Australian Review of Applied Linguistics - Online First

The influential role of parents has long been acknowledged as a key contributor to children’s bilingual development. Parents’ home-based informal efforts to foster children’s bilingual abilities are described as family language policies (FLPs). The important connection between bilingualism and FLP has been established, but to date there are few studies concerning Korean immigrant families in Australia, highlighting their unique cultural values. According to traditional Korean cultural values, mothers play a central role as An-hae (the sun inside) to facilitate their children’s language development ( Kim, 2006 ). This study aimed to create a clearer picture of Korean mothers’ beliefs about bilingualism and their FLPs. The participants were six Korean mothers with their children attending a community language program in Sydney. There are two data sets for this study: a six-weeks’ FLP daily log of each family and a focus group interview. A thematic analysis of these data revealed the richness and specificity of FLPs for bilingual development. This paper concludes with implications for a future research agenda.

Student expectations have increasingly become a focus in Second Language Acquisition research. This study takes a closer look at student teachers’ expectations in a Master of Arts TESOL program at an Australian university to investigate their expectations and sense of fulfillment of these expectations. We employed a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design and conducted a questionnaire (N = 31) and interviews (N = 6) with student teachers. The results show that student teachers expect a well-balanced curriculum of theory and practice and consider teaching practice their top priority. While the expectations of most TESOL student teachers are met, different language profiles can lead to different expectations and potential conflict. Contrary to most previous research, this study showed that unmet expectations do not necessarily lead to unfavorable outcomes because of the student teachers’ ability to adjust in various ways. The study concludes with a discussion of implications for practice and future research.

Translingual identity, as a part of the trans-paradigm, refers to linguistic, sociocultural, ethno-racial, and religious practices, which are negotiable, fluid, and in motion, transcending mainstream boundaries. This paper expands the translingual literature from the perspective of sociolinguistic disparities of culturally and linguistically diverse Eastern-European immigrant women in Australia, as they become victims of the perpetual foreigner stereotype in their host communities. Using the linguistic ethnography methods, such as open ethnographic observation and semi-structured interview, the study reveals that due to biographical accent, name, and the country of origin, as aspects of translingual identity – Australian-by-passport, those women become the victim of the perpetual foreigner stereotypes, such as ‘perceived as different’ and ‘Russian bride,’ which led to their feelings of inferiority and social inequality. By expanding the scope of the translingual identity and how it is perceived in Australia, this study provides a necessary contribution to the translingual literature, while simultaneously advocating for the quality of life and justice for translingual immigrants in their new home.

This article reports on a study in which journal publication performance of Applied Linguistics and TESOL (AL/TESOL) academics in the Group of Eight (Go8) Australian universities was examined for each academic rank (Lecturer to Professor) and across apparent genders (females and males). Journal publication performance was defined in terms of productivity (number of articles), academic impact (number of citations to those articles), and quality (journal impact factor and quartile rankings). To this end, journal publications of 65 Go8 AL/TESOL academics were identified over 19 years (2000–2018 inclusive). Normative research profiles are provided for each academic level and across two genders and are discussed in light of the literature. Where appropriate, a critical view has also developed concerning issues such as “publish or perish” and “gender gap” in academic publication. Results and discussion of results can contribute to a better understanding of AL/TESOL journal article production in Go8 universities as a reference group.

This study investigates the impact of cultural and politico-religious dominance on the practice of critical reading (CR) of texts by a group of Iranian postgraduate students in Australia. Four postgraduate students were interviewed individually four times (each time for reading one text) for critical understanding of two pairs of Persian texts, each with opposing viewpoints, on current socio-political and nationalistic debates of Iran. They were then involved in a focus group discussion for further critique of each other’s viewpoints. Findings indicate two major Persian constructs that influence CR: hefz-e zaaher ‘keeping up appearances’ and ta’sob/gheyrat, approximating to ‘one’s honor combined with prejudice and bigotry’. Findings also reveal that participants’ CR is contributed by heavy emotional attachment to nationalistic views engendered by Persian poetry. Chafe (1982) , too, found that emotional attachment in appraising text was true with American English speakers. Finally, the focus group discussion had a slight impact on encouraging CR. Overall, it seems that participants’ repositioned journeys in Australia have influenced their perspective.

The paper presents the results of a study that aimed to investigate fluctuations in the levels of boredom in the virtual world of Second Life (SL) and factors accounting for such changes as reported by a single student of English philology. The participant took part in 15 sessions over the period of one summer semester. The learner was free to explore the virtual world in question, and she self-directed her own learning there. Using data collected by means of a set of research instruments (i.e., a background questionnaire, the Learning Style Survey, a session log, and a semi-structured interview), the study found that the student’s experience of boredom was subject to some changes both in single sessions and from one visit to another. These fluctuations in boredom levels were affected by such factors as meeting the same interlocutors, scarcity of conversation topics, monotonous conversations, group chats or visits that the student perceived as not being beneficial for her language development.

Transplanting non-Western religions to Western nations results in first-generation migrant attempts to transmit faith in vastly different contexts. Especially as adolescents, second-generation migrants tackle mediating their personal religious beliefs in a society with diverse religions and ideologies as well as negotiating membership of their ethnoreligious community. This paper draws from an ethnography in a Tamil Hindu temple in Australia. I present Sri Lankan teenage migrants’ discourse from their faith classroom to elucidate processes of belief positioning. In working out their emergent, and provisional, faith identities, the students deploy mainly Tamil and English linguistic features in their belief narratives. Flexible languaging complements their “syncretic acts” – the practice of drawing on diverse ideologies and experiences (outside the boundaries of a particular religion) to form personalized beliefs. Translanguaging thus facilitates the expression of circumspect, nuanced, and non-traditional interpretations of their heritage religion. Understanding such processes of belief positioning can help societies and institutions to work towards migrant youth inclusion.