Let's Move It Move It: Thais’ Attitude Toward English as a Lingua Franca

Recently, a Facebook group under the name "โยกย้าย มาส่ายสะโพกโยกย้าย" (Let's move it move it) brought together Thais around the globe who share a similar goal of moving abroad. One of the most popular discussions was their concern over their English language skills and the “move-in” country of preference. Since this virtual community is an interesting context to explore, a survey questionnaire was distributed online to know their attitudes toward English as a lingua franca (ELF). To know if Thais' attitude on EFL differs based on their "move-in" country of preference, the participants were categorized based on Kachruvian three concentric circles – Inner, Outer, and Expanding as well as Any circle – a combination of two or more circle. Findings show the strongly favorable attitudes of Thais toward the following aspects - the focus on intelligibility, the use of English to communicate with both native and non-native speakers of English, learning materials for a multicultural environment, and exposure to varieties of English. Despite the favorable attitude, the Expanding circle and Any circle groups strongly agreed that Standard British or American English should be taught. All circles disagreed that "any linguistic use that does not conform to Standard English is incorrect." Discussions of results were provided in the study.

Uptake of planning as a self-regulation strategy

Objectives Planning is an effective self-regulation strategy. However, little is known why some people take up planning and why some do not. Such understanding would help improve interventions to promote planning. We investigated how adolescents explain their (non) use of planning for physical activity after an intervention.Methods Qualitative content analysis was employed to investigate follow-up interviews (n=19) of Let’s Move It trial participants twice post-intervention: 6–8 weeks and 14 months post-baseline. In the intervention, planning was one of the key techniques used to promote PA.Results Out of the seven categories linked to reasons for using or not using planning, most were related to feelings that participant anticipated to result from planning. Action- and identity-related concerns were also raised. The reasons for planning were that the plan (1) helps to clarify what to do and to get things done, (2) strengthens the feeling of autonomy, (3) promotes a sense of progress, ability and control over one’s PA. The reasons for not planning were that (having) a plan may (1) feel forced and like an unpleasant duty, (2) take away life’s spontaneity and freedom, (3) result in anticipated annoyance and bad mood if one fails to enact the plan, or (4) be an effective strategy for others but not for the interviewee.Conclusions Planning may not only link to behavioural control but also the sense of autonomy, and thus subsequent motivation. The findings suggest various strategies to promote planning, including challenging non-planner identity and harnessing social dimension of planning.

Nimble Scholarship by Necessity

The COVID-19 crisis revealed that business scholars are painfully and perhaps unnecessarily slow at producing academic content. Rather than make excuses, let’s move towards more nimble scholarship.

Shifting the blame frame: Agency and the parent–child relationship in an anti-obesity campaign

Using thematic analysis of 97 Let’s Move! speeches that Michelle Obama delivered as part of her anti-obesity campaign in the United States, I examine how parent’s agency and children’s agency were framed in relation to each other. Drawing on framing theory, I find that parents and children were attributed different temporal dimensions of agency—or no agency at all—in each of Let’s Move!’s six parent–child frames.