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Efforts towards decolonising the higher education curriculum in Northern Ireland reflect the complex and often contradictory character of the structures, relations, and identities in place. The author draws on his experiences as a settler researcher and learner of Ojibwemowin (an Indigenous language in North America) to explore how these complexities intersect with language in one English language teaching (ELT) programme at a university in Northern Ireland. The author describes the tensions inherent in teaching ELT-related curriculum from a place where language policy has been uneven for many years. The author then explains how language reclamation research has informed teaching practices that de-centre English and draw on relationality. These practices are examined through decolonising and anticolonial lenses to highlight the value of relationships and place as an underexplored pathway in English language and language education curricula in higher education in Northern Ireland and elsewhere.

The evaluation of minority children for special education by law should be nondiscriminatory. To be in compliance with federal mandates such as the Individuals with Disability Education Act (IDEA), No Child Left Behind (NCLB), and Public Law 94-142, minority children who are also English language learners (ELLs) should be assessed in their native language or other appropriate mode of communication. During assessment, the child's language skills in terms of both Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) and Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) should be considered. Assessments like the Woodcock-Munoz and Student Oral Language Observation Matrix (SOLOM) can be used to determine the child's dominant language and proficiency in both their first (L1) and second (L2) languages. Models such as that proposed by Olvera and Gomez-Cerrillo (2011) which includes procedures for formal and informal assessments, as well as data collection and observation, can help guide a school psychologist or diagnostician when assessing a bilingual child. One main goal of this type of evaluation is to distinguish academic delays caused by a learning disability from those caused by a lack of proficiency in English. Cautions with respect to the testing of ELLs are highlighted.

This paper describes oral language as a multi-faceted and unconstrained phenomenon, including its social purpose in societies and the implications of this for education. It provides a critique of the concepts of oral language which have come to dominate literacy and language education policy across the Organisation of Economic Collaboration and Development (OECD) in Anglophone countries like Australia. This paper synthesises the interdisciplinary evidence regarding the nature of oral language from the broad field of “language sciences” and explains the implications of this for literacy education. The paper includes recommendations for educational research, school leaders and policymakers.

A synthesis of interdisciplinary evidence from across the “language sciences” is outlined, drawing on Aristotle’s notion of sound with meaning. The evidence highlights the emphasis given to “sound” and “meaning” within various perspectives and shows that meaning is essential to oral language and provides a lens with which to evaluate educational policy and practice.

Findings from a synthesis of evidence across the language sciences and research on school-based practice suggest a number of implications for policy and practice in linguistically diverse settings. Firstly, phonological awareness through musical and drama processes can be applied in the early years of oral language development. Secondly, that oral language is a complementary communicative tool rather than an isolated practice. Finally, that oral language for the classroom may better reflect language’s social purpose to coordinate around meaning.

This paper is an important clarifier at a time when the place of oral language has become constrained within particular educational models in the Anglosphere. This paper highlights that oral language is a basis for learning to read and write throughout the schooling years, but also in life in the ongoing generative work that language allows and demands.

Research has demonstrated that employees desire to be shown appreciation in various ways. The five languages of appreciation provide a model for exploring these differences. This study aims to explore whether individuals who speak different languages (and are from various cultures) differ in how they prefer to be shown appreciation.

The Motivating By Appreciation Inventory (MBAI) is an online tool that assesses each person’s preferences in how they desire to be shown appreciation at work. Initially developed in English, the MBAI has been translated into seven additional languages. Over 2,200 employees took the MBAI in their preferred spoken language: Mandarin (Chinese), Danish, French (Canadian), Portuguese (Brazilian), Spanish (Latin American), Thai and Turkish. The frequency of each group’s preferred appreciation languages was analyzed to determine similarities and differences across the languages spoken.

Given the non-normal distribution of the data, the Kruskal–Wallis test found that there was a significant difference in preferences for participants’ primary appreciation language across the seven groups of various spoken languages. One key theme was that words of affirmation were most frequently chosen by five of the seven language groups, whereas employees from Thailand and Turkey chose acts of service most frequently. Additionally, tangible gifts were the least frequently chosen appreciation language by all groups, and at rates below their US counterparts. In three of the languages, quality time was preferred significantly less compared with the other languages.

Some of the groups’ findings (Portuguese, Thai) may be impacted by a confounding variable of the type of work setting (manufacturing) in which the employees worked – in comparison to office-based work settings.

One theme was, in comparison to other ways of receiving appreciation, tangible gifts are not highly valued by most employees across all language groups. Therefore, organizations using gifts as the primary way to communicate appreciation to employees may be wasting a lot of money. Similar to English-speaking employees, five of the seven language groups chose words as their preferred appreciation language. A wide range exists, however, across language groups with regards to the proportion who desire words, quality time or acts of service. Multicultural organizations should pay attention to employee preferences, lest they waste time and energy on undesired actions.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study that has examined the preferences of how employees like to be shown appreciation across seven different language groups.

Body language is an integral part of interpersonal communication and exchange, which can convey rich emotions, intentions and information. However, how anchor’s body language works in live-streaming e-commerce (LSE) has yet to receive adequate attention. Based on dual systems theory of decision-making, this paper aims to explore the impact of anchor’s body language on the performance of LSE from the perspective of customer engagement behavior and to examine the moderating role of anchor’s relational social interaction.

The authors confirmed the theoretical model through empirical analysis of structured data from 1,415 actual livestreaming rooms from Douyin, as well as unstructured data of 418,939 min of video and audio, 1,985,473 words of text and 423,302 keyframe images.

The study found that anchor’s body language has a significant positive effect on the performance of LSE, and customer engagement behavior plays a partially mediating role. The moderating effect suggests that anchor’s relational social interaction and body language have substitution effects in enhancing customer engagement behavior and the performance of LSE, which reveals the substitution relationship between anchor’s verbal and nonverbal interactions in LSE.

This study is one of the earlier literature focusing on anchor’s body language, and the findings provide practical references for enhancing customer engagement behavior and achieving performance growth in LSE.

Subject searching in the library catalog is a challenge for any user, but may be especially so for members of marginalized groups whose language diverges even further from established systems of subject headings. In this study, researchers employed the concept of code-switching to better understand the linguistic divide that members of the LGBTQ+ community face when formulating subject searches in the library catalog.

Through a set of 15 interviews with adult library users identifying as LGBTQ+, researchers examined the difference between participants’ natural language when discussing books and their suggested search terms for these same items. Analysis of language switching was guided by a linguistic framework of semantic, syntactic and lexical elements.

Results show that LGBTQ+ catalog users employ linguistic shifts when approaching the library catalog, particularly semantic shifts around terminology for genres and LGBTQ+ identities. Almost all participants were aware of their language switching to some extent, with many purposely employing it in an anticipatory attempt to match their perceptions of the catalog’s language.

For libraries looking to better support marginalized communities, this study offers insight into the linguistic perceptions and practices of these users and the disconnect they may face when searching for resources related to their identities. Pluralistic approaches to subject representation may offer one means of addressing this.

This study takes the novel approach of applying the concept of code-switching to better understand the needs and perceptions of library catalog users.

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how artificial intelligence contributes to the preservation of the cultural identity of native peoples as well as to reduce the gap in access to verified information in native languages of Peru.

An analysis of the context of artificial intelligence in the field of preservation of native languages was developed. Subsequently, the case of the digital tool Quispe Chequea was highlighted, which uses artificial intelligence to produce journalistic content of verification in three native languages of Peru (Quechua, Aimara and Awajún). Finally, a reflection was made on the contributions of artificial intelligence in reducing the gap in access to information, vindication and preservation of native Peruvian languages.

The findings evidenced the importance of the principles of indigenous data sovereignty to respect cultural rights. Also, it was determined that artificial intelligence contributes to the preservation of cultural values of ethnic groups. It also provides verified information in the native language in order to promote inclusion. Finally, this enabling technology proved to be an important resource in reducing social and cultural gaps.

The use of artificial intelligence will enable the preservation of the native languages of marginalized and ethnic groups. It also favors the dissemination and communication of truthful information in native languages.

This opinion article highlights a little-explored context in the field of native Peruvian languages. It highlights the contribution that artificial intelligence can bring to ethnic groups, especially in the preservation of their languages and the reduction of the information access gap.

This study intended to bridge the gap by investigating Chinese master’s students’ perceptions of their supervisors’ use of evaluative language in feedback, from both cognitive and affective perspectives, at a Sino-foreign university in mainland China.

Employing a qualitative research design, 12 participants from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Faculty of Economics and Finance were included. Data were collected through individual semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis.

The findings show that students perceive directive and actionable evaluative language, as well as evaluative language aligned with assessment criteria as effective, facilitating improvement and self-regulated learning. However, the use of evaluative language can evoke mixed emotions, with linguistic devices and inadequate follow-up explanations reinforcing negative feelings. Additionally, power imbalances between supervisors and students influence feedback perceptions, hindering students’ active participation in feedback processes.

This study addresses a gap in the literature on master’s students’ perceptions of evaluative language in supervisory feedback and provides practical recommendations for both thesis supervisors and master’s students to facilitate the acceptance and application of feedback.

This paper's aim is to test the ability of the major search engines Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask to distinguish between German‐ and English‐language documents.

A total of 50 queries using words common in both German and English were submitted to the search engines. The advanced search option of language restriction was used, once in German and once in English, and the first 20 results per engine in each language were investigated.

While none of the search engines faced problems providing results in the language of the interface that was used, both Google and MSN faced difficulties when the results were restricted to a foreign language.

Search engines were only tested in German and English. There is only anecdotal evidence that the problems are the same with other languages.

Searchers should not use the language restriction in Google and MSN when searching for foreign‐language documents. Instead, searchers should use Yahoo or Ask. If searching for foreign language documents in Google or MSN, the interface in the target language or country should be used.

This study demonstrates a problem with search engines that has not been previously investigated.