Willingness to communicate in relation to language use among Pakistani undergraduates: A sociocultural perspective

This study aimed to investigate English as a second language (ESL) undergraduates’ sociocultural perspective of willingness to communicate (WTC) in English inside the classroom in relation to language use outside the classroom. The participants were 440 ESL undergraduates selected through the cluster sampling method from eight universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in Pakistan. The data were collected through questionnaires on WTC in English inside the classroom and language use outside the classroom. The findings revealed that the participants’ level of WTC in English was high for most social interactions within the classroom, such as in groups, during activities, with the same gender, and when given preparation time in groups. The findings for language use showed that a mixture of languages, such as Pashto and Urdu, was predominantly used in the family, neighbourhood and friendship, religion, education, and transaction domains. In contrast, English was primarily used in the mass media and social media domains. Moreover, the findings revealed that WTC in English inside the classroom was positively correlated with social media, mass media, transaction and education domains but negatively correlated with the family domain.

Dating Apps: The Uncertainty of Marketised Love

Dating apps promise a ‘digital fix’ to the ‘messy’ matter of love by means of datafication and algorithmic matching, realising a platformisation of romance commonly understood through notions of a market’s rationality and efficiency. Reflecting on the findings of a small-scale qualitative research on the use of dating apps among young adults in London, we problematise this view and argue that the specific form of marketisation articulated by dating apps is entrepreneurial in kind, whereby individuals act as brands facing the structural uncertainty of interacting with ‘quasi-strangers’. In so doing, we argue, dating app users enact a Luhmanian notion of interpersonal trust, built on the assessment of the risk of interacting with unfamiliar others that is typical of digitally mediated contexts dominated by reputational logics. From a sociocultural perspective, dating apps emerge as sociotechnical apparatuses that remediate the demand to rationally choose a partner while at the same time reproducing the (im)possibility of doing so. In this respect, far from offering a new form of efficiency, they (re)produce the ontological uncertainty (Illouz, 2019) that characterises lovers as entrepreneurs.

Going beyond the Text: Interactional Competence in Reading Comprehension Class

Drawing on the principles underlying conversation analysis (CA), this paper is a single case analysis of interaction in an English as a foreign language (EFL) reading comprehension classroom in Saudi Arabia. It looks at learning from a sociocultural perspective and uses constructs from this theoretical perspective. It focuses on Classroom Interactional Competence (CIC) (Walsh, 2013), showing classroom interaction features that are considered CIC. The paper reflects how an understanding of the concept can lead to more dialogic, engaged learning environments. The paper also connects CIC to teachers’ ability to manipulate simple classroom interactional resources to make the teaching process more effective. The paper demonstrates how teachers can induce CIC by utilizing interactional techniques, such as relaxing the mechanism and speed through which turns are taken or given, use of active listenership devices, extending wait time, and use of open-ended questions to expand topics under development. The paper argues that those techniques will help teachers, as evidenced from the cited examples, further enhance classroom participation so that it is convergent with their pedagogical goals. Finally, the paper has pedagogical implementations as it sheds light on techniques that help promote classroom interaction as an indication of learning among students with limited linguistic resources.

‘Look, my name! I can write’ – Literacy events and digital technology in the preschool atelier

This article explores and displays some of the literacy events taking place in the context of early childhood education in Sweden. More specifically, the literacy events are part of the educational practices in the atelier of Reggio Emilia inspired preschools in Sweden. As parts of an ethnographic study of aesthetic activities, including digital technology, these literacy events awoke the researcher’s interest. The literacy events are analysed from a sociocultural perspective reinforced by the use of multimodal theory. The results show how the literacy events in the ateliers become playful explorations. The children use the atelier’s specific cultural and social potentiality to explore and develop written and oral language as part of the visual and aesthetic literacy practices taking place there.

Going beyond the Text: Interactional Competence in Reading Comprehension Class

Drawing on the principles underlying conversation analysis (CA), this paper is a single case analysis of interaction in an English as a foreign language (EFL) reading comprehension classroom in Saudi Arabia. It looks at learning from a sociocultural perspective and uses constructs from this theoretical perspective. It focuses on Classroom Interactional Competence (CIC) (Walsh, 2013), showing classroom interaction features that are considered CIC. The paper reflects how an understanding of the concept can lead to more dialogic, engaged learning environments. The paper also connects CIC to teachers’ ability to manipulate simple classroom interactional resources to make the teaching process more effective. The paper demonstrates how teachers can induce CIC by utilizing interactional techniques, such as relaxing the mechanism and speed through which turns are taken or given, use of active listenership devices, extending wait time, and use of open-ended questions to expand topics under development. The paper argues that those techniques will help teachers, as evidenced from the cited examples, further enhance classroom participation so that it is convergent with their pedagogical goals. Finally, the paper has pedagogical implementations as it sheds light on techniques that help promote classroom interaction as an indication of learning among students with limited linguistic resources.

The Case of China

This article describes, from a sociopolitical, socioeconomic, and sociocultural perspective, the governance practices of the COVID-19 epidemic control response in China. We describe that, in line with the “whole of government approach,” strong resource mobilization and control of government departments, companies, and citizen communities has worked efficiently to rapidly contain the epidemic. Community participation at the grassroots level has played a decisive part. We assume that the deeply rooted collectivistic Chinese culture has made residents trust the government’s decisions and comply with the prevention and control strategies. We pose some intriguing questions for more analytical comparative research. They concern the normative interpretation of the influences of sociopolitical, economic, and cultural forces, as well as the balance between “collectivism” and “individualism” in societies.

“I’m Grateful, but Am I?”: The Exploration of Gratitude as a Complex Experience Among Malaysian Cancer Patients

Gratitude has gained attention among health researchers for its benefits among chronic illness. However, most of the studies were focusing on the positive effects, neglecting the complex dimensions of gratitude that can contribute to both opportunities and challenges for chronic illness patients. This study aims to understand gratitude among cancer patients in Malaysia from a sociocultural perspective. This includes understanding how cancer patients view gratitude and the impacts of gratitude throughout their cancer-battling journey. This qualitative study involved 35 cancer patients. A thematic analysis was done to analyze the collected data. Among the themes discovered were searching for meaning, meaningful experience, gratitude through the enrichment activities, and gratitude as religious cultural expectations. This study suggests that gratitude is an important experience for chronic illness patients. The ability to understand this experience is vital to support and empower the patients throughout their daily lives.

Peer Scaffolding During EFL Reading Activities: A Sociocultural Perspective

The purpose of this study was to identify the types of peer scaffolding used by Thai EFL students while completing reading activities. Pre-test, post-test and reading test procedures were implemented to measure the impact of peer scaffolding on students’ reading comprehension. The peer scaffolding checklist was employed to identify the types of peer scaffolding the EFL students used in the reading classroom. This study found that the EFL students gained higher post-test mean scores after engaging in reading activities along with peer scaffolding strategies. The beginner and elementary EFL students mostly used procedural assistance, whereas the intermediate EFL students frequently used sharing and questing as peer scaffolding. These findings may provide sociocultural theoretical and pedagogical implications for EFL teachers when supporting peer scaffolding and assisting EFL students to develop reading comprehension.