This paper draws on identity narratives that were collected annually over a four-year period from two heritage language learners of Japanese at a U.K. university. This paper observes how 'fixity' (discreteness, static and fixed identities) and 'fluidity' (hybridity; creative and flexible identities) co-exist with each other in learners'…

Based on data from a ten-year study of literacy and linguistic diversity in the classroom, in this article we examine the intersection of investment and placemaking through an analysis of a student's emergent engagement practices in a teaching unit about writing blogs. Drawing on recent work on spatiality in literacy studies, we trace the evolving…

The dialogic nature of human beings has widely been argued in the scientific literature. Language, as a cultural and psychological tool, has the potential to construct social meanings, including those related to love, attraction and desire. In these emotional dimensions of the self, people use 'the language of desire', defined as the capacity of…

An inclination to advocate is an important orientation for teachers working with emergent bilingual learners; emphasized in both frameworks for teacher education and in teacher education standards. Nevertheless, scholars have only begun to investigate how advocacy is constructed and enacted within online language teacher education coursework…

The increasing occurrence of multilingualism in the educational sphere is challenging teachers to deal with the coexistence of different languages in the classroom. The present paper presents the analysis of language portraits as a tool to make students' multilingualism visible by using colours to represent their multilingual repertoires. Through…

In this article, we present a research study with a group of newcomer and refugee learners who have resettled in the Niagara region in Canada to create new lives. Over the course of four months, we came to know the stories of fifteen adult language learners, and we witnessed their steady induction, acceptance and enjoyment of multimodal…

'Student success' is a key driver in higher education policy and funding. Institutions often adopt a particular lens of success, emphasising 'retention and completion', 'high grades', 'employability after graduation' discourses, which place high value on human capital or fiscal outcomes. We explored how students themselves articulated notions of…

To promote English learning is an alleged benefit of implementing English-medium-instruction (EMI). However, English learning is supposed to occur incidentally in most EMI contexts. From the linguistic-ecological perspective, incidental language learning is premised on two conditions: linguistic inputs are perceived by learners as affordances,…

While humour and laughter create conditions that are conducive for learning, different forms of children's humour have been given little attention in research on digital media, literacy learning, and multimodal design. Applying a Bakhtinian lens, we analyse carnivalesque videos created by elementary students as part of the formal curriculum. We…

Analysis of progression in spoken English by newcomer migrant-background learners has traditionally oscillated between formal assessment of oral proficiency and ethnographic description of naturally occurring peer discourse. This paper reports on data gathered from a longitudinal study of newly arrived students with English as an additional…

This study explored the processes of utilization of resources in secondary students' self-regulated strategic writing for academic studies in an English as medium of instruction context in Hong Kong. Drawing on multiple data sources collected through the observation of lessons, stimulated recall and semi-structured interviews, the study examined…

Internationalisation policies introducing English as a lingua franca (ELF) have been initiated by the Taiwan Ministry of Education and executed from a top-down level without taking into consideration the competence and needs of administrative staff. This article begins by describing the ideology of ELF within the macro context of Taiwanese…

This quasi-experimental study explores changes in preservice teachers' reported self-efficacy and knowledge of instructional strategies in supporting English language learners (ELLs) after participating in an electronic pen-pal project. Seventy-four preservice teachers (experimental = 35; control = 39) participated in this study. The intervention…

This qualitative study explored Spanish-speaking teacher credential students' beliefs about academic language that might promote or inhibit their decision to become bilingual teachers. Data includes interviews with 11 bilingual teacher candidates who were heritage Spanish speakers. Findings show that most were only aware of English-only…

In this article, we explain how recent research on multilingualism, multilingual education, and multimodality informs our thinking about the use of "ScribJab," a multilingual iPad application and website ("ScribJab.com"), which enables users to compose, illustrate, and narrate stories in two languages. Drawing on excerpts from…