Social information is cognitively linked to linguistic information, evidenced by bidirectional influences on perceptual processing of speech. Models of sociophonetic cognition theorize that the way linguistic experiences are interpreted and stored in memory is mediated by listener attention, which is guided by ideology. This relationship, however,…

There is tremendous variation in the use of American English by major geographic regions, as well as within these regions or cities, and by cultural background. The variety of English spoken by many African American people in the United States is called African American English (AAE). AAE affects early literacy skills in ways that may require…

Dialects vary in their allophonic patterns, which can affect listeners' phonological and lexical representations. I explore how different exposure to dialect-specific allophonic patterns for two vowels in American English, /ae ai/, affects listeners' lexical processing behaviors across three perception tasks: perceptual similarity, priming, and…

Purpose: Insights from linguistic variation research illustrate a linguistically diverse population, in which even speakers who can be classified as speaking a "mainstream" variety have grammatical knowledge of vernacular or "nonmainstream" features. However, there is a gap in our knowledge regarding how vernacular features are…

Prior research indicates that humans adapt their language depending on context. This linguistic sensitivity has been suggested to indicate a natural pedagogy shared by all humans. This sensitivity has, however, only been demonstrated with English-speaking samples thus far. In two studies, we followed the experimental procedure of the original…

Language ideologies are a powerful way of perpetuating inequalities, as peripheralized speakers who have internalized the lack of legitimacy attributed to them often end up reproducing censure rather than resisting it. Foregrounding the affective dimension, this paper explores the role of shame as a fulcrum articulating the individual with the…

English medium instruction (EMI) can become pantomime in the context of higher education, and such non-participation can be shaped and explained by learners' refusing to invest in the English learning practices while performing their learner/speaker/user identities. Taking a Bourdieusian stance on this issue, the study discusses techno-reflective…

In this article Renata Love Jones and Patrick Proctor introduce the notion of pursuing language to engage in critical dialogue about the nature and focus of language and literacy education in multilingual and multicultural contexts. A persistent threat in language and literacy education is standardization that constrains how language and literacy…

Native English speakers' accents are generally regarded as ideal models of English accents. However, in real-world communication, where English is used as a lingua franca for intercultural communication among people from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, English users inevitably encounter a wide variety of accents. This paper presents…

Reflecting on recent social transformations and technological innovations, this article argues that a holistic change is needed in the scope and identity of English language teaching. I argue that we must embrace a move away from teaching "just English", that is, concentrating on instruction that targets language in isolation from other…

The spread of English throughout the world has led to the language acquiring the status of an international language and has also led to the emergence of many varieties of English in different parts of the world, commonly referred to as world Englishes (WE). In this regard, WE advocates are making efforts to raise awareness of English diversity…

The teaching of English as an additional language or dialect (EALD) in Australia has been problematised partly due to teachers' limited understanding of learners' linguistic and cultural backgrounds. The gap could be potentially bridged with the integration of intercultural pragmatics (IP). Adopting a qualitative case study approach, this study…

If extraneous information leads listeners to biased judgements, then their speech perceptions are likely to manifest distortion in that direction. This phenomenon is known as reverse linguistic stereotyping (RLS), which has been confirmed by 25 years of empirical study. Recent research on effects of listener background on ratings of speaker…

This short article reviews key literature that problematizes the conventional WCF approach, which adheres to native-speaker norms and fails to reflect the diverse realities of English use in the globalized era. Drawing on Lee's (2023) proposal, the article discusses the principles and benefits of a feedback pedagogy informed by Global Englishes…

We propose a novel method for repurposing online course discussion posts to explore educators' language ideologies. Drawing on asynchronous discussion posts from a subset of 30 educators enrolled in an online, masters-level, sociolinguistics-for-educators course at a US Southwest university, we "smooth" posts into a dialogue resembling a…