Abstract As with many First Nations peoples around the world, Australian Aboriginal peoples have suffered dispossession and continue to experience educational and socio-economic disadvantage. This narrative, however, fails to recognise their inherent strength reflected in over 65,000 years of living history in Australia. A number of factors contribute to this resilience — one receiving scant attention over the years is humour. Of those studies that have explored this, the focus has been ‘pragmatics’ ( Garde, 2008 ), ‘performance’ ( Austin, 2016 ), and ‘code-switching’ McConvell (1988) , but only with adult speakers. In this paper, we explore the humour of Australian Aboriginal primary school-aged students as they have fun, joke and ‘kid around’. The focus of this study are cohorts living in rural, regional and remote locations of Australia. Specifically, naturalistic language data were collected in seven schools located within the State of Western Australian. Two hundred and thirty children and their teachers were recorded both in their classrooms and playgrounds. Whilst earlier studies incorporated codeswitching to reflect how the speakers’ use their various linguistic codes ( Malcolm, 2000 ), in this study, reflecting the current state of the field, we base our analysis on translanguaging and the fluid movement that occurs between languages. The findings show how these students draw on their full linguistic repertoire to have fun and to interact humorously with each other — moving between Australian Aboriginal English, traditional languages, Standard Australian English and Kriol (i.e., a creole used in some remote locations of Australia).
Abstract The Gamilaraay language, an Aboriginal Australian language in northern inland New South Wales and nearby Queensland, has faced significant decline as a result of colonisation. To reclaim the language and preserve Gamilaraay cultural heritage, creative and engaging teaching methods are essential. The Winanga-li Language Program uses a theme-based curriculum design which encourages the repetition of target language through storytelling, songs, games, artwork and crafts. This paper explores the use of art and crafts in Gamilaraay early childhood language learning as a multidimensional approach to language and culture. To our knowledge, the topic of craft-based learning activities has not been previously explored in depth in a language reclamation context, specifically in preschool learning. We report on our reflective practice with craft materials as part of one of our program themes around Gunagala (‘sky’), based on significant Gamilaraay cultural knowledge.
This study aimed to test if morphological complexity (MC) could predict L2 English writing quality (L2WQ) and if the predictive power of MC would differ under integrated and independent task conditions. The data sources of the study were 234 integrated and 639 independent reliably-scored argumentative essays. Sixty-six MC indices were calculated for each text in the corpora, and the strongest possible prediction models were obtained using ElasticNet regression with recursive feature elimination and cross-validation. The results showed that the best model for integrated L2WQ was obtained with 13 MC indices, explaining almost half of the variance. For independent L2WQ, the best model could explain slightly less than one tenth of the variance with 13 MC indices. The findings underscore the need to devise an L2 MC development framework across language proficiency levels and to include MC as a component in the assessment of L2WQ. Additionally, the findings emphasize the necessity to increase morphological awareness among L2 learners.
As with many First Nations peoples around the world, Australian Aboriginal peoples have suffered dispossession and continue to experience educational and socio-economic disadvantage. This narrative, however, fails to recognise their inherent strength reflected in over 65,000 years of living history in Australia. A number of factors contribute to this resilience - one receiving scant attention over the years is humour. Of those studies that have explored this, the focus has been 'pragmatics' (Garde, 2008), 'performance' (Austin, 2016), and 'code-switching' McConvell (1988), but only with adult speakers. In this paper, we explore the humour of Australian Aboriginal primary school-aged students as they have fun, joke and 'kid around'. The focus of this study are cohorts living in rural, regional and remote locations of Australia. Specifically, naturalistic language data were collected in seven schools located within the State of Western Australian. Two hundred and thirty children and their teachers were recorded both in their classrooms and playgrounds. Whilst earlier studies incorporated codeswitching to reflect how the speakers' use their various linguistic codes (Malcolm, 2000), in this study, reflecting the current state of the field, we base our analysis on translanguaging and the fluid movement that occurs between languages. The findings show how these students draw on their full linguistic repertoire to have fun and to interact humorously with each other - moving between Australian Aboriginal English, traditional languages, Standard Australian English and Kriol (i.e., a creole used in some remote locations of Australia).
This study develops the Nature Tourism Word List (NTWL) to support second-language (L2) learners in acquiring specialised vocabulary crucial for effective communication in the nature tourism sector. Recognising the significance of nature tourism for global economies, environmental awareness, and professional communication, the NTWL was designed to bridge the gap between academic preparation and real-world practice. The study employed a mixed approach, combining corpus-based and judgement-based methods. A Nature Tourism Corpus (NTC) of 3.4 million tokens was compiled from official national park websites across six regions, while a Second-NTC of 448,000 tokens was used for evaluation. Statistical measures - frequency, range, uniformity, and dispersion - were applied alongside lexical profiling, keyword analysis, semantic tagging, and dictionary consultation to ensure precision and contextual relevance. The final NTWL comprises 744 lemmas, classified into technical, semi-technical, and supportive categories. Coverage tests showed the NTWL accounted for 14.55% of the NTC and 13.48% of the Second-NTC, surpassing the 5-8% expected threshold for technical lists. These findings indicate its strong generalisability and pedagogical value. The NTWL thus provides a practical resource for learners and educators, enhancing vocabulary acquisition and promoting communicative competence in nature tourism.
This study explores the pragmatic competence of Australian learners of Korean as a foreign language (KFL) by analysing their apology strategies across varying settings. While previous studies have examined Korean learners' use of honorifics, few have focused on how L2 learners from non-honorific language backgrounds, such as Australian learners, pragmatically interpret and apply the Korean honorific system in context-specific speech acts like apologies. The current research focuses on KFL learners' comprehension and expression of politeness in Korean by examining how they utilise honorifics and speech levels in the act of apologies for different interlocutors in the provided setting of role-plays. Findings indicate that learners tend to accommodate elevated speech levels and deferential first-person pronouns when apologising, even in contexts in which native speakers would only use the casual speech level and plain first-person pronoun. It suggests that L2 Korean learners understand the Korean honorific system as an extended and flexible pragmatic resource they can apply across contexts to achieve interpersonal goals, deviating from the sociopragmatic norms of native Korean speakers where honorific levels are strictly and invariably determined by interlocutors' social relationships based on relative ages between speakers. By investigating how Australian KFL learners negotiate the use of honorifics according to their interpretation of politeness in Korean, this study aims to provide insights into the development of pragmatic competence and sociopragmatic awareness in L2 Korean learning and teaching within the Australian context.
Research on Second Language (L2) teaching and learning has increasingly acknowledged that key psychological and linguistic processes fluctuate over time rather than unfold as stable traits. The Idiodynamic Method (IDM) was developed to capture such moment-to-moment variability, yet its applications remain conceptually scattered and methodologically uneven. This review presents a PRISMA-guided narrative synthesis of 24 IDM studies to examine the constructs of L2 learning and teaching to which the method has been applied and how it has been designed and implemented to capture dynamic change. Results show that across psychological, emotional, linguistic, and pedagogical constructs, IDM reveals fine-grained intra-individual patterns shaped by task demands, contextual conditions, and learners' subjective experience. The study also identifies substantial diversity in rating intervals, scale design, and analytic integration, underscoring that methodological choices are epistemological rather than merely technical in nature. Framed as an explanatory sequential mixed-methods approach, IDM enables researchers to examine the waves of L2 development rather than only its global outcomes. The review concludes by outlining principled directions for methodological refinement and future applications beyond speaking-focused research, including attention and classroom participation.
The present study investigates the understanding, identification, and classification of apology speech act across Iranian and American series as reflected in two popular film series. A total of 347 apologetic utterances drawn from the film series were collected in a corpus. The data were analyzed to examine the frequency of apology strategies and the influence of social status on their use. To this aim, descriptive statistics, a binomial test, and a chi-square test were run. The obtained results revealed both similarities and discrepancies as regards the frequencies of apology strategies. Illocutionary Force Indicating Devices (IFIDs) were the most frequent apology strategies used in the two languages, followed by the 'acceptance of responsibility'. Concerning the relative social status, significant differences were manifested among the three levels of social status (high, equal, and low) in both cultures. The findings of this study are expected to enhance intercultural awareness, serve learners and teachers' pedagogical needs, develop pragmatic competence in general, and enhance apology communicative act understanding, in particular.
Iterative audiovisual-based speaking continuation (ABSC) tasks involve multiple rounds of video-watching and speaking on a consistent topic, providing learners with opportunities to encounter varied vocabulary and contextualized usage. The APPRAISAL system (Martin & White, 2005) serves as an important language resource to express attitudes and mediate interpersonal relations. This study examined the alignment effects of ABSC tasks on APPRAISAL resources by a Chinese EFL learner engaged in 33 rounds of ABSC tasks across 10 topics. Findings revealed that the EFL learner's APPRAISAL resources showed significant differences from the video inputs, mainly in the ATTITUDE and HETEROGLOSSIC systems, indicating difficulties in effectively aligning with these resources during the tasks. Throughout the longitudinal completion of multi-turn ABSC tasks, the EFL learner presented a fluctuating process of APPRAISAL resource alignment, with limited alignment in early and middle phases and increased alignment in the later phase, reflecting the complex and developmental nature of APPRAISAL resource alignment in continuation tasks. Notably, multiple methods were used in this process to facilitate such alignment, including video re-watching, self-motivation, and goal-setting. The pedagogical implications of integrating ABSC tasks to optimize APPRAISAL resource utilization are also discussed.
This study adopts a qualitative, exploratory design to examine how queer language teachers in Thailand express their lived identities in the classroom and how these identities inform and shape their pedagogical practices. Data were collected from ten queer language teachers through in-depth semi-structured interviews. The analysis identified four key themes: (1) authenticity and self-expression in teaching, (2) creating inclusive and safe classrooms, (3) student engagement and personalization, and (4) teaching as advocacy and representation. Participants reported that their queer identities enable them to establish supportive classroom environments where students feel valued and respected. These teachers believed that expressing their queer identities promotes diversity, encourages critical engagement with sociocultural norms, and cultivates empathy among students. Although the study also emphasizes the challenges of combining queer identity with professional expectations in Thailand's distinct cultural and educational contexts, the findings underline how queer teachers' ability to exercise agency is inextricably linked to their freedom to express themselves. This authenticity not only enriches classroom interactions but also enables teachers to advocate for societal change by challenging outdated gender and sexual standards in education.
Authorial voice has been recognised as an essential aspect of writing, prompting increased efforts to interpret this complex concept (Cheung & Lau, 2020; Mhilli, 2020; Mhilli, 2023; Zabihi & Bayan, 2020; Zhao & Liu, 2021). The most recent literature on voice in writing defines voice as the author's identity reflected in text (Naimmah Hamdan & Ahmad, 2023; Mhilli, 2023). However, the question of which linguistic features mark voice in text remains contested, as existing empirical studies identify a wide range of possible linguistic realisations of authorial voice in writing (Stock & Eik-Nes, 2016). While this variety of markers reflects the concept's complexity (Mhilli, 2023), it also poses challenges, particularly in contexts such as linguistic analysis and teaching, where voice needs to be clearly operationalised. This scoping review addresses this gap through a systematic mapping of the complex landscape of linguistic realisations of textual voice in recent empirical research. The findings highlight the crucial role analytical frameworks play in determining the choice of voice markers for textual analysis. The findings indicate that the analytical frameworks used in recent empirical studies range from unfocused to narrowly focused. The findings also indicate that the implementation of comprehensive and manageable functional frameworks with specific categorisations of voice markers enables more informed and rigorous analysis of the complex and dynamic concept of authorial voice in writing. This scoping literature review has implications for future research, advocating for a refinement of research methodologies in textual voice analysis. It also informs evidence-based educational practices, advancing the understanding of authorial voice as an explicitly teachable objective integrated into writing instruction and curricula.
Abstract This systematic review synthesised 150 empirical studies on task-based language teaching (TBLT) conducted in Japan between 2008 and 2025. Unlike global syntheses that often rely solely on English-language databases, this review analysed studies drawn from both international (Scopus, ERIC, Web of Science, and LLBA) and domestic Japanese databases (CiNii and J-STAGE) following PRISMA 2020 guidelines ( Page et al., 2021 ) and the SMART Protocol ( Chong, 2025 ). Results show a predominance of university-based research and speaking-oriented tasks, with limited evidence from compulsory education. Notably, the analysis suggests a divergence in theoretical orientation. While international publications tended to prioritise mainstream TBLT frameworks and theoretical orientations, domestic studies more frequently anchored these principles in local policy and pedagogical practice. Approximately 30% of studies were found to have a combined theoretical orientation that integrated global principles with local contexts. These findings suggest that practitioners frequently employ internationally recognised frameworks alongside domestic scholarship and policy guidelines to navigate implementation challenges. This indicates an adaptive effort to align task-based principles with local educational realities rather than a weakening of theory. By integrating these domestic perspectives, the review offers a more comprehensive and context-sensitive account of how task principles are adapted to classroom reality in Japan.
This study compared the performance of monolingual and multilingual Australian English-speaking children on the OZI-SF - an authorised short-form MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory for Australia. The focus was on two established clinical markers of early communication development: verbs (number and type) and word combinations. Caregivers of children (N = 359) aged 18.0 to 30.9 months completed the OZI-SF. Total concept scores (TCS) were calculated, giving credit for items known in English and/or any language. Regression analyses focused on two useful markers of communication development - verb sub-scores and reports of word combining - comparing monolinguals and multilinguals, controlling for age, sex, and caregiver education level. Results showed similar performance between the groups for verb number, verb type, and the use of word combinations. Expected effects of age and sex were observed, but language background and caregiver education did not significantly predict verbs or word combining. Findings support the utility of the OZI-SF as a screening or surveillance tool for describing verb profile and word combinations in both monolingual and multilingual populations.
The rise of online multimedia resources in formal and informal learning offers new opportunities for language education and a new site for applied linguistics research. Rich data from Indonesian 'teacher-YouTubers' indicate their videos address symbolic language freed from the formal setting of a physical classroom, though shaped by the online environment. Teacher-YouTubers in this study take on the identity work of self and addressee reference in all sorts of ways; using standard forms which draw on the symbolic power of national policy, forms with regional, cosmopolitan stereotypic meaning, through to (awkwardly) humorous forms targeting student engagement. Statistical description of the corpus and qualitative analysis of stance-taking behaviours reveal that teacher-YouTubers model pronoun use beyond standard language forms and explore how pronoun choices impact meaning in different contexts. The pedagogical practices examined address the imperative of developing intercultural awareness while empowering students to both understand and negotiate the construction of stance to express their own identity. Results suggest the diverse identities and competencies of teachers may broaden and enliven the Indonesian language teaching space, from the classroom to curriculum development. This study also indicates that the stance framework combined with statistical analysis of language has potential to enable rich description of how language teaching, variation, multilingualism, and identity work interact in applied linguistics more broadly.
Lexical ambiguity, where a word has multiple related (polysemous) and/or unrelated (homographic) meanings, causes challenges in learning and teaching semi-technical medical vocabulary owing to its lack of consideration in current lexicographical resources, including wordlists and dictionaries. Academic wordlists fail to indicate polysemes and homographs, while conventional dictionaries number multiple meanings of a semi-technical medical word in a vertical format that is unlikely to showcase polysemous and homographic relations. This study focuses on a new lexicographical resource, named SemiMed, which addresses issues in wordlists and dictionaries arising from lexical ambiguity. Hsu's (2013) Medical Word List (MWL), an academic list of semi-technical medical vocabulary, was selected as a starting point. A qualitative analysis underpinned by lexical semantic theories was conducted to analyse polysemes and homographs of MWL words. Then, a quantitative analysis that employed word sense disambiguation practices calculated MWL word meaning frequency. These analyses resulted in two key features, radial networks of meanings and technicality levels, that are expected to help SemiMed resolve issues in academic wordlists and conventional dictionaries caused by lexical ambiguity.
