This paper is grounded in the evolution of our reflection on the relationship between plurilingualism, plurilingual speech and language learning. That is, it refers to research on the construction of plurilingual repertoires, over a period of more than thirty years, as documented in Lüdi and Py (1986 [2009]. "To Be or Not to Be … a…

The unprecedented rise of English to become a global lingua franca has sparked a growing academic interest with numerous research publications on global Englishes, English as a lingua franca, and English as an international language. Although this research has led to numerous informative findings concerning pronunciation, pragmatics, and…

The Philippines is held as one of the largest English-speaking countries worldwide with most of its people possessing at least some degree of fluency in the target language. The prestige of the English language in this country has attracted the attention of many foreign students including Indonesian. In this paper, we aimed to discuss the…

The expansion of English worldwide tends to be both seen and marketed uncritically, as a universally relevant lingua franca and medium of education. The post-1945 expansion of English was a deliberate policy of the US and UK governments, foreseen in a speech by Churchill. Elsewhere Churchill endorsed university academic freedom and autonomy, which…

The basic structure and rhetoric of national language policy in multilingual Singapore has remained essentially unchanged since independence with four official languages positioned within the national quadrilingual framework and used in all public spheres, and individual bilingualism encouraged in the private sphere. However, also since…

This article focuses on the construct of linguistic risk-taking and outlines a new pedagogical initiative implemented at a Canadian bilingual postsecondary institution. The Linguistic Risk-Taking Initiative aims at encouraging language learners to target specific challenges and seek opportunities to practice their second official language (French…

Linguistic landscaping is an emerging field of sociolinguistics exploring language in its textual form in the public sphere. Studies on Linguistic Landscape (LL) can be used as a tool to interpret language vitality in a given territory. The present study investigates visibility and vitality of languages in public space of Bihta, an upcoming…

This paper investigates the prospects in the use of mother tongue as a medium of instruction in Nigeria's primary level of education. With the multilingual nature of Nigeria, many scholars have continued to clamour for the use of indigenous languages as a medium of instruction in Nigeria's primary schools. This paper also seeks to justify the…

The study presented here is the first empirical investigation of the patterns and predictors of the intergenerational transmission of French in Quebec. An online questionnaire was used to gather data from 274 parents from different mother tongue (L1) groups: L1 French, L1 English, L1 French and English, and L1 Other. The results show that L1…

This review of the literature on incorporating culture into English language teaching aims not only to revisit the need for intercultural awareness, which focuses on understanding the differences between cultures and appreciating them, but also to highlight the importance of foregrounding and endorsing similarities and commonalities, which can be…

Since independence in 1975, Papua New Guinea, the most linguistically diverse country in the world, has had both unofficial and official policies of mother-tongue education. However, limited resources and support for mother-tongue education has led communities to incorporate bottom-up language planning as well. In particular, this paper examines…

The article proposes a framework for integrating English as a lingua franca (ELF) research in English language teaching (ELT), predominantly pedagogy, but also teacher education, materials development and evaluation, policy design and planning, assessment and testing. The main concept here is ELF awareness, which orientates a set of principles…

Today's world has been embracing social, political, and economical changes that result in the replacement of people for immigration and citizenship purposes. Those waves of change cause some countries to receive the movement of new people, which requires the countries to take precautions. In doing so, in the citizenship context various mechanisms…

Although misunderstandings as such have been extensively studied, the ways in which problems of understanding are avoided--especially in cross-cultural communication--have so far received limited attention. This article examines over 24 h of private conversation data from seven established, intercultural couples who use lingua franca English as…

One comment I often receive when I talk about teaching English as an international language (TEIL) is that TEIL is all about being politically correct--a mere gesture to be inclusive and egalitarian, promoted by a certain ideological stance. It is true that there are certain ideologies, language and beyond, that are compatible with certain aspects…