01 Editorial.qxd ibérica 44 (2022): 1-6 iSSN: 1139-7241 / e-iSSN: 2340-2784 https://doi.org/10.17398/2340-2784.44.1 Editorial It is our pleasure to introduce the fall issue of Ibérica, the second one produced under the new editorship of Ruth Breeze and Maria Kuteeva with the help of our insightful reviewers and dedicated editorial assistants. All our journal activities are now conducted through the ojs platform, and we would like to thank the AElfE Board and the President of AElfE, Alejandro Curado, for their continued support of the journal and feedback on our editorial activities. We also express our gratitude to the Editorial and International Advisory Boards who have helped to build up the reputation of Ibérica. The journal continues to consolidate its international scope and outreach, both in terms of submissions and peer reviewing. The contributors to this issue are affiliated with universities across different continents, including countries such as China, finland, Iran, Malaysia, Poland, singapore, spain, and the usA. Issue 44 contains 15 research articles and 3 book reviews that cover different areas of lsP research, ranging from classical genre analyses of the research article (RA) and its different sub-sections, to digital genres and online science popularisation, and to various aspects of teaching and learning lsP. The range of topics included in this issue attests to recent developments in the field of lsP and its intersections with other fields, such as professional communication and English-medium instruction. In this issue, we launch a new “forum” section, whose aim is to provide space for critical reflections on our research field and to explore new directions for future research. We are delighted to have Anna Mauranen as first contributor to this new section, as her cutting-edge research has been shaping our understanding of academic discourse and the use of English as a lingua franca for several decades. In her “forum” contribution to this issue, Anna Mauranen raises and discusses an important question: Where is spoken interaction in lsP? Drawing on the latest state-of-the art reviews and her own long research experience, she argues that there are two reasons why lsP studies need to embrace spoken interaction: one has to do with pedagogical and practical applications, and the other with the need to move our field of inquiry forward and to address gaps in our understanding of how human 1 ibérica 44 (2022): 1-6 EDIToRIAl communication takes place and how it varies across different settings of specialised communication. We are also happy to feature an opening article by our former Editor-in- Chief Carmen sancho Guinda, whose dedication and professional expertise have been vital for establishing Ibérica’s reputation in international journal rankings. In her opening article, Carmen sancho Guinda explores an emerging digital genre of technology disclosures with a particular focus on the concept of ‘narrative focalisation’. Drawing on a theoretical framework combining Netnography, Narrative Inquiry, Critical Genre and Multimodal Analysis, and Positioning Theory, she examines 134 samples of Technologies Portfolios and 12 samples of comic-book renderings. Her analysis shows how the hybridity generated by digital affordances has an impact on the narrative and promotional strategies. The following five articles focus on the genre of the research article (RA). Hon Tun Chang and Becky Kwan examine what researchers in Information systems cite in their literature review sections. They employ swales’ seminal CARs model and their own semantic typology of citations to examine semantic attributes of source ideas that are cited in different parts of the literature review. Among other things, their findings show that distinct types of source ideas are associated with specific moves/steps of the literature review, and that original ideas from the source texts are recontextualised to different extents in order to advance the RA authors’ own arguments. Based on these findings, Chan and Kwan propose pedagogical applications for the teaching of this part-genre. jason Miin-Hwa lim and Xianqing luo zoom in on succinct summaries of research methods in Ethnic studies and Industrial Relations through a genre- analytical lens. They found that these succinct summaries contain a recurrent use of prepositional phrases expressing data sources, cardinal numerals accentuating subjects’ involvement, post-modifying structures describing samples, and verb-infinitive/preposition structures signalling facilitation. In line with previous research on disciplinary differences in academic genres, their study also found some differences between the two disciplines, which can serve as a basis for pedagogical applications. The following paper by Ana Moreno takes an intercultural rhetoric approach to an embedded “bad news” genre: research limitations. Her analysis shows differences between the rhetorical strategies adopted by researchers writing in English and in spanish. Thus, the authors of 2 ibérica 44 (2022): 1-6 EDIToRIAl English-language RAs tend to mitigate the potentially negative effect of limitations by including implications for future practice. In spanish, the authors are more likely to surround limitations by explications to display their research expertise or to mitigate them by references to external factors. Moreno concludes by calling for a critical intercultural awareness in writing for research publication. The fourth paper dealing with the RA genre examines information and argument patterns in the Introduction sections of sociology research papers. Wei-Ning Cheng and Christopher s. G. Khoo found significant differences in information-argument profile across the three types of RAs reporting on Investigative research, Development and Evaluation research, and Descriptive research, and identified differences in sequential patterns. Their contribution to the field of lsP includes the coding scheme for information-argument types in research papers and a method for analysing sequential patterns. The last paper dealing with the RA analyses how writer identity is discursively constructed by authors working in the field of management. Iga lehman, Katarzyna Cybulska-Gómez de Celis, and Łukasz sułkowski look at the ways in which two groups of writers – the experienced and the novice – construct their authorial identities. They found that novice writers employ more interpersonal features to involve readers, while the more experienced ones make linguistic choices to establish their authority in the text. The following two papers are broadly concerned with communicating science to the general public. jingxin jiang and fei Victor lim resort to multimodal discourse analysis to explore how a TED-talk presenter orchestrates her speech, visuals, and hand gestures to achieve her communicative purposes. Their analysis shows how the three modes work together to communicate scientific ideas to, and engage with, the general audience. Next, Anna Tereszkiewicz and Magdalena szczyrbak examine proximity in Polish medical popularisation YouTube videos. Interestingly, they apply an analytical framework developed for the study of popularisation discourse in English to the data in Polish. Their findings point towards a variety of multimodal strategies for establishing proximity along the facets of organisation, argument, credibility, stance, and engagement. Rosa Giménez-Moreno and Alicia Ricart-Vayá engage with a relatively new but rapidly developing genre of online medical consultations. Their focus is on the control and expression of emotions, an important affective dimension of these remote interactions. Their comparative analysis of 3 ibérica 44 (2022): 1-6 EDIToRIAl doctor-patient interactions in Peninsular spanish and British English highlights how specific stance and register variation mechanisms influence the emotional domain. They also illustrate how doctors communicating in spanish tend to act in a more cautious and detached manner, while their English-speaking counterparts resort to more varied strategies to achieve engagement, empathy, and emotional comfort. Teaching and learning lsP is the focus of the following three articles. Hao liu, Hu Qiu and Zuocheng Zhang provide an Activity Theory perspective on the flipped EsP classroom. Their study examined how Chinese university students experience learning News English through pre-class micro-lesson videos. It identified notable differences between the teacher- designed pre-class activity system and the activity system actually experienced by the students and discussed possible complications. In the next article, Arif Bakla and Ali Karakaş report on the results of a survey conducted with 249 study participants including native, native-like and non-native English-speaking researchers. Their study compares how the academic writing practices among the three groups differ in terms of their use of technology, strategies and dictionaries. Despite some foreseeable differences in the use of technologies and dictionaries between the near- native and the non-native groups, their study also identified some common challenges in academic writing for all three groups. In the following article, Hassan Nejadghanbar, Mahmood Reza Atai, and Catherine snow explore academic reading status and the challenges experienced by graduate students in applied linguistics. The authors administered a questionnaire to 194 students, asking them to assess their own academic reading skills. This survey was complemented with interviews. The results indicate that information literacy was the weakest domain in the students’ self-reports. other reported challenges included shortage of time, content knowledge, critical literacy, writers’ language style and generic features of texts, teachers’ high expectations and vague instructions, insufficient statistical literacy, and insufficient interaction with peers. All three studies suggest how their findings can inform pedagogical practices. In a related field of enquiry, María Dolores Rodríguez Melchor and Andrew samuel Walsh’s article deals with the rapidly growing phenomenon of English-medium instruction. Their focus is on spanish EMI lecturers’ attitudes towards EMI and their perceptions of teaching practices. Drawing on the data collected through a survey and focus groups at a spanish 4 ibérica 44 (2022): 1-6 EDIToRIAl university, they identify the distinction between EMI lecturers’ implicit and explicit assessment of their students’ use of English. The last two articles in this issue focus on the language of specific professional domains: photography and cosmetics. Drawing on the data from photography blogs, Iryna Mykytka examines acronyms and neighbouring categories – such as alphabetisms, abbreviations, blends, and clippings – in the language of photography. Her study focuses on the structure and other characteristics of this specific type of discourse, and offers a possible classification based on the analysis of these features. last but not least, María Enriqueta Cortés de los Ríos and fatima Azzahraa El Yamlahi explore the metonymic relation between a cosmetic brand name and a product with a focus on Moroccan brands. Their study identifies a low frequency of reduction metonymy, which is largely outnumbered by its converse operation, i.e. expansion metonymy. The authors argue that the conscious use of these mechanisms by brand designers can help to boost brand identity and build a favourable brand image. The issue finishes with three reviews of recently published titles, including two research-based edited volumes and a textbook: Metadiscourse in Digital Communication: New Research, Approaches and Methodologies, edited by larissa D’Angelo, Anna Mauranen and stefania Maci; Approaches to Specialized Genres, edited by Kathy ling lin, Isaac N. Mwinlaaru and Dennis Tay; and Researching Discourse: A Student Guide, edited by Christopher Hart. These recent publications deal with timely and cutting-edge research topics and with methodological issues in the study of lsP. As always, we would like to express our heartfelt thanks to our reviewers. Without your competence and dedication, Ibérica would not be where it is today. The articles included in this issue have benefited greatly from insightful and constructive comments by our external reviewers: Robin Anderson, Martín Aoiz Pinillos, Marcelino Arrosagaray Auzqui, Antonio Bañón Hernández, An Cheng, jesús García laborda, Anthony Gould, Christoph Hafner, Isabel Herrando, Niina Hynninen, Kevin jiang, Kayo Kondo, Irena Kuzborska, Paula lópez Rua, Elisa Mattiello, lisa McGrath, Tarja Nikula, jean Parkinson, lorena Pérez Hernández, Carmen Pérez sabater, Bojana Petrić, Hanne Roothooft, Hans sauer †, Giuseppina scotta di Carlo, Heli Tissari, Rachel Whittaker, and joanna Zou. We are also grateful to the members of our Editorial Team, to Associate Editor Begoña Bellés fortuño, and to Book Reviews Editor jesús García laborda for their 5 valuable contributions to producing this issue and for their dedication to the journal. Ruth Breeze, University of Navarra (Spain) Maria Kuteeva, Stockholm University (Sweden) Editors-in-Chief iberica@aelfe.org EDIToRIAl ibérica 44 (2022): 1-66