This paper analyses "Kongish Daily," a Facebook page that trans-scripts local news in Hong Kong into a creative and dynamic mix of Cantonese in traditional Chinese characters, Romanisation and made-up characters, simplified Chinese, pinyin, English, Hong Kong English, other phonetic symbols, emoji and other signs and images. We trace the…

To engage in critical praxis, teachers of literary response writing need concepts and methods for understanding the efficacy of teaching practices in helping students develop particular dispositions towards texts and the social issues they represent. In this article, the author uses concepts from Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) and Systemic…

This study attempted to scrutinize the disciplinary and cross-disciplinary generic variations of textbook introductions in humanities and basic sciences with reference to the onion model. The data included a sample of 60 introductions (i.e. ten each from applied linguistics, sociology, and psychology within humanities, and ten each from biology,…

The present study aimed to investigate the frequency of the use of two semantic adjustment strategies; namely, expansion and reduction, in the two English translations of book one of "Masnavi." For this purpose, 300 lines of "Masnavi" by Rumi (2014) along its two corresponding English translations by Nicholson (2004) and…

The dominant discourse on midwifery has been characterized by myths that have been constructed and perpetuated through oral and written discourse. The purpose of this research is to engage in a critical analysis of that discourse, with special focus on Hispanophone, Anglophone, and Francophone contexts in the Caribbean from colonial times to the…

High schools across the country are restructuring their curricular frameworks to meet the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS), which emphasize an understanding of cultural diversity in addition to critical thinking and literacy. Despite curricular variance among high schools, the significant roles non-white races have played in constructing a…

Current educational discourse is rife with the phrase "critical thinking skills." The term is wielded with such indiscretion among educators, reformers, and education policy makers that is has become commonsensical to believe that imparting critical thinking skills is an indispensable aspect of education. For example, according to the…

This paper explores how students, as multimodal storytellers, can weave powerful narratives blending modes, genres, artefacts and literary conventions to represent the real and imagined in their lives. Part of a larger ethnographic case study of student writing in a middle years class for immigrant students learning English as an additional…

This paper examines how competing discourses about the ownership of the Irish language in an increasingly multiethnic Ireland and the extent to which it is associated with a sense of "Irishness" influence the formulation of recent Irish-language policy at institutional and national levels. As part of a broader study on the language…

In a teaching context fraught with conflicts on religious and ethnic backgrounds, I decide as a teacher researcher to address these issues with Israeli-Arab middle school students in my EFL classroom. Picture books on religious diversity and minority issues are used as a springboard for providing spaces for students to discuss these issues orally,…

Since the 1990s cross-cultural studies of academic genres are becoming increasingly relevant. One genre that has recently attracted cross-cultural attention is the academic book review. The aim of the present paper is to provide insight into what is expected in terms of overall critical attitude towards the books under review when writing in this…

This study sought to discover what critical apparatus would be most appropriate for observers of verbal discourse who choose to accept Aristotelian or "information theory" causal accounts of dynamic process. The major conclusions were: (1) Both causal systems employ a static grid to express relationships; but while the Aristotelian relations are…

Appraises R. Kaplan's "contrastic rhetoric" in the light of a multilanguage research project on discourse structure. Concludes that Kaplan's specific analyses are in need of substantive revision. (FL)

Explores Singapore poet Edwin Thumboo's aesthetic use of consistent foregrounding, or use of certain linguistic devices to attract attention, in one poem from three perspectives: propositional; textual; and interpersonal. The approach adopted is functional-semantic in orientation and is designed to gain a better appreciation of the poem's texture…

A study was undertaken to demonstrate that expository prose written in Indian English exhibits certain characteristics determined by the sociocultural conventions of writing in the Indian tradition. These features of Indian English texts are often judged to be inappropriate by native speakers of North American and British English, and mistakenly…