While anime is well-recognized as a significant motivator of Japanese language learners today, idol fandom, though served as an equally strong source of motivation for some learners, receives far less academic attention. This paper is a preliminary exploration of idol fandom's role in fueling the Japanese language-learning process. Through…

Familiarity with the television set as a principal news and entertainment medium has allowed for a smooth transition of television programmes into the language classroom (Mishan, 2005). However, in the technology-rich environment we live in today, access to television programmes in foreign languages is not restricted to class. A good understanding…

This dissertation sheds light on how learners of German, NSs of German, and Americans unfamiliar with German reach decisions about the nature of speech acts that they witness NSs of German perform in three authentic video clips. It also aims to gain a better understanding of what sources members of the three groups bring to bear when they attempt…

This article presents the Cultural Facilitation Model as a means to guide the investigation of cultural questions with benefits for English Foreign Language (EFL) instructors Native English Speaking Teachers (NESTs) and Non Native English Speaking Teachers (NNESTs) and EFL students alike. It will describe how instructors can act as cultural…

Language tests are increasingly being used as gatekeeping tools in a globalised world. This article examines the processes of linguistic gatekeeping by the use of language tests in the context of migration. We draw on half a dozen cases of test-takers of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) test who applied for entry into…

Azerbaijani and Turkish are two closely-related languages from Oguz branch of Turkic languages, which are said to be mutually intelligible. Regarding this background, we designed an experiment within the framework of receptive multilingualism to investigate the role of linguistic factors in intelligibility of the Turkish language to Iranian…

This article analyzes stylized pronunciations of English by Japanese speakers on televised variety shows in Japan. Research on style and mocking has done much to reveal how linguistic forms are utilized in interaction as resources of identity construction that can oftentimes subvert hegemonic discourse (Chun 2004). Within this research area,…

This case study presents a description and outline of a dubbing activity in which students utilized their basic linguistic skills holistically. Authentic materials such as television dramas and feature films are "a rich repository of various speech acts, lexicon and linguistic emotivity" (Koyama, 2009) and as such have the potential to…

There are two important dimensions to successful second language learning: what goes on inside the classroom and what goes on outside of the classroom. While language teaching has always been seen as a preparation for out-of-class uses of language, much of the focus in language teaching in the past has typically been on classroom-based language…

This paper explores how "native" and "non-native" speaker identities are created in the discourse of television lifestyle, travel, and documentary genres where an English "native speaker" audience is assumed. It presents a coding system for analysing the representation of actors in television programmes and examines…