An Interview with Kyle McIntosh, the New Series Editor for NPLE

We recently welcomed Kyle McIntosh to the team as an additional series editor for our New Perspectives on Language and Education (NPLE) series, joining existing series editors Phan Le Ha and Joel Windle. In this post we get to know Kyle, his work and his hopes for the series.

How did you come to be the new series editor of NPLE?  

Kyle on a trip to Scotland last summer

I was invited by one of the editors, Joel Windle, to assist with the growing number of proposals and projects that were being submitted to the series. Joel contributed an article to the 2023 special issue of TESOL Quarterly, which I co-edited, and we presented together as part of a colloquium at the AAAL conference in Portland, Oregon. I also worked with him and Phan Le Ha, the other series editor, on a book that I edited. I greatly admire the work they both do, and so I am honored and excited to be joining them in this endeavor. 

How do you feel this series contributes to the field? 

I think NPLE encourages those who are working on innovative approaches to language and education or in underrepresented contexts to make their research publicly available as soon as possible, even if they’ve only recently completed a PhD program or are still trying to establish themselves in the field. We really stress the “new” in the series title, and sometimes that means taking chances on authors who may not yet be widely published. A valuable lesson I learned from my grandfather, who was a farmer in Indiana, is that you can’t keep planting the same thing in a field year after year and expect it to remain fertile; you need to switch things up so that the field can be enriched with new nutrients, or in this case, new perspectives. 

What do you see as the series editor’s role? 

First, it is important to look for the potential in all the proposals that we read. Some of them are very polished, and it’s easy to see how the project will develop. Then, it’s mainly a matter of deciding whether or not the project will be a good fit for the series. Other proposals might be a little rougher around the edges, but there could be an important question or captivating idea at its core. In that case, the role of the series editor is to provide constructive feedback to help the author(s) revise the proposal so that the rough edges can be polished, and the bright core can shine through. Once we’ve accepted a proposal, the role shifts somewhat, and we have to help guide the project to completion. This includes finding reviewers who are knowledgeable about the subject and willing to help the author(s) refine the project even further. So, you need to have built up some goodwill with others in the field. Once a book is published, then the editors should promote it in as many venues as possible and get other potential authors interested in submitting proposals to the series.   

What are your own personal research interests? 

My background is in TESOL and second language writing, but I have become increasingly interested in the politics of English as a global language, particularly the ways it has been impacted by the resurgence in nationalism worldwide following the Great Recession of 2008-2009 and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. These political shifts with regard to cross-border movement and cooperation present some difficult challenges for the internationalization of education and the promotion of cosmopolitan views, which we have perhaps taken for granted in past decades. This is the focus of the special issue of TESOL Quarterly that I mentioned earlier.  

What is the key to successful academic partnership? 

I always try to respect the time and views of those with whom I work. That doesn’t mean we will always be on the same page with every new project or proposal, but I try to understand where they are coming from, what they may be dealing with at the moment, and how they can best accomplish the task before us. Then, I make adjustments to my own approach or schedule to better accommodate them, and hope that understanding will be mutual.    

What are you most looking forward to about being a series editor for NPLE?  

As a new series editor, I am looking forward to the moment when the first book I have helped usher through from the proposal stage onward finally appears in print. There’s just something rewarding about holding a book that you have been involved with, whether as an author or editor, and knowing that others will be able to read it for years and years to come. 

How do you see the series developing and what direction would you like to see it take? 

The series has done a fantastic job of presenting interesting and varied perspectives on language teaching and learning, and I see it continuing in that direction with an increased focus on education research coming out of the Global South and on languages other than English.

We are looking forward to working with Kyle. If you have a proposal for the New Perspectives on Language and Education, please send it to Anna Roderick anna@multilingual-matters.com. 

Welcome Back Laura!

We recently welcomed Laura back from her year of maternity leave, in which she’s been very busy not only looking after her baby, Elizabeth, but also getting married! Here’s a little insight into her time away and her feelings about returning to work.

How has your year of maternity leave been?

It’s quite hard to sum up a year in a few lines! I feel very fortunate to have had a year to spend with our daughter, Elizabeth, especially as I know that many parents the world over don’t have that luxury. However, I would be lying if I said that there weren’t many times when I was desperate for my old life back. Getting used to our ‘new normal’ has been a long journey!

How does it feel coming back to work after a year away?

Wonderful! Especially coming into the office having spent the year before that working from home because of Covid. I think that it does me the world of good to cycle to work each day, to have the stimulation of the city and to spend the working day in a different environment. Work itself is challenging – I seem to be unable to retain any recent information yet can still recall things from several years ago. It’s as though I’m stuck in a strange mental time-warp…useful occasionally (like when someone wants to know the ISBN of a book published in 2011!), but most of the time I am very reliant on my notepad!

What have you missed and what are you looking forward to most about being back at work?

I have missed my colleagues and the wider circle of work contacts enormously. It is nice to have conversations again that aren’t either with or about Elizabeth! I’m looking forward to getting stuck into using the new reporting systems we’ll be using for sales and being back in touch with all my old contacts. I’m returning under a new name, so it’s very handy to have a good cover-up when I’ve forgotten something I ought to know!

What will you miss about maternity leave?

My husband works shifts so it was fantastic to have a year of not working Mon-Fri, 9-5 (even if I was in fact working 24/7!) as it meant that when he was off on a random day, I was usually at home too. It was nice to be able to do things when most people were working. We’re going to have to get used to juggling all our commitments and making sure that there are at least a few days a year when we’re all at home together!

Meet the Newest Member of our Team – Stanzi!

Stanzi is our newest member of staff and has been working with Sarah as a Production Assistant since November, so we thought it was time our readers got to know her better with a little Q&A!

What were you doing before you joined us?

I was managing the Amazon seller and vendor accounts for a company that sells tools and workwear – very different field!

What made you apply for the job?

I was eager to do a job that actually made use of my degree. And I love books so helping to get them out there really appealed. I’ve always been curious about publishing. Plus it annoys me when I see a typo in a book – and now I get to be the one who left it there!

What were your first impressions?

That the company and the people are absolutely lovely, like a work-family. And that there’s a lot – and I mean a lot – of eating and talking about food.

Do you prefer ebooks or print books? 

I fluctuate. I prefer reading printed books but at a certain point, owning so many books just isn’t practical. I can walk around with hundreds of books on my phone and access them at any second if I have a sudden craving to read, like having a library in your pocket.

What are you reading at the moment?

At the moment, I’m reading The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley and a graphic novel called Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe.

Do you have a favourite book?

Several! I have a bookshelf of favourites. But my all time standouts are probably Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park, Syrup by Maxx Barry, Austen’s Persuasion and The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.

What do you like to do when you’re not in the office?

I’m a big fan of going on walks. I also enjoy painting and am a bit of a film fanatic. And of course, I can’t forget the pub trips with friends.

We’re really glad that Stanzi has joined us and she already feels like part of the CVP family!

Welcoming Rosie to the CVP Team

We recently welcomed Rosie to the team, who is commissioning editor while Laura is on maternity leave. In this post we find out a bit more about her…

What were you doing before you joined us?

I came here from Routledge, where I was working as an Editorial Assistant on their Language Learning list. Before that, I studied Applied Linguistics and taught English as a Second Language in New York, so I’m not sure there’s any doubt about my favourite subject!

What made you apply for the job?

I have always loved working with language and linguistics, and it only took a glance at the catalogue to be convinced this was the place for me! I really liked the idea of working for a smaller publisher too, as it gives you the chance to get to know different aspects of the publishing process.

What were your first impressions?

I think the first thing that struck me was how well everyone knew each other. Not only within the team, but series editors and authors too, it really is a CVP family. Everyone was immediately very welcoming, which isn’t so easy over email and Zoom! One thing I love about working in this subject area is seeing the names of my old lecturers crop up as authors or reviewers, and there have been a few already!

Do you prefer ebooks or print books? What are you reading at the moment?

I still prefer print but I do have a Kindle which I would load up when travelling to save space. I just started ‘The Goldfinch’ and I am absolutely loving it (though at 800+ pages it definitely would have been easier to carry around on kindle). I always have a non-fiction book on the go at the same time, and this year I’ve been reading ‘On This Day in History’. I read a page each morning with my first cup of tea, and it’s nice to know that on 31^st December I can add one more to my Goodreads reading challenge, just in time!

Do you have a favourite book?

I would struggle to pick a favourite each year! One I keep recommending to people is ‘To Be Taught, If Fortunate’ by Becky Chambers. I’m not usually a sci-fi reader, but this is definitely one of the best books I’ve read in the last few years. The concepts are clever, the characters well-rounded, and it’s just so beautifully rich for such a short book.

What do you like to do when you’re not in the office?

I recently moved back to Scotland after six years away, so I’ve been enjoying visiting family and friends at the weekends, and I’m looking forward to a lot more hillwalking in the spring. I play piano, love to bake, and at the moment I’m learning Italian through a combination of podcasts, books, Duolingo, and a carefully curated playlist of Italian Disney songs!

Behind the Books: Learning and Not Learning in the Heritage Language Classroom

Kimberly Adilia Helmer speaks about her new book Learning and Not Learning in the Heritage Language Classroom with Mark Amengual.

Learning and Not Learning in the Heritage Language Classroom is available now on our website. Enter the code BTB30 at the checkout to get 30% off!

What’s It Like Growing Up With Three Languages?

Last month we had a work experience student with us from Germany. Loïc grew up speaking three languages (his father is one of our authors and you can read about his multilingual journey in our book Raising Multilingual Children), so we wanted to ask him about his experience of being multilingual.

How many languages do you speak?

Loïc (left) and Laura on a tour of our distributor’s warehouse with our account manager, Matt

I would say that I fluently speak three languages: German, Dutch and English.

Did you grow up learning all those or did you learn any later in life?

The first language I learnt was Dutch, as my mom is a Dutch native speaker. Shortly after that, through my father speaking English with me, I became proficient in English as well. Then lastly by living in a German environment, going to German kindergarten and having mostly German friends, German was the third language I learnt.

Do you think of any one language as your ‘mother tongue’ or do you count them all?

I would count all of them as my ‘mother tongue’ even though I speak some better than others and also feel more comfortable depending on the language I speak.

Do you feel your personality changes depending on the language you’re speaking?

I personally can only refer to me feeling most comfortable whilst speaking English. From my friends and family I have heard that I get annoyed a lot faster, and on account of that, curse a lot more, when I speak German.

Which language do you find most difficult and why?

It is most difficult for me to speak Dutch, because I don’t often have the opportunity to speak it. My mom and I stopped speaking Dutch to each other about five years ago as I usually just responded in German. The reason for that I still haven`t figured out (ultimate act of teenage defiance?) I must say that I do regret that, but if I stay with my Dutch family for more than 3 days I usually get the hang of it again.

Which is your favourite language to speak and why?

Loïc on a visit to Sarah’s new house in Dawlish with Tommi and Laura

My favourite language to speak depends a lot on who I’m talking to – with my friends I feel the best speaking German, with my family English or Dutch (depending on what they would rather speak). Overall I must say though that English is my favourite language and usually that is the language I go with when I am emotional.

You live in Germany – how do you maintain your other languages?

I do live in Germany, yes. Maintaining my German is understandably easy and my English also mainly easy, as I practice in school, with foreign friends, online, with media and with my father most of all. My Dutch on the other hand is somewhat more difficult to maintain, but I recently starting speaking more Dutch with my mom and some of my Dutch friends. Mainly I practice my Dutch though when I am in the Netherlands or in Belgium.

What are the advantages of being multilingual?

The range of people I can speak to is a lot bigger. In general, all the benefits you gain from speaking other languages, just that I didn’t have to undergo the time-consuming process of learning a different language… which is supremely helpful. I think every person who has tried to learn a language knows the frustration of not being able to express yourself correctly in that language, because of a lack of proficiency. So I am very happy and lucky that my parents brought me up to be trilingual.

There are also some disadvantages of being multilingual. These disadvantages for me would be that I often switch words in languages or sometimes forget to address a person in the correct language. Generally speaking though I think the cons are strongly outweighed by the pros.

 

Raising Multilingual Children is available on our website.

Q&A with the Authors of “Contemporary Christian Travel”

This month we published Contemporary Christian Travel by Amos S. Ron and Dallen J. Timothy. In this post the authors answer some questions about the inspiration behind the book and their experience putting it together.

What were your motivations in writing this book?

We have some motivations in common, as well as some individual ones. We both love religions in general, as they reveal a great deal about cultures and people, and their encounters with deity and nature. We have an awareness of the magnitude and impact of faith-based travel in general, and Christian faith-based travel in particular, which is an increasingly important phenomenon worldwide. We wanted to highlight that Christianity is diverse with many different denominations practicing their own versions of pilgrimage and manifesting in different patterns of travel, products and destinations. We also enjoy gaining knowledge and sharing it with others, which is why we decided to write this book to fill an academic gap as regards one of the largest faiths on the planet.

An additional motivation was to create a dialogue and understanding within Christianity, which seems to be important, albeit somewhat lacking, in our world. We believe that this book has the potential to contribute to this goal.

Amos at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem

In my case (Amos), working on such a book is less obvious because I am not even Christian. However, my professional background is very relevant. Apart from my academic career in cultural geography and tourism studies, I have been guiding Christian pilgrims through the Holy Land for decades, and often these encounters encouraged me to know more. For example, I once guided an evangelical group that came on their pilgrimage with suitcases full of medications to give away to needy locals. At the end of the tour, I had boxloads of medications in the back of my car. Through this event and others I became more interested in humanitarian needs and volunteer tourism.

Dallen with his wife, Carol, at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem

In my case (Dallen), I am a devout Christian and have personally undertaken spiritually-oriented travel that I found to be uplifting, enjoyable and relevant. I have many friends and colleagues of many different religions throughout the world. I also have numerous friends who belong to many different Christian denominations. I have spent years trying to understand different churches’ doctrines and practices associated with religiously-motivated travel, relationships with deity, the earth and other sojourners. Amos and I have been researching religion and tourism separately for many years and together for the past 12 years. There is always more to learn; this book represents a step in the right direction toward providing a deeper understanding of how religion simultaneously venerates, blesses, consumes and commercializes sacred places.

Did you enjoy writing it?

We definitely did. It took us a number of years to gather all of the information we needed and many site visits in order to experience Christian tourism for ourselves first hand. One of the reasons we enjoyed writing the book was the fact that this book is different, unique. It is not ‘more of the same’, and so far, the reviewers have agreed with us.

How was it to work together?

A pleasure. A very positive experience. Writing with others can be challenging, but for us it was easy, as we think in much the same way.

How will the Christian travel market accept this book?

We will find out, but we think that in addition to the academic aspects of this book, it is relevant to the Christian faith-based travel industry for the purpose of developing new markets, understanding consumers’ experiences, and connecting supply with demand.

 

For more information about this book please see our website.

If you found this interesting, you might also like Tourism and Religion edited by Richard Butler and Wantanee Suntikul.

Destination Dawlish: A Change of Location for our Head of Production

It’s all change in the MM/CVP office as Sarah, our Head of Production and Commissioning Editor of Channel View titles, is about to move back to her beloved hometown of Dawlish and will be working mostly from home from now on, with monthly visits to the office. We will really miss her and are very sad not to be seeing her on a daily basis. In this post we find out how she’s feeling about the big move…

What will you miss most about coming into the office every day?

My super wonderful colleagues/work family! 😊 We have a lot of fun in the office – I will miss Fridays especially when everyone is in with cakes/doughnuts and Spotify playlists. But will try to come up to Bristol for at least one Friday a month. I’ve worked with everyone (some longer than others!) for a number of years so I’m trying to prepare myself not to see their faces every day – it will be strange and not a welcome thought!

What will you miss about living in Bristol?

It’s a great city to live in – and I will miss many things about city life (including Uber and Deliveroo!) But for Bristol the street art and balloons will be missed. Just lucky I still get to visit regularly.

What are you most looking forward to about moving to Dawlish?

Being back with my crazy-big family will be lovely – and living by the sea again will be ace. I’ve missed it!

What do you think will be the biggest difference working mostly from home?

Well, there will be no-one forced to listen to my wittering apart from me so I will be monitoring sanity levels regularly 😊 I guess just the feeling of togetherness. Thankful for instant messaging though – should make it easier to stay in touch with colleagues and ask quick questions when necessary. Looking forward to sometimes working in my PJs if I feel like it – never felt it was appropriate in the office 🙂

Will you be bringing us scones on a monthly basis?

Of course! But you really have to put jam on first (even though it’s the Cornish way) and pronounce ‘scone’ properly.

Dawlish

We wish Sarah the best of luck with the move and are already looking forward to our first away day in Dawlish!

Tales from a Sport Tourist

Next month we will be publishing the third edition of Sport Tourism Development by James Higham and Tom Hinch. Sarah is our resident sports enthusiast and often manages to catch a game of something when travelling (whether that be for work or leisure!) In this post we chat to Sarah about her own experiences of sport tourism.

Which different sports have you seen when travelling?

Sarah at the cricket in Kandy, Sri Lanka

Cricket, football, baseball, basketball, American football, ice hockey, lacrosse

What was your favourite/least favourite experience of sports tourism?

Any game with an exciting finish stands out – I managed to get to the Big Bash semi-final this year in Adelaide pre-CAUTHE conference where the Strikers won in the last over. Other memorable occasions are England holding on to draw with South Africa in a Test in Cape Town and the Red Sox winning at Fenway with a grand slam in the 8th innings!

I think I need to stop watching England in Australia as they’ve lost every time (apologies to England fans!) – never an enjoyable experience to lose to the Aussies.

Red Sox game at Fenway

Test match in Cape Town

Big Bash semi-final

Do you notice a difference in the experience of watching sports depending on the country or is there a universal atmosphere?

I think sport fans worldwide are pretty similar, though there are always traditions or superstitions specific to an area/team/sport.
An NFL game was the only live experience that took me by surprise – and seemed quite different from other sport I have watched. Every single thing that happened in the game seemed like a fanfare event. Though I have been reliably informed that if I want to experience real American football then I need to go and watch a college game.

What would be your dream destination/sports experience combination?

Melbourne is pretty much a sport fan’s dream city so I’d have to say being there for the whole duration of the Big Bash, in an Ashes year, and a ticket to the Australian Open. If it could somehow be arranged for some Premier League games to be played there as well that would be perfect! 🙂

For more information about Sport Tourism Development please see our website.

An Interview with David A. Fennell, Author of “Tourism Ethics”

We recently published the second edition of Tourism Ethics by David A. Fennell. In this post David answers a few questions about the field of tourism ethics and his work within it.

How did you first become interested in studying tourism ethics and why do you believe it’s such an important field of study?

I would go to conferences in the early 1990s and colleagues would ask me if I thought ecotourism was the most ethical form of tourism. I would respond by saying “yes”, but these responses were based solely on intuition. At the time, we did not have any empirical or philosophical yardsticks from which to understand the place and value of ethics in tourism. I had some excellent conversations with my colleague, David Malloy, when I was at the University of Regina. David was studying sport ethics at the time. These conversations led to four publications on ecotourism and ethics with David during the mid-to-late 1990s, which provided the foundation for me to venture more deeply into the realm of ethics.

It’s been 11 years since we published the first edition of Tourism Ethics. What can we expect from the second edition?

The new edition has more of a focus on contemporary philosophers such as Virginia Held, Jürgen Habermas, and Emmanuel Levinas. Several dozen tourism papers and books were also summarized to bring the tourism studies component up-to-date. The book continues to focus on many deep theoretical contributions that range from biology to philosophy. It’s only through an appreciation of the importance of these works on human nature that we will begin to better understand the nature of tourism and of tourists, in my opinion.

Where do you see the field heading in future?

The tourism ethics sub-field is evolving quickly. Over the course of the last 11 years, I have seen much more of a focus on interpreting and contextualising the work of seminal philosophers in the tourism studies arena. The trick will be to determine how these important works translate into practical wisdom, as tourism is very much an applied field. So, areas such as responsible tourism, fair trade, sustainable tourism, and ecotourism may be enriched through the discourse on ethics. For too long we have focused on impacts in tourism studies to the exclusion of other worldviews. I see ethics as more of a proactive way of fixing tourism industry problems, and impacts as more reactive.

What’s the favourite place that you’ve travelled to in the course of your research?

Given my interests in nature, it’s hard not to pick New Zealand. For me it’s one of the most beautiful countries in the world. I also really enjoy spending time in Croatia because of the mix of culture and nature.

Closer to home, I really enjoy the Haliburton Sustainable Forest (Ontario), which is Canada’s first certified forest. The HSF has a 100-year management plan to bring the forest back into a balanced ecological state. I don’t know too many companies, private or public, that look so far into the future.

What books – either for work or for pleasure – are you reading at the moment?

For work, I’m just finishing Bauer’s book on sustainability ethics. And for pleasure, I have The Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West by Nate Blakeslee on my Christmas list.

For more information about the second edition of Tourism Ethics, please see our website.