This paper shows how humour is deployed in Achebe's "A Man of the People" by analysing the make-up of the various instances of humour as well as their significance in attaining the desired effects. To Veatch (1998), humour contains two incongruous elements; one element is socially normal while the other is a violation of the…

Conversation-analytic research has argued that the timing and construction of preferred responding actions (e.g., acceptances) differ from that of dispreferred responding actions (e.g., rejections), potentially enabling early response prediction by recipients. We examined 195 preferred and dispreferred responding actions in telephone corpora and…

Today an increasing number of countries around the world have acquired almost the same metaphorical speech about teaching and learning. These theories grown in the Western world are largely produced within the framework of psychology and individualistic oriented educational philosophy and fits with the ever-expanding financial growth paradigm.…

How should we study the language of political legitimation? Incipient scholarship increasingly seeks to bridge the conceptual schism between the sociological "is" and the philosophical "ought" in the study of legitimacy, looking at public legitimating discourses to uncover the actual "social attitudes" toward…

Translanguaging offers a new perspective on language learning by affirming and leveraging the diverse language practices that make up learners' unitary language repertoire as resources for their learning. Despite the potential pedagogical benefits of translanguaging, English-only policies are still prevalent in many language classrooms. Even when…

Young people around the world are calling ever more urgently on policymakers to address today's global challenges of sustainability, structural inequality and social justice. So it is little surprise that learning in a global society, understanding sustainable development and being active global citizens are increasingly popular themes for…

Beginning in the 1970s, education has responded to the rise of neoliberalism across macro-, meso-, and micro-level contexts through shifts in practice and structure. Meanwhile, language learning is often promoted as an instrument in job attainment and transnational business communication. For example, in language education, courses in language for…

Demotivation (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2011) and non-participation (Norton, 2001) characterize negative responses to classroom practice of a generally chronic nature. In this article, focus is directed to negativity that emerges within the context of a particular language developing activity, and which can be understood as a situated response to the…

The use of group-based, task-oriented, peer interaction formats in classroom and public L2 speaking tests has grown in recent years. However, these assessments have received comparatively little attention when compared to other formats such as the oral proficiency interview (OPI). In order to better understand the local exigencies of this…

Language teacher identity has received considerable attention in the past decade for its crucial roles in improving effective pedagogy and enhancing teacher learning. While a large number of studies have been conducted to investigate the multidimensional nature and complexities of in-service teacher identity, there is still insufficient knowledge…

Effective professional learning is acknowledged as a key lever to improve teacher practice. However, many studies report significant variation in the effectiveness of the types of programs on offer. Recently, there has been a move from the traditional single event, passive approach to more collaborative and ongoing forms of professional learning.…

Teletandem (Telles, 2009) is a model of telecollaboration in which pairs of foreign language students from different countries meet regularly and virtually to learn each other's languages. Within this context, participants are expected to help their partners learn by providing feedback. The multimodal nature of this type of environment, however,…

In this paper we explore collaboration in the context of the educational services industry (ESI). We look to literature from the communication field to consider ethical strategies and methods for ensuring the validity of the outcomes of collaborative working. Drawing on Collaborative Product Development and conversation theory we devise four…

Framed as being in response to terrorist attacks and concerns about religious bias in some English schools, 'British Values' (BV) curriculum policy forms part of the British Government's Counter-Terrorism and Security Act, 2015. This includes a Duty on teachers in England to actively promote British Values to deter students from radicalisation.…

This article offers a critical examination of language ideological constructions, advocating for language practices that favor culturally and contextually appropriate practice. Although discourses on multicultural inclusive practice in England are not new, the position of minoritized languages in early years education is still absent and highly…