Singapore is an ethnically, linguistically, and culturally diverse nation-state that has always practiced deliberate language policy and planning. The bilingual education policy, introduced shortly after the young nation's independence has led to the emergence of English-knowing bilinguals who are proficient in both English and their ethnically…

While language dominance has been crucial in the study of bilingualism, recent research has called for more detailed measures to systematically account for the observation that bilinguals use different languages in different domains, a phenomenon formalized in the Complementary Principle. Few studies have systematically measured these…

In our article, we investigate the complex dynamics of linguistic understandings and mis- or non-understanding within multilingual contexts. Through the lens of sociolinguistic exploration, we navigate the multifaceted landscapes of language use, applying a multi-perspective approach and the triangulation method to explore the depths of linguistic…

South Africa immediately springs to mind as the epitome of multilingual language policies. In fact, its Constitution granted official status to 11 languages in 1996, and the Language Policy in Higher Education passed by the Ministry of Education in 2002 required universities to develop and use the indigenous official languages as academic…

This article focuses on the ever-increasing stress on multilingual education (MLE) in policy documents, especially its pairing with mother tongues in education (MTE). This focus brings into relief the relationship between MTE, the preservation of linguistic diversity and social democracy. We argue that the outcome of this relationship crucially…

Background: The evidence on the effect of age on the receptive and expressive language skills of individuals with Down syndrome is inconclusive. Recent research highlights the relevance of having tools to detect age-related changes in language skills. Method: Data were collected on 45 adults with Down syndrome. All were assessed with the Peabody…

In this brief forum article, I draw from the disciplinary orientation of linguistic anthropology to discuss how a collection of linguistic and semiotic resources gets "enregistered" as the "language" for specific communicative activities. Enregisterment is an ongoing social and ideological process whereby a semiotic corpus gets…

The acquisition of negation is a key milestone in early language development that enables children to express rejection, non-existence, and deny propositions. In this study, we ask whether the development of the functions of negation follows a universal trajectory or varies based on language-specific features and environmental input. We…

The English language can be compared to the hydra from ancient mythology as it is an unstoppable force throughout the world. Using this comparison, this study examines the history of English in Japan, English linguistic imperialism, and its impact on contemporary Japan. Five myths of English language teaching are used as a framework, referred to…

This study examined the influence of cognate status and language distance on simultaneous bilingual children's vocabulary acquisition. It aimed to tease apart effects of word-level similarities and language-level similarities, while also exploring the role of individual-level variation in age, exposure, and nontarget language proficiency. Children…

This paper explores the number marking challenges faced by L2 learners of English whose L1 is one of the classifier languages Mandarin Chinese (henceforth Chinese) or Bahasa Indonesia (henceforth Indonesian). It examines whether these groups differ in their marking of English number, and how the speaker's level of proficiency, as well as…

The current study examined the extent to which first language (L1) utterance fluency measures can predict second language (L2) fluency and how L2 proficiency moderates the relationship between L1 and L2 fluency. A total of 104 Japanese-speaking learners of English completed different argumentative speech tasks in their L1 and L2. Their speaking…

This study adopts an apparent-time diachronic linguistic landscape (LL) approach to investigate the vitality of an ethnic minority language in China, namely the Nuosu Yi ([foreign characters omitted]). Diachronic LL research is concerned with changes in language use on signage over time. It provides insights into phenomena such as language shift,…

One key tenet of Global Englishes for Language Teaching (GELT) is that the native English speaker should no longer serve as the role model for second language (L2) English users. Such a view does not discount that some degree of linguistic knowledge is necessary for successful global communication. However, GELT scholarship has remained relatively…

This study aims to investigate ChatGPT's ability to comprehend input from nonnative speakers, specifically those learning English as a second language, with Japanese speakers serving as the model population. The experiment examines how ChatGPT evaluates the difficulty levels of the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC), which is…