Christopher J Jenks
Biographic Data
| ID | 906707 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Christopher J Jenks |
| GIVEN NAMES | Christopher J |
| FAMILY NAME | Jenks |
| SIGNATURE | JENKS C J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Hong Kong Polytechnic University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2563-5737 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 48 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 93 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 48 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Platformization of language education
This editorial introduction provides an overview of the special issue. It introduces readers to the topic of platformization, articulates areas of overlap among the seven contributions, and points to new directions for future scholarship
Exploring the use of translation technologies to overcome language barriers in mental healthcare: A qualitative cross-country study
Language barriers in healthcare continue to pose major challenges to equitable, high-quality care, particularly in mental health settings where communication is central to diagnosis, therapeutic alliance, and treatment planning. Translation technologies, including machine translation applications, offer potential solutions, but their real-world usability in mental health care remains underexplored. This cross-country qualitative study examined th…
Learning by contesting: Intercultural responsibility through sustainability-driven higher education
This paper explores how sustainability-oriented higher education, when designed to view intercultural responsibility as an ethical and relational practice, enables students to position themselves as globally responsible actors. Based on a narrative analysis of Thai undergraduates, the findings show how programme students experience ethical transformations from initial discomfort to dialogic accountability, and from competence-based skills to live…
Race and Ethnicity
Race and ethnicity are important empirical topics, as these constructs have played, and continue to play, a key role in the formation and evolution of societies. Examples of exploitation, domination, and discrimination can be found throughout time and in regions from Asia to the Americas. Although tremendous progress has been made in recent decades, race and ethnicity are topics that are largely misunderstood and misrepresented. To address some o…
“ As a Muslim …”: On the importance of intercultural responsibility in transnational cultural exchanges
Cultural exchange is increasingly becoming an essential activity of higher education as the world continues to experience widespread ethnocentrism because of war, migration, political provocation, and nationalism. Research in areas related to cultural exchange have also increased with the rise of teacher and student mobility, leading to an exciting body of scholarship. Several aspects of intercultural communication, however, remain under-research…
Exploring AI for intercultural communication: Open conversation
AI is not new. What is new, however, is the speed and depth of its expansion in almost every aspect of our lives. This discussion forum is dedicated to exploring new frontiers and agendas for language and intercultural communication research. In this concluding piece, we invite the contributors to share insights on five key questions: their experiences (Question 1), the challenges and opportunities that we face (Question 2), the strengths and ski…
Communicating the cultural other: Trust and bias in generative AI and large language models
This paper is concerned with issues of trust and bias in generative AI in general, and chatbots based on large language models in particular (e.g. ChatGPT). The discussion argues that intercultural communication scholars must do more to better understand generative AI and more specifically large language models, as such technologies produce and circulate discourse in an ostensibly impartial way, reinforcing the widespread assumption that machines…
EFL learning, religious faith and globalization in Indonesia's pesantren
Increasing global demands to teach and learn English in religious educational institutions remain high, yet little EFL research has been conducted in such contexts. Using Indonesia's Islamic educational institutions (i.e., the pesantren) as a focus of analysis, this article seeks to narrow that gap by examining the key factors driving EFL integration, strategies for connecting religious faith with English learning, and the pedagogical challenges …
From medicine to technology: On the disciplinary breadth in applied linguistics
The editorial team welcomes you to AILA Review's 1st issue of the 38th volume, which showcases the disciplinary breadth of our field.Although applied linguistic research has a history of diversity in theoretical perspectives and empirical foci, the field was in its early years predominately concerned with second language acquisition and classroom teaching and learning.This interest in pedagogy and language development can be found in AILA Review,…
World Englishes, heterodoxy, and applied linguistics
It is understandable that many people find it challenging to adopt a positive moral position with regard to English and its role in the world. The language is used in many contexts and situations to prop up systems of discrimination and inequality, leading to negative material and symbolic outcomes. Although these negative aspects of English must remain at the core of what scholars investigate, there are reasons why it is necessary to complement …
Circum-Atlantic and global linguistic flows: Language through time and space
Okay in intercultural lingua franca interactions between Chinese and British postgraduate students
The forms and functions of okay have been investigated extensively in contexts where interlocutors speak the same language (e.g., German, Hungarian, and Swedish). Conversely, comparatively few studies have been conducted on how okay is used among people who do not share the same first language, such as lingua franca encounters. This article narrows this gap by investigating the use of okay in face‐to‐face tandem language learning between Chinese …
Intercultural communication: A research bibliography
The research bibliography identifies key studies that contribute to the intercultural communication literature. The bibliography is divided into three publication categories: books, peer‐reviewed journal articles, and book chapters. Readers with an interest in intercultural issues, especially in relation to language and communication, will find this research bibliography particularly useful. The references included in the bibliography are especia…
Intercultural communication, world Englishes, and interculturality
Intercultural communication is a human encounter that is managed according to cultural systems, such as national identities. Although cultural systems permeate across time and space through all facets of life, intercultural communication research has a narrow empirical focus. That is, the work done by intercultural communication researchers is defined by its focus on interculturality. This interest in understanding interculturality is commensurat…
Circular applied linguistics: A model for impactful, inclusive, and sustainable research
Applied linguists are committed to the investigation of language and real‐world problems. While this commitment leads to greater awareness of societal issues within the discipline, there are increasing pressures from societies and academic institutions to ensure that scholarship is available to, or has direct value for, the individuals and communities that are the target of our investigations. It is indeed difficult to enact social change through…
Gig Economy Teaching: On the Importance and Dangers of Self-branding in Online Markets
The gig economy is rapidly transforming service-based industries, including online teaching. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic forced millions of people worldwide to work remotely, gig economy teaching generated billions of dollars in revenue and was responsible for millions of lessons per month. Although the global labor market is currently experiencing a major shift because of the gig economy, applied linguists have paid little attention to gig…
Nationalism: Threat or opportunity to critical intercultural communication
When formulating the theme and question for this special issue in 2021, we could not have anticipated how timely this project would become, with our work compiling the papers from our contributors running parallel to the political and intellectual debates on nationalism that emerged in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.The ongoing war in Ukraine marked the end of more than 75 years without international conflict in Eur…
Mock News: On the discourse of mocking in U.S. televised political discussions
American televised political shows are under tremendous pressure to succeed within an economic model that requires maximizing viewership. In response to this growing financial pressure, political shows invite contentious guests to discuss current events and issues. Such discussions are often confrontational, making a mockery of the responsibility the news industry has in disseminating information in an impartial and insightful way. Although outra…
Special issue on world Englishes and English for specific purposes (ESP)
This special issue brings together leading scholars in the field of English for specific purposes (ESP) for an innovative and insightful discussion of the interface between ESP, as a leading subject area in applied and educational linguistics, and world Englishes (WE), as a sub‐discipline of linguistics and sociolinguistics. The contributions to this special issue explore, in various ways, the synergies between these two approaches for linguistic…
Topic maintenance in video-mediated virtual exchanges: Rolling the ball back in L2 interactions
This study investigates how topics are managed in virtual exchanges between tertiary-level English language learners from Turkey and Kazakhstan. The study reports on a previously unexplored interactional device referred to as “rolling the ball back” (RBB) that invites a co-participant to maintain a current topic of discussion through reciprocation of a question asked previously. Using multimodal conversation analysis, the findings show that RBBs …
World Englishes and English for specific purposes (ESP)
This article sets out to review English for specific purposes (ESP) as a discipline and its conceptual and scholarly connections with the world Englishes (WE) approach English worldwide. This is done partly through a detailed literature review of articles on ESP in the Asian and European regions, taken from the journal English for Specific Purposes, identifying which countries and topics are most frequently represented in this leading publication…
Birthright Englishes: Managing Chinese identities while using English in Hong Kong
Hong Kong Englishes attract the interest of scholars in a number of disciplines, including creative writing, education, political science, and anthropology. The efforts made by sociolinguists, in particular, contribute much to an understanding of what the Englishes of Hong Kong look like, how it is used, and the ways in which speakers position their linguistic identities in relation to English. Such work builds on the foundation of historical and…
Native speaker saviorism: A racialized teaching ideology
The notion of native speakerism describes the tendency to privilege and uphold “native speakers” as inherently more qualified to teach English on the arbitrary basis of linguistic birthright. In spite of the widespread recognition and critique of native speakerism within TESOL, it remains pervasive in professional practice, most evident in inequitable recruiting and hiring practices of English language teachers in a variety of global contexts. In…
Infesting our country: Discursive illusions in anti-immigration border talk
This paper investigates how, despite the need to flee dangerous regions, online and print newspapers rely on negative portrayals of migrants and immigrants to forward nationalist positions, including the belief that so-called foreigners are a threat to the security and economic well-being of a nation. Specifically, using the Discourse of Illusion as our main analytic framework, the analysis demonstrates the ways in which dehumanization is central…
Family language policy, translingualism, and linguistic boundaries
The use of trans‐ constructs, such as trans‐languaging and translingualism, in current scholarship is party driven by a desire to create equitable learning opportunities for marginalized and minority students. While such efforts are important and must continue, it is also essential to explore the extent to which the theoretical principles emerging from trans‐language research are material for all individuals seeking to acquire multiple language r…
Fabricating the American Dream in US media portrayals of Syrian refugees: A discourse analytical study
The months preceding and following the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States have incited furious debate about the authenticity of media discourse in the shaping of reality (cf. fake news), including in particular the reporting of refugees from predominantly Muslim regions and their resettlement in Western nations. Much of this debate is rooted in how opposing discourse clans, such as liberal and conservative ide…
Heteroglossic ideologies in world Englishes: An examination of the Hong Kong context
Much research in world Englishes centers on examining the linguistic features of a particular region. Such work can give the false impression of a collective homogeneous ideology of English within a geographic space. We refer to this limiting monolithic perspective of language ideology as ‘the single linguistic narrative.’ The present study builds on this body of work by investigating how often competing ideologies of English can circulate within…
The discourse of culture and identity in national and transnational contexts
Book synopsis: This collection examines and uses discourse to promote a better understanding of culture and identity, with the primary goal of advancing an understanding of how discourse can be used to examine social and linguistic issues. Many of the contributions explore how the formation of culture and identity is shaped by national and transnational issues, such as migration, immigration, technology, and language policy. The collection contri…
Topic maintenance in video-mediated virtual exchanges: Rolling the ball back in L2 interactions
This study investigates how topics are managed in virtual exchanges between tertiary-level English language learners from Turkey and Kazakhstan. The study reports on a previously unexplored interactional device referred to as “rolling the ball back” (RBB) that invites a co-participant to maintain a current topic of discussion through reciprocation of a question asked previously. Using multimodal conversation analysis, the findings show that RBBs …
Getting acquainted in Skypecasts: Aspects of social organization in online chat rooms
This paper has two intersecting themes: computer‐mediated communication (CMC) and English as a lingua franca (ELF) interaction. Although the underlying objective is to introduce Skypecasts, a new voice‐based CMC tool, what will be examined is how this medium is being used by participants from all over the world as a forum to learn and use English. Despite their similarities with classrooms, where learning and using English are clear objectives, w…
Infesting our country: Discursive illusions in anti-immigration border talk
This paper investigates how, despite the need to flee dangerous regions, online and print newspapers rely on negative portrayals of migrants and immigrants to forward nationalist positions, including the belief that so-called foreigners are a threat to the security and economic well-being of a nation. Specifically, using the Discourse of Illusion as our main analytic framework, the analysis demonstrates the ways in which dehumanization is central…
Talking trolls into existence: On the floor management of trolling in online forums
Nationalism: Threat or opportunity to critical intercultural communication
When formulating the theme and question for this special issue in 2021, we could not have anticipated how timely this project would become, with our work compiling the papers from our contributors running parallel to the political and intellectual debates on nationalism that emerged in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.The ongoing war in Ukraine marked the end of more than 75 years without international conflict in Eur…
Language and intercultural communication in the workplace: Critical approaches to theory and practice
Floor management in task-based interaction: The interactional role of participatory structures
Your pronunciation and your accent is very excellent’: Orientations of identity during compliment sequences in English as a lingua franca encounters
The widespread use of English has – for better or worse – shaped the social and communicative norms and practices of many people the world over, and the likelihood of this continuing for the foreseeable future raises questions concerning English ownership, linguistic imperialism, language attrition, and mutual intelligibility, to name a few. These themes and issues are empirically rich areas of investigation for discourse and identity studies. Fo…
Managing Mutual Orientation in the Absence of Physical Copresence: Multiparty Voice-Based Chat Room Interaction
This study investigates the interactional work involved in ratifying mutual participation in online, multiparty, voice-based chat rooms. The purpose of this article is to provide a preliminary sketch of how talk and participation is managed in a spoken communication environment that comprises interactants who are not physically copresent but are engaging in and disengaging from conversations with high regularity. This distinctive feature of chat …
Circular applied linguistics: A model for impactful, inclusive, and sustainable research
Applied linguists are committed to the investigation of language and real‐world problems. While this commitment leads to greater awareness of societal issues within the discipline, there are increasing pressures from societies and academic institutions to ensure that scholarship is available to, or has direct value for, the individuals and communities that are the target of our investigations. It is indeed difficult to enact social change through…
Family language policy, translingualism, and linguistic boundaries
The use of trans‐ constructs, such as trans‐languaging and translingualism, in current scholarship is party driven by a desire to create equitable learning opportunities for marginalized and minority students. While such efforts are important and must continue, it is also essential to explore the extent to which the theoretical principles emerging from trans‐language research are material for all individuals seeking to acquire multiple language r…
World Englishes, heterodoxy, and applied linguistics
It is understandable that many people find it challenging to adopt a positive moral position with regard to English and its role in the world. The language is used in many contexts and situations to prop up systems of discrimination and inequality, leading to negative material and symbolic outcomes. Although these negative aspects of English must remain at the core of what scholars investigate, there are reasons why it is necessary to complement …
Intercultural communication, world Englishes, and interculturality
Intercultural communication is a human encounter that is managed according to cultural systems, such as national identities. Although cultural systems permeate across time and space through all facets of life, intercultural communication research has a narrow empirical focus. That is, the work done by intercultural communication researchers is defined by its focus on interculturality. This interest in understanding interculturality is commensurat…
World Englishes and English for specific purposes (ESP)
This article sets out to review English for specific purposes (ESP) as a discipline and its conceptual and scholarly connections with the world Englishes (WE) approach English worldwide. This is done partly through a detailed literature review of articles on ESP in the Asian and European regions, taken from the journal English for Specific Purposes, identifying which countries and topics are most frequently represented in this leading publication…
Floor management in task-based interaction: The interactional role of participatory structures
Getting acquainted in Skypecasts: Aspects of social organization in online chat rooms
This paper has two intersecting themes: computer‐mediated communication (CMC) and English as a lingua franca (ELF) interaction. Although the underlying objective is to introduce Skypecasts, a new voice‐based CMC tool, what will be examined is how this medium is being used by participants from all over the world as a forum to learn and use English. Despite their similarities with classrooms, where learning and using English are clear objectives, w…
‘Is it okay to eat a dog in Korea…like China?’ Assumptions of national food-eating practices in intercultural interaction
There is a small body of research which shows how intercultural communication is constituted in and through talk-in-interaction, and can be made relevant or irrelevant by interactants on a moment-by-moment basis. Our paper builds on this literature by investigating how cultural assumptions of national food-eating practices are deployed, contested and co-constructed in an online, voice-based chat room. Using conversation analysis, findings show ho…
Analysis of Dialogue
A dialogue is broadly defined as an exchange of spoken or written ideas, thoughts, and, opinions between two or more interactants. Dialogues are not monologues in that the former involve reciprocation of communication. For example, if one person speaks, then the other person is expected to respond in turn. Reciprocity within dialogues varies in temporality. A dialogue can take many months or even years to complete, as in the case when one book au…
Doing Being Reprehensive: Some Interactional Features of English as a Lingua Franca in a Chat Room
Great diversity exists in the way English is being used in the world today. It is now not uncommon to hear a Korean and a Brazilian do business in English, or a Syrian and a Norwegian debating politics in an English-speaking chat room. As opportunities to use English increase and evolve, researchers are left with the difficult challenge of understanding the many ways in which English as a lingua franca (ELF) is used. While the current literature …
When disputants dispute: Interactional aspects of arguments in family mediation sessions
Mediation is predicated on the notion that disputants have an argument or disagreement about something. Mediation is set up with a “neutral” mediator to enable an agreement to emerge from competing positions. Mediators are appointed by a third-party (e.g., courts) to enable a neutral forum for joint decision making, where disputants can set out their proposals and negotiate an agreement where possible. However, in the family mediation sessions in…
Working with Transcripts: An Abridged Review of Issues in Transcription
This paper provides an abbreviated review of the theories and practices that are related to transcribing spoken discourse. The review identifies four keys areas of transcription, discusses why they are important to all investigations of spoken discourse analysis, and considers the practical implications of carrying out transcript‐based research. The four areas of transcription discussed in this review are organized into the following sections: th…
Are you an ELF? The relevance of ELF as an equitable social category in online intercultural communication
This paper examines the different social categories that are made relevant when geographically dispersed speakers of English as an additional language communicate in chat rooms. Although the literature characterizes these interactions as English as a lingua franca, this paper explores to what extent interactants see themselves as lingua franca speakers. Membership categorization analysis is used to investigate how social categories related to Eng…
The discourse of culture and identity in national and transnational contexts
Book synopsis: This collection examines and uses discourse to promote a better understanding of culture and identity, with the primary goal of advancing an understanding of how discourse can be used to examine social and linguistic issues. Many of the contributions explore how the formation of culture and identity is shaped by national and transnational issues, such as migration, immigration, technology, and language policy. The collection contri…
Your pronunciation and your accent is very excellent’: Orientations of identity during compliment sequences in English as a lingua franca encounters
The widespread use of English has – for better or worse – shaped the social and communicative norms and practices of many people the world over, and the likelihood of this continuing for the foreseeable future raises questions concerning English ownership, linguistic imperialism, language attrition, and mutual intelligibility, to name a few. These themes and issues are empirically rich areas of investigation for discourse and identity studies. Fo…
Managing Mutual Orientation in the Absence of Physical Copresence: Multiparty Voice-Based Chat Room Interaction
This study investigates the interactional work involved in ratifying mutual participation in online, multiparty, voice-based chat rooms. The purpose of this article is to provide a preliminary sketch of how talk and participation is managed in a spoken communication environment that comprises interactants who are not physically copresent but are engaging in and disengaging from conversations with high regularity. This distinctive feature of chat …
Social Interaction in Second Language Chat Rooms
GBS_insertPreviewButtonPopup(['ISBN:9780748649051','ISBN:9780748649495','ISBN:9780748693498','ISBN:9780748649488']); Examines social interaction in second language voice-based chat rooms How do speakers of English as an additional language manage their talk and interaction in chat rooms? Christopher Jenks thoroughly analyses the interactional effects of technology, and explores in detail the social and linguistic implications of communicating in …
Language and intercultural communication in the workplace: Critical approaches to theory and practice
Heteroglossic ideologies in world Englishes: An examination of the Hong Kong context
Much research in world Englishes centers on examining the linguistic features of a particular region. Such work can give the false impression of a collective homogeneous ideology of English within a geographic space. We refer to this limiting monolithic perspective of language ideology as ‘the single linguistic narrative.’ The present study builds on this body of work by investigating how often competing ideologies of English can circulate within…
The semiotics of learning Korean at home: An ecological autoethnographic perspective
This autoethnographic study examines how I re-learn Korean in, and through, interactions with family members at home. The analysis, which is informed by language ecology and sociocultural concepts of development, shows how semiotic and human resources, including material objects and more proficient speakers, play a mediating role in how I deal with the social and linguistic challenges of re-learning Korean. My findings uncover how temporally disp…
Meat, guns, and God: Expressions of nationalism in rural America
A trend exists in linguistic landscape research to examine urban spaces. Interest in urban spaces is a logical expression of ongoing migratory trends. While such research is helpful in advancing scholarship, there remains a need to examine how rural areas participate in the discursive construction of society. To address the recent urbanization of sociolinguistics, this paper examines how roadside billboards in rural areas of the United States dis…
LETs and Nests: Voices, views and vignettes Edited by Fiona Copland Sue Garton Steve Mann 2016. London: British Council, + 266
Fabricating the American Dream in US media portrayals of Syrian refugees: A discourse analytical study
The months preceding and following the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States have incited furious debate about the authenticity of media discourse in the shaping of reality (cf. fake news), including in particular the reporting of refugees from predominantly Muslim regions and their resettlement in Western nations. Much of this debate is rooted in how opposing discourse clans, such as liberal and conservative ide…
Analysis of Dialogue
A dialogue is broadly defined as an exchange of spoken or written ideas, thoughts, and opinions between two or more interactants. Dialogues are not monologues, in that the former involve reciprocation of communication. For example, if one person speaks, then the other person is expected to respond in turn. A dialogue can take many months or even years to complete, as in the case when one book author responds to another. In face‐to‐face communicat…
English for sale: Using race to create value in the Korean ELT market
Using Marxist notions of value, this study examines how the commodification of language instruction skews understandings of who is deemed a legitimate teacher of English in South Korea. The study argues that neoliberalism incentivizes the Korean ELT market to create value in race and racialized images. For example, the analysis explores how skin color, nationality, ethnicity, and facial morphology are used to sell an “authentic” and “Western” lea…
Aestheticizing language: Metapragmatic distance and unequal Englishes in Hong Kong
While scholars in World Englishes have long acknowledged the inherent equality of varieties of Englishes spoken within and across different nations, unequal relations across Englishes persist through various means. One such way, as discussed in this article, is through the aestheticization of language, which we define as a process in which individuals evaluate a language resource or usage as aesthetically appealing on the basis of its stylistic, …
Talking trolls into existence: On the floor management of trolling in online forums
Native speaker saviorism: A racialized teaching ideology
The notion of native speakerism describes the tendency to privilege and uphold “native speakers” as inherently more qualified to teach English on the arbitrary basis of linguistic birthright. In spite of the widespread recognition and critique of native speakerism within TESOL, it remains pervasive in professional practice, most evident in inequitable recruiting and hiring practices of English language teachers in a variety of global contexts. In…
Infesting our country: Discursive illusions in anti-immigration border talk
This paper investigates how, despite the need to flee dangerous regions, online and print newspapers rely on negative portrayals of migrants and immigrants to forward nationalist positions, including the belief that so-called foreigners are a threat to the security and economic well-being of a nation. Specifically, using the Discourse of Illusion as our main analytic framework, the analysis demonstrates the ways in which dehumanization is central…
Family language policy, translingualism, and linguistic boundaries
The use of trans‐ constructs, such as trans‐languaging and translingualism, in current scholarship is party driven by a desire to create equitable learning opportunities for marginalized and minority students. While such efforts are important and must continue, it is also essential to explore the extent to which the theoretical principles emerging from trans‐language research are material for all individuals seeking to acquire multiple language r…
Sociology (36 works) · Linguistics (31 works) · Psychology (23 works) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (20 works) · Multilingual Education and Policy (19 works) · Philosophy (19 works) · Computer Science (17 works) · Political science (15 works) · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies (13 works) · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning (13 works)