselves and are positioned as (potential) agents within ideologically defined spaces. As such, I regard agency as inherently unstable and as a discursively mobilized capacity to act.…

Recent discussions on English as an International Language have highlighted the important role played by English language popular culture for the identities and bilingual development of diverse global citizens who learn and use English. However, there has been little attention to connections between popular culture and "teacher"…

This article discusses the life and career of a Tamil teacher of English working in the government education system in northern Sri Lanka. Based on data gathered in an extended life history interview, the article explores the teacher's own experiences of schooling, his reasons for entering teaching as a profession, his professional training, and…

This article presents an interview with Professor Gui Shichun, a well-known figure in the academic field in China. Professor Shichun is credited with being the first scholar who introduced applied linguistics studies into China. He has established several other records of "the first in China," hence has long been called "the brave…