3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature® The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies
3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature® The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies is an ESCI (ISI, WoS) and Scopus indexed peer reviewed international journal published by UKM Press. The journal is committed to exploring and highlighting insights into key issues dealing with English Language Studies in multilingual contexts within the fields of Language, Linguistics and Literature. While the ultimate objective of the journal is to create critical awareness of global concerns with all areas of English language Studies, it especially welcomes perspectives from marginalized communities in Southeast Asia and across the globe. 3L publishes issues in March, June, September, and December. We also publish special sections alongside regular issues.
If the article is accepted for publication, copyright of this article will be vested to UKM Press, National University of Malaysia (UKM). All articles published in this journal are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license, unless otherwise stated.
Heritage Language Valorisation and Family Language Policy in Indonesian Inter-Ethnic Families in Australia
This article examines the maintenance of Indonesian as a heritage language among mixed-ethnic Indonesian couples residing in Melbourne, Australia. In this study, all couples consist of Indonesians from different regional ethnic backgrounds. It investigates household language policies, parental attitudes, and the strategies employed to sustain the use of Indonesian within family contexts. The study is theoretically grounded by the framework of Family Language Policy (FLP) and the concept of language valorisation. Utilising a qualitative approach, the study involved four Indonesian inter-ethnic families represented by four Indonesian women married to spouses of different regional backgrounds. Data were primarily gathered through in-depth interviews, supplemented by questionnaire responses. The findings reveal that although none of the families had explicit language policies, all respondents regarded Indonesian as the family's heritage language and used it regularly in daily interactions. Parents demonstrated a strong commitment to preserving Indonesian as a means of fostering cultural continuity and identity within a minority setting. Common strategies included regular use of Indonesian at home, access to Indonesian media (e.g., animated videos and books), storytelling grounded in folklore, and engagement in community-based cultural events and playgroups. Despite these positive efforts, the study highlights the need for further research on the long-term effectiveness of such strategies, particularly in addressing potential language shift and attrition among second-generation speakers growing up in multilingual, multicultural contexts. Keywords: inter-ethnic marriage; language valorization; heritage language; language policies DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2026-3202-01
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Bismillah Before Learning, but Does Islamic Value Shape the Classroom? A Critical Discourse Analysis of Ideological Tensions in ELT within an Islamic University in Indonesia
In the rapidly evolving landscape of language education, the integration of cultural and religious values has become increasingly significant. While previous studies have explored the relationship between language, ideology, and globalisation in English language teaching, limited attention has been paid to how Islamic higher education institutions critically negotiate these ideological influences within classroom practices. This study examines the influence of Islamic values on the ideological practices of English language teaching at an Islamic university in Indonesia. Using the Critical Discourse Analysis approach developed by Fairclough (1993), this study analyses classroom interactions in English language courses. The primary data for this study came from three classroom interaction sessions, while secondary data included academic documents, such as the institution's vision and mission statements, observations, and teaching materials to reinforce the data analysis. The findings reveal that Islamic values remain marginal in both pedagogical discourse and instructional content. ELT practices tend to reproduce dominant global pedagogical norms, with limited critical engagement from an Islamic epistemological perspective. This pattern reflects a structural disconnection between institutional religious identity and enacted classroom discourse. In this case, Islamic education should not only function as an institutional setting but also appear as a discursive force capable of shaping ideological orientations in English language teaching. Keywords: critical pedagogy; Islamic education; language ideology; faith-based institution; speaking DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2026-3202-02
Digital Literature in Indonesia’s Creative Economy: Negotiated Capital, Algorithmic Habitus, Reader Agency, and Monetisation Pathways
This study examines how digital literature in Indonesia generates cultural value within the digital creative economy by integrating cultural capital, reader agency, and platform aesthetics. A conceptual model is advanced with operational definitions of negotiated capital, a mapped capital conversion and monetisation landscape, and actionable policy levers for equitable discovery and transparent intellectual property and monetisation. The construct of algorithmic habitus is also proposed as the durable yet adaptive dispositions through which works are calibrated to platform aesthetics and platform grammars without forfeiting craft. A multi-stage design was applied, combining observational analysis of creative practice across Wattpad, Instagram, TikTok, Medium, and YouTube; semi-structured interviews with ten creators (R1 to R10); an online survey of 100 readers aged 15-29; and an expert–practitioner FGD. Thematic synthesis produced a cross-platform matrix and propositions on opening fit, unit calibration, prosodic layout, affective timing, and navigability. Creator portfolios align with platform grammars, including serialisation and cliffhangers on Wattpad, three-second hooks and affective pivots on TikTok, caption depth and visual lineation on Instagram, and framed openings with chapter markers on YouTube and Medium. In conclusion, platforms operate as co-authors of both form and value. The framework extends Bourdieu’s field and capital to platform infrastructures, clarifies how symbolic recognition is converted into economic opportunity, and specifies policy levers for fairer discovery and transparent monetisation. While grounded in Indonesia, the propositions might be generalisable to other platform ecologies. It also introduces a Creator–Platform–Reader (C‑P‑R) system model to map how attention and legitimacy circulate as platform signals and how these signals condition monetisation pathways. The study closes with policy recommendations for fairer discovery, revenue transparency, and rights protection in Indonesia’s creative economy. Keywords: capital conversion; creative economy; digital literature; platform aesthetics; reader agency DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2026-3202-03
Discursive Representations of Indigenous Peoples in Philippine Basic Education Curriculum Textbooks
Indigenous Peoples (IPs) are often subjected to linguistic representations across various discourses, including in educational materials used in academic institutions, with studies identifying culturally insensitive depictions of these communities. This study analysed how IPs are represented in nine educational textbooks used in the Basic Education curriculum. This utilised Halliday and Matthiessen’s Transitivity Analysis (2013) and Van Leeuwen’s Social Actor Theory (1996) in identifying the roles and experiences of IPs in narratives. The findings revealed that Indigenous People are ascribed to relational, material, mental, and existential processes with little to no representation in the verbal and behavioural processes. Furthermore, the social actor analysis revealed that Indigenous Peoples are often portrayed as cultural icons, traditional artists, inhabitants of ancestral lands, vulnerable to persuasion, and impacted by economic modernisation through passivation, collectivisation, categorisation, genericization, specification, nomination, role allocation, appraisement, and overdetermination. This suggests that the linguistic representation ascribed to IPs is primarily constructed through the states of being, concrete action, emotional engagement, and state of existence, and simultaneously employs inclusion strategies in the statements. Thus, this study contributes to the educational discourse to uphold cultural sensitivity and inclusivity within our educational institutions. Keywords: Indigenous Peoples; discursive representations; transitivity analysis; social actor analysis; Philippines DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2026-3202-04
Dissecting Deception: A Genre-Based Analysis of the Move Structure of Political Discourse on Facebook in the Philippines
This study investigates the move structures in deceptive political discourse on Facebook, anchored on Bhatia’s (2004) Applied Genre Analysis framework. It focused on identifying how deceptive texts are linguistically constructed to persuade, mislead, and mobilise political engagement within the Filipino social media landscape. The dataset consists of 200 Facebook posts flagged as deceptive by three leading fact-checking organisations in the Philippines—VERA Files, Rappler, and Fact Check Philippines—published between 2015 and 2024. Through qualitative coding, the researchers identified three major rhetorical moves: (1) Establishing a Claim, (2) Reinforcing the Claim, and (3) Mobilising the Audience, each with distinct rhetorical steps such as vilification, emotional reinforcement, legal referencing, directive prompts, and hashtag advocacy. These moves function not only to simulate credibility but also to exploit emotional, cultural, historical, and political contexts. Furthermore, the study explores the interdiscursivity of deceptive posts, revealing how they draw upon and mimic journalistic, legal, religious, and conspiratorial genres. The findings demonstrate that deceptive political Facebook posts are not randomly structured but are also systematically designed to appeal to affective reasoning and socio-political bias. These posts employ hybrid discourse patterns that reflect the evolving genre of digital political communication. By mapping the rhetorical anatomy of deceptive political discourse in the Philippines, the research offers insights into how manipulation functions linguistically and culturally within the digital public sphere. Keywords: deceptive texts; political discourse; Facebook; genre analysis; disinformation DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2026-3202-05
A Corpus-Assisted Critical Discourse Analysis of English-Language News from Thai and International Media: A Case Study of the 2025 Thailand Earthquake
Disasters are not only physical events but also discursive phenomena shaped by media language. This study examines how the 2025 Thailand earthquake was linguistically represented in Thai English-language newspapers and international news outlets. Drawing on 120 news reports (60 Thai and 60 international), the study employs a corpus-assisted Critical Discourse Analysis (CACDA) approach, combining Fairclough’s three-dimensional model with Halliday’s transitivity framework to analyse discursive and ideological patterns. Findings from corpus linguistic analysis indicate differences in the representation of the earthquake. While keywords in the Thai media tend to emphasise the government agencies’ roles, the international media focuses more on the international organisations’ roles, the political conflicts, and the victims’ voices. Collocation analysis of “government,” “earthquake/quake,” and “people” further corroborates these and shows that the international media use stronger and more vivid language to depict the event. Manual analysis of selected text reveals that Thai media adopt a bureaucratic tone, foregrounding institutional responses through nominalisations, passive voice, and modality that obscure agency and reduce emotional salience. In contrast, international outlets highlight human suffering using active voice, agentive structures, and emotionally charged vocabulary. These differences reflect broader sociocultural norms—such as collectivist deference to authority in Thai journalism versus individualistic and accountability-driven narratives in international media. The study offers insights into how crisis discourse is mediated by national ideologies and journalistic conventions. Implications extend to disaster communication, media discourse education, and intercultural understanding. Keywords: Media Discourse; Critical Discourse Analysis; Corpus Linguistics; Thailand Earthquake; Disasters DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2026-3202-06
Complex PTSD and Transgenerational Trauma in Chinelo Onwualu’s Narratives
This study discusses complex PTSD and transgenerational trauma in Chinelo Onwualu’s short stories “What the Dead Man Said” and “Letters to My Mother” by investigating the effects of prolonged exposure to physical assault and rape on the protagonists, Azuka and Obeche. The study aims to describe the symptoms and causes of trauma by using a psychoanalytical approach. Based on the analysis, trauma symptoms vary from one character to another, exhibiting somatic and relational features that affect or halt the lives of the victims. Overcoming trauma requires initiating a three-step journey that Judith Herman, an American psychiatrist, identifies as the trauma recovery model, which starts with the stage of establishing safety, remembrance and mourning, and reconnection. Through these three stages, the study shows how Onwualu’s protagonists reconcile with their traumatic past, providing a narrative framework for healing that relies on specific cultural elements and the healing power of community-based support. The study concludes that the traumatic memories cannot be erased. They are integrated into the victims’ sense of self through the aid of the immediate environment and community. This is revealed in “Letters to My Mother” as the protagonist, Obeche, transcends her transmitted trauma by participating in communal practices that reconnect her with her ancestors and community. Keywords: Africanfuturism; Chinelo Onwualu; Complex PTSD; transgenerational trauma; trauma recovery DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2026-3202-08
Constructing Masculinity in the Colonial East Indies: Literary Depictions of Javanese and European Men in E. Douwes Dekker’s Max Havelaar and Louis Couperus’ The Hidden Force
This article examines the ways masculinities are represented in two literary works published during the Dutch colonial period in the East Indies, the former name of Indonesia under Dutch colonisation. The works are Max Havelaar by E. Douwes Dekker, or Multatuli, and The Hidden Force by Louis Couperus. This article aims to show how colonial literary texts construct different forms of masculinity through unequal relations between European and native male characters. Using qualitative textual analysis, this article closely reads Dutch and native protagonists in relation to colonial discourse, gendered authority, and cultural hierarchy. The theoretical framework is based on Edwin Ardener's concept of muting gender, which explains how certain gendered expressions are silenced, obscured, or rendered less visible within dominant structures of representation. The analysis shows that the forms of masculinities embodied by the Dutch and native protagonists are largely framed through European perspectives on the colonised. European characters tend to be portrayed as rational, active, authoritative, and straightforward, in contrast to local men, who are often associated with irrationality, mystery, emotional restraint, and passivity. European men in the two novels are depicted as “big brothers” who carry a colonial mission to “elevate” the natives. Meanwhile, native masculinities are filtered through colonialist and binary oppositional perspectives that perceive colonial subjects as backward, irrational, and immature. The contribution of this article lies in showing that colonial fiction produces gendered hierarchies by defining which forms of masculinity are considered rational, modern, and authoritative and which are rendered silent, passive, or culturally inferior. Keywords: Masculinities; binary opposition; muting gender; colonial subjects, colonial masculinity DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2026-3202-10
Recalibrating Malignancy through Materialities: (Re)defining Care through Space, Objects and Machines in Lisa Ray’s Close to the Bone
This article examines Lisa Ray’s memoir Close to the Bone (2019) to investigate how everyday objects and spaces within hospitals mediate patients’ experiences of illness and enable the formation of empathetic relationships. The study draws on new materialism, actor-network theory, and theories of care such as Annemarie Mol’s logic of care. This framework enables an analysis of materiality not as a passive backdrop but as an active, relational force that co-constitutes bodily experience, perception, and care practices within clinical settings. The article addresses a critical gap in existing cancer narratives and medical humanities scholarship, which have predominantly privileged subjective, affective, or discursive accounts of illness while overlooking the role of material environments, objects, and technologies in shaping lived experience. It foregrounds the hospital’s material landscape as central to the hermeneutics of chronic illness. Focusing on spaces such as waiting rooms and on mundane as well as technological objects, the study identifies a central tension in moments poised between life and death: while detachment from materiality is often presumed appropriate, patients remain connected to the material world around them. By tracing these entanglements, the article shows how ordinary objects and spaces soften clinical rigidities, mediate care, and sustain affective and social bonds. Rather than adopting a binary approach that pits care and technology in opposition, the article integrates and reinterprets them together. It argues that waiting areas, everyday items, and devices not only mediate care but also assist in forming social bonds and generate new meanings of health, illness and care. Keywords: Cancer memoir; materials; objects; waiting rooms; machines; care DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2026-3202-11
From Trauma to Resistance: Memory and Meaning in Bangladeshi Protest Poetry of the July 2024 Uprising
The July 2024 student-led uprising in Bangladesh ignited a new wave of protest poetry. Although the uprising received considerable political and historical attention, its literary impact remains critically underexplored. Therefore, this study aims to explore how the poetic works emerging from the uprising serve as both aesthetic responses and symbolic resistance, documenting collective psychosocial wounds and challenging the state narratives. Drawing on postlapsarianism, trauma, cultural memory, and resistance literature scholarship, this research employs a qualitative content analysis of ten poems and two digital protest rap tracks circulated in mainstream online newspapers and on social media platforms between July and August 2024. They were purposively chosen based on themes of trauma, memory, state violence, and resistance. The findings reveal recurring motifs of moral decline, temporal fragmentation, symbolic reclamation, and embodied defiance, illustrating how the texts negotiate disillusionment while restoring ethical visions. These texts preserve memory through symbolic codification, ritualise collective memory by repeatedly invoking past martyrs, reclaim memories of present-day fallen protesters, and resist state-sponsored amnesia through counter-archiving. They frame poetry as a site of disruption and transformation, where broken syntax, ritualised language, and sonic insurgency articulate what official discourse suppresses. Digital hip-hop and chant poetry further weaponise language through repetition, vernacular intensity, and online circulation, converting individual suffering into participatory collective defiance. By positioning these texts within Global South resistance aesthetics, the research enhances understanding of literature’s role in mediating trauma, preserving cultural memory, sustaining democratic imagination, and reshaping political consciousness amid post-crisis societies. Keywords: Collective Trauma; Counter Memory; Digital Dissent; Memory and Identity; Mnemonic Aesthetics DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2026-3202-12
Mnemonic Violence and Narratives of Pain: Contesting Saudi Cultural Memory in The Goat Life
When the three-hour film The Goat Life was streamed by Netflix in July 2024, it faced strong opposition and severe criticism from countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), leading to a ban on it all over GCC except the UAE, for misrepresenting Saudi Arabia and its people. The movie highlights the harrowing experiences of Najeeb Muhammad, a migrant labourer from Kerala (India) who arrived in Saudi Arabia but was abducted, tortured, and forced to live on a goat farm in the desert. In view of Saudi Arabia’s centuries-old cultural tradition, centred on karam (hospitality), rahmah (compassion), and ihsan (moral excellence), this paper uses the interrelated theoretical concepts of cultural memory wars and mnemonic violence from the broader theoretical framework of cultural memory studies to analyse the movie's portrayal of Saudi Arabia and its people. Although the narrative is rooted in a deeply affective recollection of migratory precarity and indentured labour, its epistemic imbalance facilitates the slippage from personal memory to collective misrepresentation. Despite the fact that raḥmah, karam, and iḥsan form an interlocking ethical grammar that challenges reductive representations of Saudi society, these concepts do not deny the possibility of injustice or abuse; however, these codes refuse the elevation of such incidents into cultural essence. The study concludes that theologically grounded, socially operative, and ethically aspirational, these cultural and ethical codes offer a counter-discursive framework through which cinematic narratives like The Goat Life can be read as partial, selective, and ideologically overdetermined rather than representative. Keywords: mnemonic violence; memory wars; the goat life; narratives of grief; Saudi culture DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2026-3202-13
A Bourdieusian Analysis of the Translator’s Strategic Decisions in Senkottan
The study addresses a significant lacuna in translation studies by applying Bourdieu’s sociological framework, specifically the concept of field, habitus and capital, to the underexplored field of Sri Lankan literary translation. While Bourdieusian analysis has been influential, its application remains predominantly centred on Western and dominant language literary fields. Guided by Bourdieu’s sociology, the present study explores the translator’s strategic agency in Malinda Seneviratne’s English translation of Masimbula’s best-selling Sinhala novel, Senkottan. The study addresses two research questions: (1) What strategic decisions does the translator employ when rendering the text from Sinhala to English? (2) How do the translator’s capital, habitus and field influence their strategic decisions in the translation? Using a qualitative methodological approach, the study offers a comparative-textual analysis of the Sinhala novel and its English translation, which is informed by information obtained from a semi-structured interview with the translator. The research identifies two main strategic decisions: 1) use of Sri Lankan English and 2) para-textual elements, while demonstrating how Seneviratne’s capital accumulated through his career as a poet and a translator, legitimises his strategic choices. Seneviratne’s habitus, shaped by bilingual upbringing and ideological stance, directly influenced his selection of source text. The findings reveal that, within the peripheral Sri Lankan literary field, translators can employ local capital to resist the assimilative pressure of global literary markets. By extending the sociological lenses of Bourdieu's theory into non-Western South-Asian contexts, the study contributes to translation studies by highlighting the translation practices emerging from multilingual peripheral literary fields. Keywords: Bourdieu’s Sociology; Senkottan; Translator’s Strategy; Malinda Seneviratne; Sri Lankan English DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2026-3202-14
Descriptive Analysis of Monophthongs in Pakistani English: Articulatory and Acoustic Evidence
This study presented an acoustic description of monophthongs in Pakistani English (PakE), an indigenized variety of non-native Englishes. The study addressed the following research questions: what are the acoustic characteristics of monophthongs in PakE as spoken by Punjabi speakers, in what ways do these monophthongs differ from or resemble those of Standard British English (SBE), how many monophthongs can be identified in PakE, and what patterns of vowel merger, if any, are observable. Monosyllabic words with /hVd/ context were recorded in a carrier phrase and analysed using Praat. The first two formants (F1 and F2) and vowel duration were extracted. Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS. The values were compared with those of SBE to observe the similarities and differences. The results showed PakE having 10 monophthongs (four front, two central, and four back) classified into five long and five short vowels, unlike SBE, which has five long and seven short vowels. Depending upon these results, it was concluded that vowels in PakE behave differently. These differences lead to the variation in pronunciation patterns. The findings provide empirically grounded phonetic evidence that contributes to the descriptive documentation of PakE, offers a reference framework for future phonological and comparative World Englishes research, and supports applied linguistic domains such as pronunciation teaching, speech technology development, and accent-sensitive language assessment. The study contributes to the codification of PakE as an indigenized variety of English. Keywords: acoustic measurement; monophthongs; formant frequencies; Pakistani English; PRAAT DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2026-3202-18
A Conceptual Framework Integrating Grammatical and Lexical Proficiency in the Cue-Based Retrieval Model
This conceptual paper explores the interplay between linguistic knowledge and memory mechanisms in language processing. While high-level proficiency remains a critical goal when learning a second language (L2), both native speakers and advanced L2 learners often struggle with real-time processing of complex structures. Existing research has yet to fully disentangle the relative contributions of grammatical and lexical knowledge to comprehension, nor adequately account for how these components influence the retrieval mechanism during sentence processing. Moving beyond traditional capacity-based models, we highlight the cue-based retrieval model, which attributes processing difficulty to similarity-based interference among memory representations. These effects are especially pronounced when competing constituents share syntactic or semantic features, leading to retrieval errors and comprehension difficulties. Although some recent studies suggest that advanced ESL learners may process sentences similarly to native speakers, differences in how they weigh cues during retrieval could still make them more prone to interference. Understanding the mechanism of cue weighting is crucial to capturing why such interference effects persist even among highly proficient learners. We propose an integrated model that incorporates linguistic proficiency in terms of grammatical and lexical knowledge as predictors that modulate cue weighting during retrieval, which reflects a speaker's susceptibility to interference. This paper advocates for treating proficiency as a multi-component construct and for incorporating L1-L2 comparisons as core elements of the existing cue-based models. We call for future research to investigate these interactions through experimental paradigms, offering a more nuanced understanding of both L1 and L2 sentence processing dynamics. Keywords: syntactic and lexical proficiency; cue-based model; cue weighting; memory retrieval interference; syntactic and semantic processing DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2026-3202-19
Signs and Cognition: A Peircean and Suvinian Reading of Story of Your Life and The Lifecycle of Software Objects
This article combines Charles Sanders Peirce's semiotic theory and Darko Suvin's cognitive estrangement theory in an analysis of signs and cognition in Ted Chiang's Story of Your Life and The Lifecycle of Software Objects. This article contends that this blended approach will allow for new insights into the interpretation of signs and meanings in science fiction texts. Pursuant to this, this article analyses the ways in which novum may be found in Chiang's text through the interaction of representation, object, and interpretant, to trigger the cognitive estrangement of the implied readers and reshape the implied readers’ understanding of time, language, and ethical issues. In Story of Your Life, the nonlinear view of time displayed by Heptapod B as a written system is the embodiment of the multiple meanings of language as a sign, the dynamic nature of the interpretants, and the deep connection between language and time perception; while Suvin’s novum is a valuable tool in unearthing the ways in which language as a sign instigates defamiliarization, which triggers a rethinking of human time perception. In The Lifecycle of Software Objects, the digients exist as signs of novum, which not only challenges the traditional definition of life and subjectivity, but also shows the complexity of technological ethics through the interaction of signs. At the same time, Peirce’s three categories of signs (a meaning-generating system, including Firstness, Secondness and Thirdness) provide a stronger scaffolding to explore the connection between the digients as technical and emotional signs. The interdisciplinary perspective of this article provides a new path for science fiction studies, revealing the ways in which the meaning of signs and cognitive estrangement reflected in Chiang’s two stories work together, enriching the implied readers’ understanding of the becoming of the meaning of signs and cognitive experience, and influencing the implied readers’ deep thinking on language, cognition, technology and ethics. Keywords: signs; cognition; semiotics; artificial intelligence; Darko Suvin; cognitive estrangement DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2026-3202-20
[Introduction by the Editorial Board] Applied Linguistics for Global Challenges: Sustainability, Inclusion and Innovation
EDITORIAL BOARD SPECIAL SECTION Applied Linguistics for Global Challenges: Sustainability, Inclusion and Innovation Human waste and trace, the golden sun, sad abodes of death, and the infinite moon nourishing the nights could be illuminated through paragraphs, parses, and phrases. Conjoined with these very different facades of feelings and emotions are languages which are contoured with flexibility and precision. From expressing love, nature, smiles and elaborate beauties to treading solemness, motionless large language models, solitudes, and deaths, languages take the wings of multiple spaces to honor these varied facets of globalities in keeping with their borderless conditionings. It is precisely these abilities to adjust, adapt, and adopt that linguistics with its applied-ness demonstrates its continued brood of care, mirroring its contemporariness and interpolation of multilingual realities. In short, in whatever manifestations, constructions-and-deconstructions, inclusions-and-exclusions, innovations-and-deinnovations, applied linguistics forge through conscientiously. The contributions of this issue address the universalized versatility of applied linguistics. The first article presents insights into the dynamics of Malaysian English as represented in social media environments. By examining the formation, usage, and linguistic features of Malaysian English online, Zhiming Zhang and Manjet Kaur Mehar Singh highlight the composite and challenging identities negotiated by users in digitally-mediated spaces. Questions of mobility, belonging, and intercultural engagement are further examined in the second contribution by intercultural connoisseurs, Lu Xixi, Yan Shixiao, and Hadina Habil. Focusing on graduate mobility programs in Indonesia, they provide significant depths into the linguistic and cultural complexities experienced by these transnational scholars. The theme of inclusion is approached from another angle in the third article by Joram Kim Brillantes Corcuera, Roland Bautista, and Raffy Quines. Their work presents a pensive departure from conventional perspectives of sports broadcasting in the Philippines. Through an examination of gendered formulations within sportscasting discourse, the study exposes the ways in which languages both reproduce and challenge domineering gender ideologies. Technological innovation and its implications for creativity constitute the focus of the fourth contribution. Investigating the responses of English creative writing majors to generative artificial intelligence, the author, Angela Rumina Leo, reveals intricate shapes of resistance and adaptation in relation to AI-assisted writing. The final contribution by Cheng-Chun Tsai, Ngoc Thuan Nguyen, and Tanachai Worrachotchaicharoen addresses language avoidance mechanisms. While research has traditionally prioritized productive vocabulary, this study proposes a comparative typology of avoidance language across two professional domains, policy-driven avoidance in English-language social media moderation and culture-driven avoidance in Thai business communication. Taken together, the five articles demonstrate applied linguistics’s abilities to bend. These journal articles are a result of several selection processes beginning December 2025. Out of 19 journal articles, only five (5) are eventually selected, reviewed, and published. They are, to this end, slated through varied facets of reviews, similar to the refereeing processes of conventional articles submitted in our journal. Based on their connexity, complexity, and expansivity, these journal articles in the special section mirror the compliance accorded to the journal, strictly responding to the maintenance of issues close to the hearts of linguistics, languages, and literature. Their foci, substantive content, and trajectories are generally streamlined well with the readers of the journal. For prospective readers, may the special section articles exemplify the commitment to critical inquiry and academic integrity that this publication represents. Mohd Muzhafar Idrus Associate Editors 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature® The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies Faculty of Major Language Studies, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, Malaysia muzhafaridrus@usim.edu.my
[Introduction by Special Section Guest Editors] Applied Linguistics for Global Challenges: Sustainability, Inclusion and Innovation
EDITORIAL BOARD SPECIAL SECTION [GUEST EDITORS] Applied Linguistics for Global Challenges: Sustainability, Inclusion and Innovation Language is central to the ways societies respond to change. Whether addressing technological disruption, educational transformation, intercultural engagement, or questions of equity and sustainability, applied linguistics continues to offer important perspectives on how language both reflects and shapes contemporary realities. It was against this backdrop that the Malaysian Association of Applied Linguistics International Conference 2025 (MAALIC 2025), themed Applied Linguistics for Global Challenges: Sustainability, Inclusion and Innovation, brought together researchers and practitioners from across the region and beyond to exchange ideas, present new research, and explore emerging directions in the field. This Special Section of 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature® The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies presents five peer-reviewed papers selected from MAALIC 2025. Although diverse in their topics, theoretical perspectives, and research contexts, the contributions share a common interest in understanding how language operates within rapidly changing social, educational, and technological environments. Together, they demonstrate the breadth of contemporary applied linguistics and its continuing relevance to issues that extend well beyond language classrooms. The collection is anchored by three closely connected themes. Sustainability is reflected in work that considers language as a resource for supporting resilient educational practices, preserving linguistic diversity, and promoting socially responsible communication. Inclusion draws attention to multilingualism, intercultural understanding, equitable language practices, and the diverse voices that shape educational and social participation. Innovation highlights the opportunities and challenges associated with artificial intelligence, digital communication, and evolving approaches to language teaching, learning, and research. Rather than existing as separate strands, these themes intersect throughout the articles, illustrating the increasingly interdisciplinary character of applied linguistics. The papers approach these themes from a range of perspectives. They explore how gender identities are constructed through sports commentary in the Philippine context, examine the emerging relationship between human creativity and artificial intelligence in Malaysian creative writing education, and synthesise current knowledge on the development of Malaysian Standard English borrowed words in social media. The collection also investigates intercultural miscommunication among postgraduate students participating in an academic mobility programme in Indonesia and proposes a comparative typology of avoidance language in policy-driven and culture-driven professional communication. Collectively, the studies show how language mediates identity, communication, technology, and professional practice across different cultural and institutional settings. Viewed together, these contributions reaffirm that applied linguistics is not confined to the analysis of language itself. Instead, it provides a valuable framework for examining wider social change and for informing educational practice, language policy, intercultural communication, and professional discourse. The studies featured here demonstrate how carefully grounded language research can contribute to more inclusive, responsive, and sustainable communities while opening new avenues for future inquiry. This Special Section also represents the sustained collaboration between the Malaysian Association of Applied Linguistics (MAAL) and 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature® in supporting high-quality scholarship and fostering regional and international academic exchange. We hope the articles in this collection will encourage further dialogue, inspire new collaborations, and contribute to ongoing conversations about the role of applied linguistics in responding to the opportunities and challenges of a rapidly changing world. GUEST EDITORS: Nadya Supian * Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia nadya@utar.edu.my Vahid Nimehchisalem University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw, Poland Sorayyaei Azar Ali Universiti Malaya, Malaysia Lee Huan Yik Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia
Constructing Gender in Filipino Sportscasting: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Alas Pilipinas Matches
As Filipino athletes gain greater visibility in international volleyball tournaments, it becomes important to examine how their identities are shaped through media discourse. Local sportscasting, in particular, plays a crucial role in constructing public perceptions of national athletes, as it does not merely narrate the game but also frames athletic performance and character through culturally grounded language. This study examined how Filipino sportscasters construct gender in their live coverage of Alas Pilipinas during the 2025 AVC Nations Cup, with attention to how commentary reinforces or challenges dominant gender ideologies. Framed by Stuart Hall's Theory of Representation and guided by Critical Discourse Analysis, the study employed a qualitative approach. Sportscasting transcripts were analysed at lexical, discursive, and pragmatic levels to examine how patterns of language use contributed to the portrayal of male and female athletes. The findings show that Filipino sportscasting functions as a form of cultural pedagogy that constructs gender and nationalism. Across micro, meso, and macro levels, commentary consistently portrayed men through strength, discipline, and strategy, while women were represented through emotion, care, and collectivity. These patterns reinforced traditional ideals of masculinity and femininity but also revealed emerging shifts through depictions of women’s intelligence and men’s emotional expression. Overall, the study shows how sportscasting operates as discourse and ideology that shapes meanings of heroism, leadership, and national identity. It contributes to sports linguistics and media discourse research by providing empirical evidence from Filipino sportscasting and highlights the need for more balanced and performance-oriented commentary practices. Keywords: critical discourse analysis; gendered discourse; media representation; sports linguistics; sportscasting DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2026-3202-07
The Cyborg and the Scribe: Navigating the Jagged Frontier of Co-Intelligence and Cultural Resistance in Malaysian Creative Writing Education
As Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) matures from a disruptive novelty to a ubiquitous utility, the pedagogical landscape of creative writing has shifted from resistance to complex integration. This study investigates the perceptions and writing practices of Malaysian English Literature undergraduates at a private university in Malaysia, utilising the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and Mollick’s Co-Intelligence Framework. Through qualitative analysis of four distinct student archetypes; Glitch Poetics Hacker, Analogue Radical, Narrative Architect, and Cultural Synthesiser, this study reveals a divergence in adoption strategies. Findings indicate that while high Performance Expectancy (PE) drives the use of AI for structural architecting, significant resistance arises from concerns over Nusantara Erasure and Algorithm Homogeneity. Rather than seamlessly integrating AI, Malaysian English majors wrestle with it. The study proposes a new pedagogical model, Adversarial Co-Creativity, which positions the student not as a passive user but as a Cyborg Director capable of navigating the jagged frontier between human affect and machine scale. Keywords: Co-intelligence; creative writing pedagogy; generative artificial intelligence (GenAI); Malaysian Literature in English; UTAUT DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2026-3202-09
The Formation, Usage, and Linguistic Features of Malaysian Standard English Borrowed Words in Social Media: A Systematic Literature Review
Social media can influence multiple linguistic levels of language use, but lexis is particularly sensitive and easily shaped by social contexts. This systematic literature review (SLR) synthesises studies on the formation, usage, and linguistic features of Malaysian Standard English (MSE) borrowed words in social media. 13 journal articles published between 2016 and 2025 were selected from Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science (WoS) based on predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. From an initial 437 results, only 13 met all criteria. The review shows that borrowing, semantic change, and nativisation are the main formation processes, while usage varies across social media platforms (SMP), helping to construct Malaysian identity and express solidarity among Malaysian social media users. Key linguistic features include American English (AmE) influence, code-switching, translanguaging, morpho-syntactic patterns, and discourse particles. Overall, the findings suggest that social media plays a significant role in lexical innovation in MSE, offering useful insights for media practitioners and research specialising in sociolinguistics, media linguistics, and digital anthropology. Keywords: formation; lexical borrowing; linguistic features; social media; usage DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2026-3202-15
Intercultural Miscommunication in a Postgraduate Mobility Programme in Indonesia: A CCT-Guided Qualitative Study
Due to the increasing role of Asian countries in global collaboration, intercultural communication research in Asia is gaining popularity. However, little is known about the intercultural interactions in intra-Asia. This study explored intercultural miscommunication in a short-term mobility programme in Indonesia through a qualitative approach. The interviewees were six postgraduates from a Malaysian university who came from China, Iran, Malaysia and Pakistan who were interviewed following the mobility programme, in English and Mandarin for Mandarin speakers. From an individual level, the researcher adopted the conversational constraint theory (CCT) to demonstrate the mechanism of intercultural miscommunication in Asia and analyse communicative strategies in intercultural conflicts. The data were coded and analysed using thematic analysis through ATLAS.ti. It is found that language, cultural, and communicative differences, and stereotypes are the barriers leading to intercultural miscommunication in intra-Asia communication. In intercultural miscommunication situations, students tend to adopt communicative strategies that prioritise clarity over face maintenance. Pre-departure training has been suggested to significantly influence the outcomes of mobility programmes. It concludes that communication in Asian countries shares many similarities, yet the differences might better not be overlooked. Overall, this study advances a nuanced understanding of intercultural miscommunication in an intra-Asian mobility setting and underscores the analytical value of CCT for examining communication tensions in such contexts. Keywords: Asia; conversational constraint; intercultural miscommunication; mobility program; strategy DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2026-3202-16
Avoidance Language Typology: Comparing Policy-Driven and Culture-Driven Professional Communication for ESP Research
In professional communication, effectiveness is determined not only by what is said but also by what is consciously avoided. While English for Specific Purposes (ESP) research has traditionally emphasised productive vocabulary, avoidance language remains underexplored. This study addresses this gap by proposing a comparative typology of avoidance language across two professional domains: (1) policy-driven avoidance in English-language social media moderation and (2) culture-driven avoidance in Thai business communication contexts. Adopting a qualitative, dataset-informed design, the study analyses normative institutional artefacts, specifically, publicly available profanity blocklists and business communication substitution manuals, to map the mechanisms of avoidance. Although the datasets are purposively limited by proprietary and cultural constraints, their comparison yields noteworthy theoretical insights into high-context professional ESP communication. The researchers propose the Avoidance Language Typology Model, distinguishing between top-down, rule-based avoidance (omission) and bottom-up, relational avoidance (substitution). The analysis demonstrates that while social media moderation enforces compliance through rigid keyword blacklists, business communication in high-context settings emphasises pragmatic substitutions to maintain harmony. These findings offer direct implications for ESP pedagogy, particularly for learners navigating the intersection of algorithmic constraints and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) pragmatic norms. Specifically, the distinction between lexical compliance and pragmatic substitution provides a practically applicable pedagogical framework for teaching avoidance as a necessary communicative skill in digital and intercultural workplaces. Keywords: Avoidance Language Typology; Intercultural Pragmatics; Social Media Content Moderation; Thai Business Communication; English for Specific Purposes Pedagogy DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2026-3202-17
Translational Politics in Southeast Asian Literatures: Contesting Race, Gender, and Sexuality
'The Story of She' is a book of stories that talk about Indian females who struggle against patriarchy. The processes by which women become aware of gender-based unequal power relationships and attempt to acquire agency are what the review of this book is about.