Journal of Language and Culture

One and indivisible? Rethinking French national identity through its regional languages

Kantapon Intamart — 2025-12-25

This article investigates the paradoxical coexistence of Standard French and France’s langues régionales within a republican framework historically committed to linguistic assimilation. It addresses the central question of how these languages survive and interact in a legal and social environment designed to ensure the supremacy of French. Through a critical analysis of France’s political-legal history, from the absolutist ideology of the French Revolution to the restrictive constitutional interpretations of the 21st century, the study examines the mechanisms of state-led linguistic suppression and the corresponding strategies of community-led revitalization. The findings reveal that this coexistence is not a stable equilibrium but a dynamic and deeply asymmetrical struggle. While the French state relegates regional languages to the symbolic status of “heritage,” denying them substantive rights through its non-ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and recent legal challenges like the Loi Molac, linguistic communities have forged resilient pathways for survival. These pathways include the creation of successful immersive school networks (e.g., Diwan, Calandretas), the use of cultural production as a space for innovation and prestige-building, and the development of vibrant digital communities. A key finding is the emergence of “new speakers,” a demographic recasting the terms of language legitimacy and transforming linguistic practice from an inherited tradition into a conscious act of political and cultural identity. The article suggests that the future of France’s linguistic diversity hinges on the Republic’s capacity to reconcile its foundational monolingual ideology with the persistent, lived reality of its multilingual populace.

Living with the ancestors: Spiritual materiality and everyday heritage practices in Ban Chiang

Sitta Kongsasana — 2025-12-25

Management at living archaeological sites can favor a secular-scientific globalized perspective of heritage at the expense of describing complex and long-term relationships involving local people and their heritage landscapes. This is especially so in places of historical severance where current people have no direct line of descent to the ancient ruins. This research aims to bridge this gap by considering the Ban Chiang World Heritage Site in Thailand as a case study. Employing a qualitative approach rooted in ethnographic observation and Heritage Discourse Analysis (HDA), the study investigates everyday heritage practices and local discourses. The main discovery is that the Tai Puan community engages in “spiritual adoption,” a culturally advanced form of mundane heritage work whereby they reanimate sleeping dead artifacts and develop a metaphoric sense of kinship, making the unknown remains into spiritual ancestors. The study contributes to three key areas: Theoretically, it extends the concept of spiritual materiality beyond overtly sacred places to secular archaeological contexts; Methodologically, it demonstrates the utility of HDA in uncovering silenced local ontologies; and practically, it calls for a paradigm shift in heritage management from object-based preservation to the facilitation of living relationships between people and their layered, spiritual landscapes.

Pre-service English teachers’ perceptions on the value of literature and language studies in language arts education

Jutamart Pookerdpim — 2026-04-07

This mixed-methods study investigates how pre-service English teachers perceive the educational value of literature and language studies within contemporary language arts education. While extensive research exists on teacher beliefs, there remains a significant gap in understanding how future educators navigate the role of these disciplines amidst rapidly shifting digital and multicultural landscapes. The study utilized a sequential explanatory design, surveying 120 undergraduate students and conducting follow-up interviews with 20 participants. Quantitative results revealed a strong preference for digital integration, with the highest agreement for digital storytelling (M = 4.53, SD = 0.81) and modern technological tools (M = 4.59, SD = 0.61). Furthermore, a One-way ANOVA confirmed that teaching confidence significantly differs across year levels (F(3, 116) = 2.81, p = 0.042), with third-year students reporting the highest self-efficacy. Qualitative thematic analysis identified a tension between traditional canonical texts and the need for digital pedagogy, alongside difficulties in fostering active student engagement. The findings underscore a critical disconnect between theoretical appreciation and practical instructional readiness. Consequently, the study recommends incorporating practice-based frameworks, such as TPACK, into teacher education to better equip graduates for the complexities of modern classrooms.

Examining the relationships among basic psychological needs, grit subcomponents, and academic self-efficacy in Vietnamese foreign language learners: A PLS-SEM

Duc Anh Duong — 2026-04-29

This study examines the relationships among subcomponents of Basic Psychological Needs (BPN), grit, and academic self-efficacy in Vietnamese foreign language learners within a collectivist cultural context. Data were collected from 372 English major students at two universities in Vietnam and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS 4.1 software. The findings reveal that perseverance of effort significantly predicts academic self-efficacy (β = 0.48, p < 0.001) and is positively influenced by all three BPN components: autonomy (β = 0.147, p = 0.047), competence (β = 0.287, p = 0.001), and relatedness (β = 0.352, p = 0.001). Unexpectedly, consistency of interest shows a significant negative relationship with both relatedness (β = -0.273, p = 0.032) and academic self-efficacy (β = -0.271, p = 0.005), while being positively associated with competence (β = 0.348, p = 0.002). These counterintuitive findings are explained through the lens of Self-Determination Theory and Vietnamese collectivist culture, where social harmony and extrinsic motivation may outweigh consistency in personal interests. This research contributes to the literature by demonstrating that grit subcomponents function differently in collectivist settings and that BPN satisfaction plays a differentiated role in fostering perseverance versus consistency. Practically, the findings suggest that educators in Vietnam should prioritize building students' sense of competence and relatedness to enhance perseverance, while recognizing that interest flexibility may be culturally adaptive rather than detrimental to academic self-efficacy.

A comparison of Disney+ subtitles and ChatGPT-generated Indonesian translations of swear and taboo expressions

Taufik Akbar Azwar — 2026-04-29

Although generative artificial intelligence translation (GenAIT) has increasingly become popular in the field of translation, earlier studies have not yet specifically explored GenAI’s translation performance in rendering taboo language. To address this gap, this study evaluated the translation strategies of ChatGPT-generated translations with professional human translation-produced subtitles obtained from Disney+ in rendering English swear words and taboo expressions into Indonesian. Drawing upon a comparative qualitative research design, this study examined two movies based on four main categories: Taboo to Taboo, Euphemism, Taboo to Non-Taboo, and Deletion. The findings revealed that Disney+ displayed greater cultural sensitivity to cultural norms, while ChatGPT favored retaining the offensive tone of taboo expressions through direct and literal translations. The most commonly used strategy by Disney+ was Deletion, whereas ChatGPT most frequently employed Taboo to Taboo. These results highlight the limitations of GenAIT in handling highly culturally bound expressions. Finally, the iterative prompting analysis had limited influence on ChatGPT’s translation strategies in handling of taboo expressions. This suggested that prompt refinement alone remained largely insufficient, underscoring the crucial role of human interventions in translation workflows. This study, therefore, proposed a human-in-the-loop workflow. Following the findings, pedagogical implications are also proposed for translation education.