This study examined how a female refugee English teacher residing in Bangkok, Thailand, positioned herself in relation to her teacher identity. We collected four conversational interviews, each lasting between 60 and 90 minutes, as the primary data for our study. Drawing on Bamberg's (2004) three levels of positioning, the analysis of this study involved three main steps. First, the study examined how she positioned herself within her narrative. Subsequently, the analysis explored how she positioned herself in relation to others and how these interactions shaped her positioning. Finally, both positioning analyses were integrated to understand how she positioned herself vis-& agrave;-vis refugee and teacher discourses, within which she positioned herself and was positioned by these discourses. Through these positionings, the participant adeptly navigated her roles to construct her teacher identity, addressing the complex realities of the refugee classroom context and developing a teaching approach that met the specific needs of her refugee students, while reclaiming her agency and resisting the dominant narrative that perceives refugees solely through a lens of vulnerability and the traditional educational narrative that prioritizes formal credentials and elitism in academic practices. Our findings extend positioning theory from the context of forced migration.

Being gay in Indonesia, where Islam is the dominant religion, presents significant challenges. Sexual and gender minorities face heightened risks of abuse and discrimination. This study analyzed viewers’ reactions in English and Bahasa Indonesia comments on the coming-out videos of three gay Indonesians: Yos, Bagus, and Acep. A total of 300 comments (100 comments per video: 50 in English and 50 in Bahasa Indonesia) were selected based on defined criteria. Appraisal Theory (Martin & White, 2005) was applied to examine how attitudes were expressed. The findings reveal significant contrasts between English and Bahasa Indonesia comments. English comments were largely supportive, emphasizing bravery and resilience. In contrast, Bahasa Indonesia comments were highly polarized, with a strong tendency toward moral condemnation and religious-based criticism, often framing homosexuality as deviant. Some extreme negative comments even contained threats of violence. However, a small yet notable number of supportive comments in Bahasa Indonesia acknowledged Yos’, Bagus’, and Acep’s courage, indicating emerging acceptance within certain social groups. These findings highlight how deeply ingrained cultural and religious norms shape public discourse on LGBT identities in Indonesia. While hostility dominates, the presence of supportive voices suggests gradual shifts in societal attitudes. By examining these polarized reactions, this study provides insights into Indonesia’s LGBT communities in digital spaces. The results underscore the need for greater awareness and advocacy to foster acceptance and protection for sexual minorities in restrictive cultural contexts.

Sentiment analysis is essential for interpreting textual data, often categorising sentiments as positive, negative, or neutral. While human analysis can achieve this, large datasets require automated tools for efficiency. However, many sentiment analysis programmes provide only summary statistics, limiting deeper insights. Generative AI , such as ChatGPT-4, addresses this limitation by offering more detailed sentiment and thematic insights. Unlike traditional tools, ChatGPT-4 allows for in-depth analysis, though relying on it alone may not be advisable. This paper explores integrating ChatGPT-4 into sentiment analysis workflows for narrative data, emphasising the importance of carefully crafted prompts and validating AI findings with manual checks to ensure reliability and accuracy.

This qualitative study explores the distinctive linguistic characteristics of the English variety used by Thai Pattaya ladyboys, focusing on how Thainess is expressed through their language. Although English serves as a lingua franca in Thailand’s tourism industry, local cultural and linguistic influences give rise to unique varieties, such as Thai English (ThaiE). As a subculture, Pattaya ladyboys may incorporate elements of Thai identity and gender expression into their use of English. Drawing on literature about language, gender, ThaiE, and World Englishes, this research investigates the spoken English of ladyboys through free conversational interviews with 10 participants. The data was analysed to identify distinctive linguistic and stylistic features framed within established ThaiE processes such as transfer, translation, borrowing, and hybridization. By examining how this community constructs its English variety, the study seeks to uncover how Thainess and gender identity influence the nativization of English. The findings aim to contribute to a deeper understanding of the intersection between language, culture, and gender in shaping a specific English variety.

Face-to-face interactions in early childhood classrooms are inherently complex, requiring nuanced analysis. Using Norris’s (2004) concept of modal density ( MD ), this study examines shifts in social actors’ attention and awareness through two video-recorded extracts. Findings highlight that attention is influenced by diverse communicative modes, including gaze, gestures, posture, body orientation, and language. Despite high MD , one actor demonstrated inattentiveness, relegating the ongoing interaction to the background of their awareness. Effective engagement requires that multimodal inputs be directed at a specific actor to elicit focused attention, and these inputs often originate from multiple actors, dynamically shaping interactions. Furthermore, teacher-learner relationships significantly influence attention shifts, fostering reciprocity and intersubjectivity. These findings suggest that educators should strategically design multimodal interactions to sustain engagement and enhance communication. Broadly, the study underscores the importance of fostering responsive and interactive classroom environments, pivotal in supporting young learners’ cognitive and social development.

Our narrative case study explores how Maya’s ecological factors shaped her teaching approaches and identity as an empathetic teacher. Drawing on Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (1979), we analysed Maya’s narrative across micro, meso, exo, and macro-systems. The microsystem reveals how her interactions with students inform her pedagogical decisions. The mesosystem highlights her mother’s influence and support network on her practices. The exosystem reflects the small incentives Maya received and their external impacts. The macrosystem addresses the broader cultural context, including her refugee status and cultural norms in Pakistan and Thailand. Our findings indicate that Maya’s personal and social identities significantly shape her role as a teacher more than her professional identity. This underscores the need for training that supports refugee teachers in balancing emotional needs with teaching strategies. Our study calls for further investigation into teachers’ backgrounds and their impacts on refugee students’ academic and emotional well-being.

Background: Learner engagement is a critical factor in educational success. It reflects the depth of students’ involvement in learning activities and is shaped by both individual and contextual factors within the classroom. Given its multifaceted nature, engagement poses definitional and analytical challenges. This paper explores the dimensions and manifestations of engagement by analyzing its phases in classroom activities. Methods: Adopting a multilayered analysis, we employed Dimensions of Engagement and Multimodal (Inter)action Analysis to analyze two video extracts of kindergarten classroom interactions. We examined how engagement is manifested by different dimensions and how it develops dynamically through verbal and non-verbal interactions. Results: Findings reveal that the type of instructional inputs learners receive influences the dimensions of their engagement. Additionally, engagement is not a single-dimensional construct; rather, it is manifested by learners in an overlapping and interconnected manner where different forms of engagement (e.g., behavioral, emotional, and cognitive) interact progressively. Conclusion: This study contributes to a deeper understanding of learner engagement in early childhood education by highlighting its temporal and multimodal nature, with an emphasis on the role of instructional inputs and classroom interactions in shaping engagement over time.

Our narrative case study explores how Maya's ecological factors shaped her teaching approaches and identity as an empathetic teacher. Drawing on Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory (1979), we analysed Maya's narrative across micro, meso, exo, and macro-systems. The microsystem reveals how her interactions with students inform her pedagogical decisions. The mesosystem highlights her mother's influence and support network on her practices. The exosystem reflects the small incentives Maya received and their external impacts. The macrosystem addresses the broader cultural context, including her refugee status and cultural norms in Pakistan and Thailand. Our findings indicate that Maya's personal and social identities significantly shape her role as a teacher more than her professional identity. This underscores the need for training that supports refugee teachers in balancing emotional needs with teaching strategies. Our study calls for further investigation into teachers' backgrounds and their impacts on refugee students' academic and emotional well-being.

This qualitative study explores the distinctive linguistic characteristics of the English variety used by Thai Pattaya ladyboys, focusing on how Thainess is expressed through their language. Although English serves as a lingua franca in Thailand's tourism industry, local cultural and linguistic influences give rise to unique varieties, such as Thai English (ThaiE). As a subculture, Pattaya ladyboys may incorporate elements of Thai identity and gender expression into their use of English. Drawing on literature about language, gender, ThaiE, and World Englishes, this research investigates the spoken English of ladyboys through free conversational interviews with 10 participants. The data was analysed to identify distinctive linguistic and stylistic features framed within established ThaiE processes such as transfer, translation, borrowing, and hybridization. By examining how this community constructs its English variety, the study seeks to uncover how Thainess and gender identity influence the nativization of English. The findings aim to contribute to a deeper understanding of the intersection between language, culture, and gender in shaping a specific English variety.

This study aims to investigate the representation of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) individuals in Thai online newspaper articles. One hundred and seventy-three articles from the Bangkok Post, the major English-medium newspaper in Thailand, were collected from 2011 to 2022. The data were organized into three time periods: the first period from 2011 to 2014, the second period from 2015 to 2018, and the third period from 2019 to 2022. After this, two main approaches to data analysis have been adopted: thematic analysis and sentiment analysis. The results revealed a transforming journey of LGBT representation in Thai newspaper articles. ‘Rights and Equality’ is the major topic discussed in LGBT-related articles in all three periods. Fortunately, the sentiment analysis of the first-person pronoun ‘I’ informed a positive shift in LGBT situations in Thailand. Even though the status of LGBTs is not completely recognized in the Thai legal system, the findings from this study show a positive development of respect and acceptance of the public for LGBT members.

This study investigates the use of design elements in the advertisement posters on the Facebook pages of ten Thai universities, comprised of five government and five private institutions. Using the Multimodal Corpus Analysis Tool (MCAT), the study systematically analyzed the color characteristics and dominant colors employed in the universities' Facebook advertisement posters. Findings revealed that while color characteristics were similarly employed across the universities, the use of dominant colors varied significantly. Government universities were found to incorporate their theme colors in the designs, reflecting their brand identity. In contrast, private universities predominantly used colors to augment the content of their advertisements, rather than to represent their institutional identities. This study provides valuable insights into how different color and design elements are utilized by Thai universities in their social media communication to enhance their brand identities and content messaging.

With multimodal visual texts becoming increasingly important, especially online, there is a need for an effective tool to analyze these texts. In this paper, we present the Multimodal Corpus Analysis Tool which uses sets of categories, such as dominant colors and object location, to analyze a corpus of online advertisements. The 12 categories are based on both multimodal theory and advertising theory, and the tool produces frequency counts of codes and likelihood of co-occurrence of two codes using observed-to-expected ratio. We illustrate the use of the tool through three case studies. First, examining the left and right positioning of verbal content and images in horizontal adverts, we find that there is a general preference for language left - picture right adverts, a finding potentially questioning currently accepted theories of information value in multimodal texts. Second, examining color schemes in adverts, we find that most use of dominant colors reflects accepted meanings in advice on multimodal text design, except for blue which is associated with storge love. For brightness, colorfulness and contrast, there are differences between adverts for everyday products and adverts for services and expensive products. Third, focusing on the call to action phrases in the adverts, there are differences in the use of the two most common forms ( shop now and learn more ) in adverts for products and services. These cases illustrate the potential benefits of developing and using multimodal corpus tools.

This research study aims to investigate word-formation strategies employed by Thai LGBTs in creating new terms. A number of LGBT terms were preselected from a Thai LGBT series named Diary Tootsies The Series, then validated by three external raters. The 50 remaining terms were analysed through an adapted framework of word formation (Algeo and Algeo, 1993; Bauer, 2020). The result indicates that Shift of Meaning, which is the strategy of assigning new meaning to the existing terms, was the predominant strategy employed. Shift of Meaning may possibly co-occur with some other strategies, such as using rhyme-motivated or compounding words. The use of more than one strategy may help embellish the terms and make their meaning more expressive and entertaining. As language can reflect its users’ identity, new terms created by Thai LGBTs would embrace the stereotypical image that people have about them in the ways that they are outgoing, funny, and creative.

The purpose of this study was to compare the discussion sections of research articles in applied linguistics in Thai and international journals. The corpus consisted of 20 English research articles: 10 from Thai journals and 10 from international journals. The adverbials framework of Biber et al. (1999) was employed in this study. The study explained the different usage of adverbials in discussion sections of both corpora. The results show that most of the use of adverbials in research article discussion sections in Thai and international journals is similar. There are five adverbials which are different and influence the presentation of content in discussion sections. It is hoped that this study may help teachers to design writing courses for novice writers or undergraduate and postgraduate students in writing research article discussion sections to publish in an international level.

Laughter is not just an element in human communication that signifies happiness and enjoyment, it can be used as a communication strategy to lubricate successful interaction including business communication. Nonetheless, not many studies have paid attention to laughter in business communication. Therefore, this paper sheds light on how Thai and Burmese participants used laughter in a restaurant and in a business meeting in Yangon, Myanmar. Audio data was collected together with various pieces of ethnographic data, for example, participant observations reported from extensive field notes, semi-structured interviews and audio recordings. The analysis was based on the classification of laughter adopted from Hayakawa (2003), and Murata and Hori (2007). The findings reveal that laughter is deployed as a communication strategy with different purposes such as to make fun of work, to ease tension and to threaten other interlocutors and unveil those factors which stimulate the laughter in informal and formal settings.

Laughter is a common feature found in daily conversations as an element showing amusement. However, laughter can also appear in serious talk such as business meetings (Murata, 2007; Markaki, et al., 2010). This paper scrutinizes laughter use between Thai and Burmese participants in a business meeting held in Yangon, Myanmar, and examines laughter functions and factors stimulating laughter to occur. The business meeting data was collected using the ethnographic method - a participant observation, extensive field notes, interviews and audio recordings. The data were analyzed based on the framework of laughter adapted from Hayakawa (2003) and Murata & Hori (2007); the findings reveal that laughter was used as a communication strategy and occurred in the meeting both in a relaxed atmosphere and in a serious discussion with different intentions - to have fun, to make fun of work, to ease the tension and to threaten other interlocutors.

Queer teachers, as a result of inherent heterosexuality, have been historically living in a society of victimization and marginalization. Despite advances in LGBT rights and policies, research on queer teachers remains contextually undertheorized. Thus, this paper, based on life history interview, presents a narrative study of a non-local English teacher working in Thai higher education. Premised on the post-structuralist perspectives, this article aims to explore the construction of queer self as a professional language teacher through how sexuality is negotiated in the process of interacting with diverse subjects. The findings illustrate the fluidity of queer subjectivity within different discourses, where corresponding strategies are self-imposed to negotiate the boundaries between queer and professional selves. While queer individuals are affected by the dominant discourse of heteronormativity, queer visibility within institutional cultures comes down to a subjective piece. We conclude that queer teachers are professional subjects since the discourse of queer as professional is (re)constructed and normalised at the workplace.

This study examined power through social relations between entities in the implementation of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) in an environment where English is spoken as a foreign language. The examination involved analysing the discourse of two foreign English teachers. Specifically, subject positioning of entities, made apparent through pronominal markers and shifts, as well as discourse meaning, were analysed to establish attributes and relations pertinent to the teaching and learning entities and context. The findings showed how teachers' epistemologies can be made visible through the examination of discourse. Steven, a participant of this study, indicated that while he seemingly practised an inclusive approach, he was restricted by his teaching context, which appeared to be stricter, and his students' language proficiency. The second teacher, Tamara, was more democratic in her pedagogical approach, seen through her students' involvement. This signified a more open work environment as both teacher and student could make necessary adjustments to support the learning objectives. From this study, we could see how intercultural education is still perceived differently. This difference may be due to the parameters of the teachers. This study also showed how teachers' discourse is a feasible site for the examination of power.