The spatial interference effect, whereby words with implicit spatial associations (e.g., ‘bird’) hinder identification of unrelated visual targets (e.g., a square) at the associated locations (i.e., at the top of a display), has been demonstrated many times in English, although it has failed to replicate several times in Italian. The current study tested whether the replication failures in Italian may be due to insufficient semantic processing of the words. Indeed, while languages with highly inconsistent pronunciations, such as English, are more likely to involve semantic processing during word reading, languages with highly consistent pronunciations, such as Italian, tend to evoke weaker semantic processing during reading. In two experiments, semantic processing in Italian was induced by including a high proportion of irregularly stressed words. Spatial interference occurred in both experiments. It is concluded that relatively deep semantic processing is necessary for spatial interference to occur.

Employing the ‘observation and collection’ method, this paper tracks some of the changes to the recent British English lexicon that have occurred through the use of syntactic category change. These involve primarily nominalization and verbification. Many of the examples discussed in the main body of the text and extended in the annex are of a contemporary nature.

This article investigates why moments of semiotic silence, or minimal engagement, occur in Facebook practices among Filipino migrant workers engaged in grassroots organizations working for migrants’ rights. We investigate how members and leaders of these organizations subjectively and intersubjectively assess moments of semiotic silence through their discourses. Taking a sociolinguistically grounded chronotopic approach, we show how they make sense of these moments by invoking a multiplicity of space-times related to sociopolitical constraints, their working situation, communication with family, and the organizing of migrants. This study provides empirical data, highlighting the importance of identity, materiality, and media ideology in understanding grassroots social media practices and political engagement. On this basis, we come to understand a broader range of ways in which migrant workers use or do not use social media in relation to community involvement and public discourse. (Social media engagement, grassroots organizing, chronotope, identity construction, media ideology, materiality, migrants’ rights)

South Korea’s enduring obsession with English education has recently taken a new form in chil-se-ko-si, a Korean term referring to competitive English entrance exams for six- and seven-year-olds. This phenomenon reflects a broader shift toward performance-driven, high-stakes instruction in early childhood, shaped by policy gaps, market expansion, and parental anxiety. This article examines how chil-se-ko-si has become a mechanism of social sorting. It further explores whether such trends remain justifiable in an era increasingly mediated by generative AI. Drawing on a critical policy review that integrates media discourse, government data, and a national survey (Shin et al. 2023), the analysis is grounded in critical discourse analysis and Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic capital. Findings show that early English education is less about language acquisition and more about signaling class status, imposing emotional and financial burdens on families while reinforcing social hierarchies. Medical and educational experts express concern about the developmental and psychological costs of such early academic pressure. As AI tools begin to reshape how English is accessed and used, the persistence of chil-se-ko-si raises urgent questions about what it means to prepare children for the future. The article calls for early English education to be reoriented toward developmental appropriateness, equity, and contextual relevance in a rapidly evolving, technology-mediated world.

The article examines ideologies behind linguistic conversion—a widespread transition to Ukrainian from Russian—which intensified in Ukraine after the onset of Russian aggression in 2014, and particularly after the 2022 full-scale invasion. Employing ‘new speakerness’ as a theoretical lens, the study draws on biographical interviews with twenty-one new full-time Ukrainian speakers recruited among participants in informal language-learning initiatives in Ukraine. The primary focus is on the ways in which the new speakers legitimise their ownership of the Ukrainian language: how they imagine their positions in the socially constructed traditional hierarchies of Ukrainian speakers, based on the mastery of the standard language, and what new ideologies arise out of their challenges. The findings reveal that, in most of the cases, traditional hierarchies are deconstructed as new ideologies prioritising fluency and elevating translingual practice emerge in the linguistic safe spaces of grassroots language courses and community clubs. (New speakers, language ideologies, linguistic conversion, suržyk, linguistic safe spaces, Russo-Ukrainian war)

Research on the associations between refugee children’s socioemotional development and bilingual outcomes is limited, although this population has unique migration experiences that could affect such development. This study examined Syrian refugee children’s socioemotional development, including well-being difficulties and acculturation, 4.5 years after their resettlement in Canada (N = 112; mean age = 11.97). It also investigated how socioemotional development was associated with refugee children’s bilingual outcomes in English and Arabic. The findings suggested that, although the children were developing an integration orientation of acculturation, a large proportion of them reported well-being difficulties. Socioemotional development had both direct and mediated associations with bilingual outcomes: children’s identification with Syrian culture influenced English outcomes positively, and their enjoyment of Arabic language activities influenced Arabic outcomes positively. Children’s enjoyment of Arabic language activities was related to less sibling interaction in English, which, in turn, was negatively associated with English outcomes. Somewhat similarly, identification with Canadian culture was related to less parent interaction in Arabic, which was negatively associated with Arabic outcomes. Well-being difficulties were negatively associated with outcomes in both languages. We conclude that refugee children are faced with unique challenges in their socioemotional development, which in turn influences their bilingual outcomes.

The C2 dominance effect in cluster simplification, in which the second consonant is preserved over the first (V1C1C2V2 → V1C2V2), has been attributed to the perceptual salience of prevocalic consonants. However, this P-map account fails in classic Optimality Theory when syncope feeds cluster simplification (V1C1V0C2V2 → V1C1C2V2 → V1C2V2), as the input and output contexts do not differentiate C1 from C2. This article proposes a solution to this problem using correspondence constraints that reference acoustic transitions from and to vowels. Since syncope removes the targeted vowel and its associated transitions, Ident [transition] constraints cannot refer to the eliminated transitions. Specifically, the transition from C2 is protected by the relevant Ident [release transition] constraint, while C1’s transition is not. Thus, under the ranking of Ident [release transition] over Ident [closure transition], C1, despite being underlyingly prevocalic, remains subject to the C2 dominance effect and is targeted for deletion. This proposal also addresses interactions between syncope and other cluster reduction processes, such as major place assimilation and debuccalisation.

Recent years have seen an increase in forced migration from the Global South, e.g., Congolese refugees with long transits in Uganda, to countries in the Global North, like Norway. Many of these newly-arrived Congolese refugees in Norway have English in their linguistic repertoires after decades-long transits in Uganda. English can thus be used as a lingua franca in Norway while they are learning Norwegian, as many Norwegians also have English in their repertoires. However, the ways these refugees have learnt English differ starkly from the ways most Norwegians have learnt English. While most Norwegians have mainly learnt English formally, i.e. in school, these Congolese refugees have mainly learnt English informally, i.e. outside language classrooms. The present article explores specific examples of how these refugees have learnt English. Some have, for example, learnt English through lingua franca interaction with other refugees with whom they do not share any other languages than English; others have initiated English language awareness in the wild themselves through, for example, talking explicitly about the English language with motorcycle riders in Uganda; and others have listened to English-speaking radio programmes in order to learn English faster. I argue that many of these ways of learning English informally can be referred to as “grassroots learning” of English, since English learning is initiated by the refugees themselves. These findings from empirical research among newly-arrived Congolese refugees in Norway may contribute to developing our understandings of informal English language learning, as well as making sure forced migrants’ voices are heard.