Considering the contradictions in the structured and static approaches to the nation and national identity observed world-wide and fluid "trans-" approaches to language in applied linguistics and sociolinguistics, the paper explores how national identity is constructed and sustained nowadays, specifically in digital spaces both…

I have been interested in the study of language since I was a very young kid, and this caused me to give up everything else just to focus on the study of language. Applied linguistics has specifically been my passion and blessing, and every now and then I prepare a bibliography of research on applied linguistics for people who are interested in…

Any discussion of transdisciplinary applied linguistics needs to engage with three central questions. First, while "inter"disciplinarity may allow for disciplines to stay in place and engage with each other, "trans"disciplinarity implies a space beyond or above disciplines. As a result, we have to consider whether applied…

This paper deals with the relationship between neoliberalism and communicative language teaching in language-in-education policy. Neoliberalism, or the deregulation of state based on meritocracy, or equal competition, gives rise to paradoxical discourses. On the one hand, sociolinguistic superdiversity shows us the unprecedented mixing and…

This paper investigates the production of space and language policy in Ras Al Khaimah, a city in the United Arab Emirates. The paper builds on recent work in socio- and applied linguistics that has made use of sociospatial concepts from human geography. It argues that researchers should not only investigate space as a factor structuring language…

Recent scholarship in sociolinguistics and language education has examined how race and language intersect each other and how racism influences linguistic and educational practices. While racism is often conceptualized in terms of individual and institutional injustices, a critical examination of another form of racism--epistemological…

The language policy of a liberal democratic state must be formulated in a context of multiple, often conflicting sets of interests and of normative constraints that limit the means by which the liberal state can manage these interests. The interests at stake are, first, those of the individual, for whom language is viewed both instrumentally, and…

As expert intercultural communicators, translators constantly face the challenges of comprehending and producing language that is stylistically appropriate in various communicative contexts. To scale these challenges, they must acquire advanced levels of sociolinguistic competence. Although sociolinguistic competence is considered an essential…

This introduction builds on De Costa et al.'s (2016], [2019) notion of linguistic entrepreneurship, which is defined as "the act of aligning with the moral imperative to strategically exploit language-related resources for enhancing one's worth in the world" (2016: 696). The four empirical studies and two critical commentaries that…

This article explores the implications of a mobilities perspective for the conceptualization, teaching, and study of academic literacies. Mobility has come to serve as a catalyst for rethinking scholarly work in a variety of fields--most provocatively, the assumed stability as well as uniformity of what is studied and the location and products of…

This Perspectives article proposes a renewed vision of teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) through a translanguaging (TL) stance, grounded in critical sociolinguistic inquiry and embodied practice. A TL theory of language asserts an activist agenda to dismantle mono/lingualism, inviting a more dynamic and expansive view of…

In recent years, the World Languages field has witnessed an increased interest in service-learning (SL) initiatives. Many SL projects focus on the potential that Spanish-speaking communities offer students of Spanish, as a foreign language, to increase their language skills and cultural understanding of these communities. Some authors, however,…

This article considers the construct of fluency in second language assessment and how it might be informed by research in applied linguistics. It briefly describes the way fluency is conceptualized in four language tests, as embodied in their respective assessment criteria, to show where the field is at present. The article then takes into account…

This essay explores the relationship between democratic political theory and the reality of linguistic diversity in contemporary political communities. After suggesting a distinction between "liberal" and "participatory" democratic theories, and asserting that there have been fruitful explorations of linguistic diversity in…

Political theorists, generally non-experts in the language sciences, whose principal aim is often to advance normative theories on desirable states of affairs within liberal democratic states, tend to deal with language as a stable nominal category, as something that one "has" or "doesn't have", that can be labeled as one…