Special issue on ESP: Reflections and perspectives; includes and editorial, an introduction, and nine papers on English for Specific Purposes and CLIL.

Language acquisition socialization: Sociocognitive and complexity theory perspectives; by Assia BAGHDADI (pp. 1-22); The impact of background knowledge on test performance: A multivariate G-theory approach; by Seyyed Mohammad ALAVI & Hossein KARAMI (pp. 23-44); A pragmatic analysis of diminutives in Palestinian society; by Mahmood K. M. ESHRETEH (pp. 45-62); Second language teacher education: Preparing teachers for the needs of second language learners; by Aseel KANAKRI (pp. 63-94); Exploring a novice Chinese EFL teacher's writing beliefs and practices: A systemic functional perspective; by Xiaodong ZHANG (pp. 95-118); A pragma-semiotic analysis of the Catholic bishops' communiqué on the Ebola epidemic: Impact on the University of Ibadan Catholic faithful; by Patience Obiageri SOLOMON-ETEFIA & Gerald Okechukwu NWEYA (pp. 119-142); Book Review by Azizeh Chalak (pp. 143-151).

Papers in this special issue on Figurative Language: (1) Cecilia BJÖRKÉN-NYBERG: Vocalising motherhood: The metaphorical conceptualisation of voice in listener responses to The girl on the train by Paula Hawkins (pp. 1-28); (2) Danielle CUDMORE: Prophet, poet, seer, skald: Poetic diction in Merlínusspá (pp. 29-60); (3) Kristina HILDEBRAND: "As fayre an handid man" Malory's figurative language (pp. 61-74); (4) Birgitta SVENSSON: The development of figurative competence in narrative writing: A longitudinal case study (pp. 75-102); (5) Monica KARLSSON: Book Review (pp. 103-106); (6) Keith ALLAN: Book Review (pp. 107-113).

Papers in this special issue: (1) Andrew DEMIL: Vocalising motherhood: Effectiveness of grammar activities in Portuguese teaching: An exemplar (pp. 1-18); (2) Scott KISSAU, et al.: The motivational profile of adolescent foreign language learners: An international comparison (pp. 19-40); (3) Abdulloh WAEDAOH & Kemtong SINWONGSUWAT: Enhancing English language learners' conversation abilities via CA-informed sitcom lessons: A case study of Thai high school students (pp. 41-56); (4) Fateme EMRANI & Mozhgan HOOSHMAND: A conversation analysis of self-initiated self-repair structures in advanced Iranian EFL learners (pp. 57-76); (5) Yunisrina Qismullah YUSUF, Chairina NASIR & Nurzaleni ANDIB: Power and solidarity: The pronoun of address ke [ke] used in Indonesian by Acehnese speakers (pp. 77-98); (6) John Odo ONU & Patience Obiageri SOLOMON-ETEFIA: A functional-semiotic investigation of traditional funeral rites and rituals in Elugwu Ezike in Igboland (pp. 99-128).

This volume contains: Multilingual transfer: L1 morphosyntax in L3 English by Abdelkader HERMAS; Instant messaging in office hours: Use of ellipsis dots at work and Hong Kong culture by Bernie Chun Nam MAK; Royal sport and social distance: Television interviews with Prince Andrew and Princess Anne by Douglas Mark PONTON; Code-mixing and its impact on language competence by Dan LU; Engagement as perception-in-action in process drama for teaching and learning Italian as a second language by Erika C. PIAZZOLI; Assessment of critical thinking skills through reading comprehension by Kassim A. SHAABAN; Book Review: Doerr, N. M., & Lee, K. (2013). Constructing the heritage language learner: Knowledge, power and new subjectivities. Berlin: Walter De Gruyter. [xiii ] 188 pp; ISBN: 978-1-61451-283-7] by Hsiang-Hua CHANG.

Papers in this issue:(1) Jesús García Laborda & Miguel Fernández Álvarez: Teachers' opinions towards the integration of oral tasks in the Spanish University Examination; (2)Oksana Laleko:Restructuring of verbal aspect in Heritage Russian: Beyond lexicalization; (3) Yu-Cheng Lee:Comparison of politeness and acceptability perceptions of request strategies between Chinese learners of English and native English speakers; (4) Kunal Kamal Kumar: Development and application of an instrument to find out the linguistic background of employees in MNCs; (5) Amelia Maria Cava: Abstracting science: A corpus-based approach to research article abstracts; (6) Reima Al-Jarf: Helping medical students with online videos; (7) Mohammad Ali Salmani Nodoushan & Nafiseh Khakbaz: Theses 'Discussion' sections: A structural move analysis; (8) Hossein Karami & Mohammad Ali Salmani Nodoushan: Differential Item Functioning (DIF): Current problems and future directions; (9) Forough Rahimi: Book Review

1) Speech acts or language micro- and macro-games? by Mohammad Ali SALMANI NODOUSHAN; (2) Rituals of death in Odisha: Hindu religious beliefs and socio-cultural practices by Kalyanamalini SAHOO; (3) Analysis of authentic legal negotiation: Implications for teaching contract negotiation to undergraduate law students by Anthony TOWNLEY & Mehdi RIAZI; (4) Politeness in the Yoruba and French Languages by Temitope Michael AJAYI & Kudrat Olayinka BALOGUN; (5) Conversation proficiency assessment: A comparative study of two-party peer interaction and interview interaction implemented with Thai EFL learners by Ratchawan USSAMA & Kemtong SINWONGSUWAT; (6) Prosodic Analysis: An Italian case study by Alessia D'ANDREA, Fernando FERRI & Patrizia GRIFONI; (7) The final goodbye: The linguistic features of gravestone epitaphs from the nineteenth century to the present by Manel HEART; (9) Teacher- and peer-enhanced scaffolding: Self-regulated learning of collocations in CALL by Abbas Ali REZAEE et al.

The effect of storytelling format (dialogic vs. narrative) on linguistic recall and comprehension (1-28) by Alfonso Abad MANCHENO; practicing what they preach? A comparison of teacher candidate beliefs and practices (29-54) by Scott KISSAU, Marion RODGERS & Helga HAUDECK; Teaching the Dutch how to pronounce English (55-80) by Frans HERMANS & Peter SLOEP; Superstition in the works of Nizami Ganjavi: A phenomeno-semiotic analysis (81-90) by Fereshteh AHANGARI; An optimality-based account of diachronic lenition in Persian (91-108) by Mozhgan HOOSHMAND; On demystifying L2 learner goal differences in task-based production (109-132) by Mohamed Ridha BEN MAAD; Language testing: The state of the art (An online interview with James Dean Brown) (133-143) by James Dean BROWN & Mohammad Ali SALMANI NODOUSHAN.