Search

The practice of Corrective Feedback (CF), which is situated within a Second Language Acquisition (SLA) Paradigm, is currently positioned towards an accuracy-orientated delivery based on native speaker norms. This is despite the recognition in different areas of linguistic research that there is considerable variation in the way that English is spoken around the world. This paper argues that the epistemological assumptions and methodological approaches to investigate CF within an SLA paradigm have various underlying weaknesses that undermine research findings. These findings purport to provide support for an accuracy-orientated CF in the English classroom. However, it is suggested in this paper that a meaning-orientated CF would be more reflective and beneficial for students given the transformative changes that have occurred to English over the past 30 years. This perspective is discussed in relation to one teacher's approach to CF who participated in a larger project which examined CF conducted in a British-Sino University.

This article hypothesizes that one of the reasons for Chinese EFL learners' rigid use of nominalization and insufficient use of hedging in academic writing can be attributed to the unclear understanding of the relationship between these two expressions. The aim of the research is to first prove and then explain the possible co-occurrence of nominalization and hedging in scientific papers, with the intention of deepening Chinese EFL learners' understanding of the reasons for their possible co-occurrence. After a corpus-assisted statistical analysis of sixty abstracts selected from leading scientific journals written by native English speakers, it's been found that there is indeed a tendency for nominalization and hedge to co-occur both at the textual-level and clause-level. Besides, a tentative analysis is conducted to explain the pattern of their co-occurrence. It has been observed that the number of nominalized expressions in clauses is inversely correlated with the probability degree of hedging, and the position of nominalization in the clause (theme or rheme) influences the generalization level of hedging. The research results could shed light on the pedagogic approach in improving Chinese EFL learners' academic writing by making evident that the elusive Grammatical Metaphor competence could be enhanced by deepening the understanding of the inter-relationship between seemingly different in-congruent expressions like nominalization and hedges.

Involving the global issues as listed in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in education is necessarily done in the education process, especially in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning. Exposure to global issues is known to improve students' understanding, awareness, and ability to solve urgent issues faced by global society. This paper aims to find out the trend of research on the coverage of SDGs in students' learning process. This systematic literature analysis was done by applying Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Method. A total of 25 studies were recognized through a systematic search by using Sustainability, SDGs, and EFL as keywords. The result shows that the trend of associating SDGs with EFL settings was done mostly in Indonesia. In the recent year 2022, it reached the highest number of studies in the particular matter with 7 total of research. It was also found that the study involving SDGs on EFL learning was mostly done in the tertiary setting, compared with K-12, junior high school, secondary, high school, and other educational institutions. It was also discovered that the specific area of study enhances EFL students' learning achievement, environmental awareness, global citizen values, as well as students' levels of self-norms, beliefs, and self-value.

In the field of applied linguistics, Diane Larsen-Freeman is widely recognized, among her numerous contributions, as the originator of Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST). Over the years since her seminal publication (Larsen-Freeman, 1997), CDST has evolved into a meta-theory that guides the field's thinking on a variety of developmental phenomena, not least the study of second language acquisition. As its theoretical potency rises, so does the need to achieve a tangible understanding of CDST's core constructs. In this paper, we empirically examine one such construct, co-adaptation, in the context of asynchronous dyadic interaction. A data corpus of 39 emails sent between two college students in China and the United States over the course of seven weeks is analyzed using NVivo 12. Co-adaptation is observed at the pragmatic, discourse, and linguistic levels. True to the spirit of CDST, we describe, and discuss the nuances of, our findings. Considering the novelty of our approach to data analysis, we end by reflecting on the limitations specific to our study, as well as worthwhile directions for future pursuits.

Hands-off data-driven learning is a data-based, student-oriented learning model characterized by inquiry and discovery. English context vocabulary teaching is the key to English teaching in colleges and an important indicator to evaluate the quality and level of college English teaching, which is a language teaching paradigm focusing on the language environment. Combining the two approaches can give students a more realistic, practical, and meaningful language learning experience. This paper analyzes the vocabulary learning level of two non-English major undergraduate classes at Southwest University of Political Science and Law before and after the application of the context experiment. The positive effect of context vocabulary teaching in the control groups is verified by comparing and analyzing the influence of context teaching based on hands-off data-driven learning on their scores and learning results between the experimental and control groups. It shows that the combination of context in English vocabulary teaching with hands-off data-driven learning can help to improve students' ability to understand, absorb, and apply English vocabulary.

This paper aims to further understand the future development of literacy theory and language learning in contemporary Chinese universities through the research on the current situation of EFL students' literacy in Chinese universities and the teaching characteristics of contemporary Chinese teachers. In this study, literature analysis method, literature comparison analysis method, literature synthesis method and other analytical methods were used to obtain the results. Based on our results, the lack of literacy training is an extremely important reason for the defects of literacy skills of contemporary Chinese college EFL students in the process of language learning. The strengthening of literacy training is one of the key measures to improve the comprehensive level of literacy of contemporary Chinese college EFL students in the process of their language learning. Theoretically, the future development of literacy theories and language learning among contemporary Chinese college EFL students is bound to closely connect with the new theory of multiliteracies and critical literacy in literacy development and the multiliteracies teaching methodology in language learning. Practically, the new theory of multiliteracies puts forward a series of hypotheses for school literacy education to cope with the drastic changes facing the world today. At the same time, the critical literacy theory is rooted in critical education theory, focusing on the important role of literacy in the formation of individual human values. Besides, the multiliteracies teaching methodology in language learning explores how to change traditional teaching methods, effectively using multimedia resources, and cultivating language learners' skills of multiliteracies.

English language education nowadays is not merely about the instruction and acquisition of linguistic knowledge and skills. Instead, it has progressed to the real-life applications of the target language, which further requires a mastery of cultural knowledge and skills. In terms of culture, English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners, compared to native speakers of English, own their unique native culture. Yet, since language teachers tend to focus on the delivery of English cultural knowledge, EFL learners' native culture is sometimes shadowed in the mainstream English classrooms worldwide. To this end, this exploratory paper aims to advocate attention to the importance of EFL learners' native culture awareness and share some practical teaching and learning experiences in an English course called "Multimedia and Foreign Language Learning." The paper outlines the pedagogical design of the course in China, providing classroom examples and practical suggestions to course designers, educators and instructors. We expect to give insights into integrating native culture into foreign language education in university settings.

Translanguaging goes between linguistic and/or modal boundaries and beyond them (Li, W. (2011a). Moment analysis and translanguaging space: Discursive construction of identities by multilingual Chinese youth in Britain. "Journal of Pragmatics", 43(5), 1222-1235. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.07.035). The appearance of this new concept marks a significant development of multilingualism studies. This paper is based on an empirical study of creating a translanguaging space and positive 'classroom climate' (Gabrys-Barker, D. (2014). Success: From failure to failure with enthusiasm. "Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching", 4(2), 301-325. https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2014.4.2.7) by allowing for students' emotional expression and supporting their emotions to benefit EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learning in the Chinese context. The visual data are multilingual and multimodal student-made artefacts called "emotional curves" completed by newly registered university students as descriptive homework of their emotions about English learning in the classroom. These emotional curves create a translanguaging space where students adopt multiple linguistic and semiotic resources to express emotions and identities freely and creatively. The multimodal discourse analysis of emotional curves is combined with (auto)ethnographic observations and interviews, which shed light upon the emotional motivation for translanguaging and manifest effective teacher-student communication owing to the teacher's 'emotional scaffolding' (Park, M. H. (2014). Increasing English language learners' engagement in instruction through emotional scaffolding. "Multicultural Education", 22(1), 20-29.) strategies. Theoretically, this paper highlights the transformative power of translanguaging space and clarifies emotional representations of translanguaging theory. Pedagogically, this study advocates acknowledging and scaffolding students' emotions to establish better teacher-student relationships and create a flexible translanguaging space and harmonious classroom climate.

The issues of whether mobile-assisted English as a foreign language (EFL) reading is effective have become increasingly important for EFL teachers and policy-makers. However, empirical studies investigating EFL students' reading comprehension performance on mobile phones and students' perceptions of these reading formats are lacking. The present research employed questionnaire surveys and semistructured interviews to investigate whether differences exist between mobile-assisted and paper-based EFL reading in terms of participants' reading comprehension accuracy, reading speed, and reading strategy used (i.e. general, problem-solving or support strategies) and explore EFL learners' perceptions of mobile-assisted EFL reading. A sample of 81 first-year college students participated in a quasiexperiment, 6 participants participated in a semistructured interview, and a sample of an additional 10 students participated in a pilot study. The analyses, including qualitative descriptions, mixed-design analysis of variance (ANOVA), paired-sample t-tests, and independent-sample t-tests, indicated that participants achieved superior reading comprehension accuracy when reading from printed paper compared to reading from mobile phones. Superior reading speed from paper was observed only when participants were instructed to read and complete the comprehension test the first time, while no difference in speed between the two reading media was observed the second time. Additionally, participants' use of reading strategies during mobile-assisted EFL reading was not as effective as that during paper reading. Regarding participants' preferences, most participants (79%) preferred reading from paper over mobile phones because hard copies provided a better reading experience and promoted active reading engagement. However, participants held positive attitudes toward mobile-assisted EFL learning and wanted to continue to read from mobile phones to assist their foreign language learning due to their convenient built-in functions and portability. The implications for the use of mobile devices to assist language pedagogical practice are discussed.

This paper describes a qualitative participatory action research study applying critical cosmopolitan literacies principles with pre-service English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers to address global human rights issues through international English youth literature. Using literary works on sociopolitical issues alongside critical pedagogy engagements and teaching practicum in various educational settings, the author as a teacher-researcher attempts to raise the student teachers' critical awareness to issues of power, privilege, and social justice embedded in the multicultural and multimodal texts. Analysis of the qualitative data indicates important outcomes in terms of an enhanced understanding of critical human rights issues pertaining to the formation of student teachers' identities as global-conscious and socially responsible educators. Meanwhile, with explicit guidance from the teacher educator, the student teachers also develop communicative intercultural competence, high-order thinking skills, and learning agency by engaging in multiliteracies practices within a cosmopolitan literacies orientation.

In the field of English medium instruction (EMI), multilingual research approaches are crucial to carrying out effective and ethically responsible research, because EMI policies and practices are inherently multilingual. This paper is a partial replication study that adopts a 'researching multilingually' analytical framework to interrogate the challenges and affordances of using multiple languages during two EMI research projects. In the project in Turkey, the lead researcher, who is an English-Turkish bilingual, analysed policy documents (n = 145) and interview data (n = 67) drawing on her knowledge of both languages. Additionally, 85 EMI classroom observations were conducted. In the project in China, the research team of two L1 English speakers and two L1 Chinese speakers investigated 93 bilingual policy documents and conducted interviews with 26 policy arbiters by drawing on both languages during data collection and analysis. Together, these reflections highlight how multilingual approaches can be utilised throughout the research process, from team formation, research design, data collection, data analysis, and presentation of findings in research reports.

While the positive role of engagement in students' learning achievements has been well documented, limited studies have examined whether or how learner engagement would vary with their achievements over time, especially within an unstructured digital learning context. This paper using a purposive sampling method reported an exploratory study on how English as a foreign language (EFL) undergraduate students with lower and upper proficiency levels (LP and UP) behaviorally engaged in their self-initiated mobile-assisted English learning (MAEL) beyond the classroom. Participants were senior-year undergraduate students from universities in central China. Quantitative analysis based on 409 questionnaires showed that there were significant differences in both how long and how often students participated in MAEL across proficiency levels, with LP learners investing more time on a more frequent basis than UP learners. However, there was no significant effect of language proficiency on the number of students' MAEL resources employed. Besides, EFL proficiency was also found to play a mediating role in students' learning preferences despite their common interest in receptive learning practices. Qualitative data from 36 follow-up semi-structured interviews revealed students' cognitive and emotional rationales behind these learning behaviors. This study might offer some fresh insight into the complexity of foreign language learner engagement with self-initiated mobile-assisted learning in Chinese higher education.

Recently, artificial intelligence (AI)-programmed automated writing evaluation (AWE) has attracted increasing attention in language research. Using a small data set arising from an analysis of five Chinese university-level English as a foreign language (EFL) students' submissions, this paper examined in detail how EFL students interacted with the feedback of Pigai, the largest AI-programmed AWE in China. The analysis started with the intention of capturing the machine feedback on the five students' submissions and the exchanges between the participants and Pigai over repeated submissions, ranging from 3 to 12 submissions. The analysis showed that the learners' interactions with Pigai focused on error corrective feedback in the initial two submissions. In the case of one student who had 12 submissions, the non-error corrective feedback increased gradually over time, providing rich linguistic resources but without examples and contextual information. The students' take-up rates of feedback with linguistic resources were much lower than that of error corrective and general feedback. A terrain model to map the stages and nature of student responses showed a more complete dynamic process, in which students' responses changed from the initial mechanical responses at the discrete language level to more considered approaches in response to machine feedback. The findings of this study have implications for both language pedagogy and the future design and development of AWE for second or foreign language learning.

Despite the large quantity of research projects about online learning, studies on students' language learning motivation, self-efficacy belief, and metacognitive strategy use in the online learning setting are limited. The present paper aims to fill this gap through assessing learners' metacognitive strategies, language learning motivation, self-efficacy belief, and their perceived progress in English learning. Responses to surveys were administered two times. The collected data were subject to longitudinal mediation analysis. The participants were a total of 627 university students in China. Results showed a positive and significant relationship among the four variables. The findings highlighted four significant longitudinal mediation patterns. Overall, self-efficacy belief predicted the use of metacognitive strategies, which in turn predicted their language learning motivation and perceived online English learning progress. The findings supported the mediating role of language learning motivation and metacognitive strategies. The findings showed the potential to enhance online English learning by facilitating learners' self-efficacy belief, language learning motivation, and metacognitive strategies.

This paper explores what the measures of utterance fluency typically employed in Automatic Speech Evaluation (ASE), i.e. automated speaking assessments, tell us about oral proficiency. 60 Chinese learners of English completed the second part of the speaking section of IELTS and six tasks designed to measure the linguistic knowledge and processing assumed to underpin second language speech production. A sample of eight native speakers rated the learners' oral productions for functional adequacy. Analyses of the data confirm: (1) articulation rate, mid-clause pause frequency, and repetition frequency predict functional adequacy, (2) breadth of lexical knowledge is the main predictor of articulation rate as well as functional adequacy, (3) speed of syntactic processing predicts end-clause pause duration and speed of lexical processing predicts mid-clause pause duration, and (4) measures of utterance fluency together account for 60% of the variation in functional adequacy scores. These findings suggest that articulation rate best reflects overall functional adequacy. Moreover, other measures of utterance fluency reflect different areas of underlying knowledge and processing, opening up the possibility of automating diagnostic speaking tests.

This paper examines intersecting concerns in global citizenship education (GCE) and English Language Teaching (ELT) in the face of globalisation. While these two educational agendas cannot be assumed to automatically converge, our study signals that promising overlaps emerge from the enactment of dialogic practices in second language education. Drawing upon an ELT reading course in Chinese higher education, we elaborate on how a Freirean informed approach opens up pedagogical encounters and opportunities for undergraduates to become interculturally aware citizens. The pedagogic vignettes presented here challenge the dominance of pragmatic orientations of ELT in mainland China today while instigating a teaching paradigm shift. Though practical language skills have been touted within Chinese universities for decades, we argue for an integration of GCE into teaching and learning English in a dialogic manner, thus developing bilingual and interculturally aware learners who critically engage with the uncharted terrain of an increasingly globalised world.

Drawing on data collected from multiple sources, this qualitative case study investigates how seven English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) academics from a university in mainland China perceive and cope with their professional vulnerability within the system of performativity. Three themes were generated from the data: (1) professional vulnerability as a state of conformity and self-learning, (2) professional vulnerability as a state of constrained agency, and (3) professional vulnerability as a state of disengagement. The findings not only reflect the complex and dynamic nature of EFL academics' professional vulnerability, but also unpack numerous contextual and personal factors mediating EFL academics' experiences of professional vulnerability. The paper ends with some practical implications on how to mitigate the negative influences that vulnerability has on EFL academics' professional practice within the system of performativity.

The adoption of English medium instruction (EMI) in higher education has gained popularity in China's tertiary education as a result of globalization. International students in Chinese universities are celebrated as part of soft power projection to extend China's global impact. Informed by Piller and Cho's concept of "Neoliberalism as language policy" (2013) and Collins' "social reproduction theory" (2009, 2012), this study attempts to explore the EMI learning experiences of a cohort of international students at a border university in China. The policy documents, in-depth interviews, classroom observation, reflective journals and online interactions converge to reveal that, international students in EMI programmes experience exclusion and inequality despite the welcoming discourses of diversity. The paper highlights the necessity to pay attention to the ways in which higher education institutions reproduce inequalities of social stratification of international students through explicit and implicit institutional practices. It is argued that EMI policy in China's peripheral regions targeting international students from less-developed countries tends to perpetuate and accentuate educational inequalities. The study sheds light on a more inclusive pedagogical approach to alleviating international students' marginalisation and educating students of diverse linguistic, cultural, socioeconomic backgrounds for global citizenship in the context of China's Belt and Road Initiative.

The success of bilingual immersion programmes has promoted the debate about whether learners' first language (L1) should be used in foreign language classrooms. Nevertheless, Content and Language Integrated Learning, a pedagogical approach embedded in the development of multilingualism and multiliteracy theories, has overstepped the monolingual principle by allowing for more flexibility in the choice of instructional languages. Previous research has emphasised chiefly the reasons and effects of embracing a shared language, other than the target language, in content-based bilingual classrooms, while this paper intends to investigate the correlations between L1 use with learner factors, the understanding of which can shed light on more efficient translanguaging practices. Through a cross-sectional approach, the present study was contextualised in a large-scale, content-based English as a foreign language programme and drew on 335 undergraduates, who completed a series of questionnaires and tests. Correlation and regression analyses primarily demonstrated that English proficiency was the most significant predictor of learners' overall attitude to L1 instruction in classrooms, followed by content proficiency and language learning motivation. Gender was a non-significant variable for learners' overall perspective on L1 employment but was related to the constructs about using the L1 for phatic purposes, with male students requiring more translanguaging assistance. The paper concludes with the implication that the desire for L1 use is associated with various learner factors and that teachers should be aware of how to encourage and regulate translanguaging practices for differing instructional purposes as per the changing needs in classrooms.

Computer-based testing (CBT), which refers to delivering assessments with computers, has been widely used in large English proficiency tests worldwide. Despite an increasing CBT in China, limited research is available concerning whether CBT can be used for the Test for English Majors-Band 4 (TEM 4). The current study investigated whether testing mode impacted TEM 4 score and factors (i.e., computer familiarity level and attitude towards CBT) that might correlate with performance on CBT of TEM 4. Overall 92 Chinese undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of the groups, i.e., CBT or paper-based testing (PBT), and took the test. A mixed method was employed, including (1) quantitative and qualitative analysis of test performance in two modes, as well as CBT group participants' computer familiarity and attitudes towards the mode; and (2) thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews. The results revealed that (1) test scores in CBT and PBT were comparable; (2) two items in the computer familiarity questionnaire, i.e., comfort level of reading articles on the computer and forgetting time when using computers, positively correlated with CBT scores; and (3) participants' attitude towards CBT did not impact test performance.

As a public compulsory course for Non-English majors in colleges and universities, College Public English should not only develop students' language and cross-cultural communication skills, but also cultivate their correct outlook on life, values, world and native land emotion, which is consistent with the ideological-political goals of the course. English textbook is the guarantee for the smooth progress of English teaching, and more importantly, it is an important carrier to practice Chinese teaching ideas. This paper mainly focuses on how to integrate ideological-political elements into English teaching from textbook perspective. It discusses the measures of integrating ideological-political education into College English courses from four aspects: teaching objectives, unit themes, and knowledge points, grammatical structure and word explanation. It is finally pointed out that exploring and integrating ideological-political elements in textbooks is the key link to realize ideological-political education in College Public English courses.

The International Virtual Exchange Project (IVEProject) has been connecting students across multiple countries through asynchronous forums on a large scale since 2015. However, considering the variety of virtual exchange methods and the advantages they bring to the field of foreign language learning, there is an increased need to explore the pedagogical possibilities of combining asynchronous and synchronous modalities, particularly across multiple institutions and countries. This short article reports on a pedagogical innovation which involved adding synchronous sessions conducted over Zoom to the asynchronous IVEProject forums. The authors arranged eight weekly Zoom meetings in which students from China, India, Japan, Jordan, Palestine, Türkiye and Syria participated in May-July, 2021. After the final session, a survey was administered to participating students and their teachers to explore their experiences. The results show that the majority of students appreciated and benefitted from the opportunity to communicate synchronously with peers from other countries. The paper also reflects on the benefits and challenges of combining synchronous sessions alongside the asynchronous IVEProject forums, aiming to derive lessons learned from this project in the hope that this will aid future EFL instructors in creating engaging virtual exchange projects which involve participants from multiple cultures and countries.

The growth of Sino-foreign cooperative universities, departments and courses in China necessitates further discussion of how to develop teaching approaches that suit students attending these institutions. Despite substantial analysis of the commercial dimensions of Sino-foreign university partnerships, discussion of effective teaching strategies within these settings remains underdeveloped. This paper shares the author's experience of developing and delivering a Western civilization course to 210 students attending a Sino-foreign undergraduate program at a Chinese university over the course of one academic year. Specific attention is paid to how digital tools can be used to address the challenges of unfamiliar teaching styles, limited language comprehension, and the lack of prior exposure to course content. Student feedback and anecdotal observations are drawn upon to underscore the potential utility of certain digital course aids deployed in the classroom and lecture hall, as well as being accessible to students through an online platform.

This paper presents a critical evaluation of the English Test for International Communication (ETIC), a large-scale, computer-based, and criterion-referenced English language proficiency test developed by the China Language Assessment in 2016. The ETIC test battery comprises five categories: Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, Superior, and Translation, with the goal of assessing test-takers' oral and written communicative language abilities in workplace contexts. Given that a revised version of ETIC with many structural changes has been in use since 2021, and the recent growth of interest in assessing communicative language abilities, a critical review of ETIC is warranted. Drawing on Kunnan's (2018) recent model of test fairness and justice, this review primarily evaluates the usefulness and fairness of ETIC Basic, ETIC Intermediate, and ETIC Advanced. Appraisals reveal that ETIC encompasses the philosophy of fairness, justice, and usefulness in the development, administration, and scoring procedures. There is, however, room for improvement in various areas, such as establishing a test inquiry and appeal service and keeping the channels of communication open. As reviewers, we hope this article will assist language testing researchers and practitioners, teachers and students, or even potential test-takers in better understanding the unique ETIC assessment scene in China and spark more discussions about communicative language testing worldwide.

Over the decades, extensive research efforts have been directed towards classifying and evaluating motivational teaching behaviours. Recent calls in motivational research, however, have emphasised the need to investigate teachers' perspectives on how they develop effective motivational strategies so that implications for motivational teaching are firmly grounded in real-life practices. This paper reports on a qualitative case study which explored how two IELTS teachers in a private language school in China selected and enacted motivational strategies that they perceived as context-appropriate. Background interviews, classroom observations, and post-lesson stimulated recall interviews were used to gain insight into the participants' motivational practices and rationales. The findings indicate that, despite the close correspondence between the teachers' enacted practices and theory-based motivational strategies defined by researchers, the teachers exhibited agentic capacities in managing a range internal and external mediators which enabled them to develop strategies that served concurrent pedagogical purposes and responded to the perceived multidimensional particularities and exigencies of their teaching contexts. Thus, The study moves beyond restricted analyses of the motivational implications of teaching techniques; rather, it argues for the need to appreciate the full complexity of teaching practices and re-conceptualise motivational strategies as multipurpose and the study of them as pedagogically holistic.

Teacher cognition has been an important agenda of language teacher education in recent decades, and it has advanced the field's understanding of L2 teachers' work. Thus far, language teacher cognition has been understood from different epistemological perspectives and researched with different methodological approaches. Given that teacher cognition is social and situational, more research is needed from an emic perspective to understand how teachers develop and renew their cognitions in their professional context. This paper adopts a discursive psychological perspective on teacher cognition, investigating novice teacher cognition using applied conversation analysis. As part of a more extensive study, the study offers an in-depth analysis of novice Chinese EFL teachers' thinking, knowing, understanding, conceptualising, and stance-taking regarding language teaching. The teachers were recruited through a combination of convenience and snowball sampling strategies. The dataset includes 330 minutes of classroom teaching, 217 minutes of interviews, and 605 minutes of video-based guided reflection on teaching. The data revealed the key theme in teachers' understanding of 1) focusing on linguistic knowledge, 2) establishing teacher authority, and 3) developing practical pedagogical knowledge. The findings reveal teachers' moment-by-moment cognition-in-interaction and multiple roles in facilitating learning. Substantial implications are put forward for teacher learning and teacher education.

Drawing from a larger CIPP program evaluation ("Context, Input, Processes, Products") comprised of 11 analyses of the ETS online teacher training course titled "Teaching Academic English with the TOEFL iBT® Test" (TAE), this paper triangulates three qualitatively different data sets and seeks to understand how participants responded to the TAE course. The research team considered self-reported data (closed- and open-answer survey questions), engagement data, and learning data. The self-reported data were strongly positive and illustrated the value participants reported having about the course content, especially ETS-created materials. Some gaps were indicated: calls were made for more materials--especially additional resources participants could use when teaching--and for increased interactions during the course workshop. In partial juxtaposition, the engagement data indicated that participants were engaging the course less than anticipated. The learning data simultaneously indicated that some assessments were quite easy for participants while elsewhere participants did not have the desired uptake of some topics. Viewing the three data sets together, the research team arrived at a more nuanced conclusion: despite participant satisfaction, development processes should continue, to ensure the highest quality teacher training program possible, in terms of its content, resources, and interactions.

Source-based writing research has received much attention in recent years, which generally shows that both novice and expert EFL (English as a foreign language) writers have difficulties in writing from sources. As many Chinese institutes of higher education attach increasingly more importance to publications in international journals, citation and plagiarism become critical issues for both student and teacher researchers as well as the institutes. Nevertheless, not much research can be found on the issues with Chinese students, especially undergraduate students. The present study thus investigated Chinese undergraduate EFL learners' perceptions of plagiarism and use of citations in their course papers. A total of 141 students from a highly prestigious university answered an open-ended questionnaire and 97 of them submitted course papers. Major findings were: (1) the students had a (fairly) good knowledge of plagiarism and identified various reasons for plagiarism in academic writing, (2) they used summary the most often when citing from sources, followed by paraphrase and quotation, and (3) they mainly used single-source citations to primarily support their own ideas, position an author's opinions and/or findings, and acknowledge the author's ideas. These findings reveal a general overview of students' perceptions of plagiarism and use of citations in their course papers, thus providing implications for formal classroom instruction of writing from sources.

This paper is part of the researcher's Ph.D. thesis to deploy and develop the potential of genre-based pedagogy of systemic functional linguistics to support business-major English language learners' development of persuasive strategies in the written discourse of online advertisement. Given the "value" of netvertisement in motivating consumption, it is vital for non-native English speakers preparing to participate in international e-commerce to take control of the current genre. The research question is how a genre-based writing class can promote students' persuasive netvertisement with appropriate vocabulary, text organization, and strategies of engagement, graduation, and manipulation of information packaging. This paper describes an instructional intervention in Chinese vocational college using genre-based Curriculum Cycle to involve 51 student participants--coming from two classes--in the learning and teaching of persuasive netvertisement. Results identified the significant improvement between pre-and post-tutorial with Wilcoxon Test. Meanwhile, textual analysis of the two randomly selected writings supported the effectiveness of the intervention in terms of the reduced listing of phrases, expanded vocabulary to describe a broader range of products, and improved use of persuasive strategies of engagement (e.g., questioning), graduation (e.g., the metaphorical scenario in image design), and manipulation (e.g., use of subtitling, varied thematic structures). The findings indicate the potential of a genre-based approach in promoting college students' persuasive practices in netvertisement writing.

Theory-practice gap has been a long-standing challenge in teacher education, however, there has been scarce attention to student teachers' theory learning experiences. This ethnographic study aimed to examine Chinese EFL (English as a foreign language) M.E.d. student teachers' perceptions of the value of theory and their experiences of theory learning on the Master of Education programme. Four triangulated sources of data were employed, including student teachers' portfolios of written responses to academic papers and reflections on their two-stage school experiences, longitudinal participant observations, course evaluations, and focus groups. It was found that the student teachers held paradoxical perceptions about theory learning. They endorsed the importance of theories, but resisted the mainstream theory learning methods which heavily relied on de-contextualised lecturing by teacher educators. To enhance student teachers' theory learning experiences requires teacher educators' overall instructional transformations, increased opportunities for reflective learning-to-teach experiences, and student teachers' attitudinal change and sustained efforts.

Within the spirit of conspiration, this article brings together contributions from participants of the PhD-led UCL Reading and React Group 'Colonialism(s), Neoliberalism(s) and Language Teaching and Learning', which ran in 2019/20. Weaving together various perspectives, the article centres on the dialogic nature of the decolonial enterprise and challenges the colonial concept of monologic authorial voice. Across the reflections on participants' own engagements with questions of decolonising language teaching and learning, we pull together three threads: the inherent coloniality of the concepts that shape the very disciplines we seek to decolonise; the need to place decolonial efforts within broader contexts and to be sceptical of projects claiming to have completed the work of decolonising language teaching and learning; and the affordances and limitations offered to us by our positionalities, which the reflexivity of the conspirational encounter has allowed us to explore in some depth. The article closes with a reflection on the process of writing this article, and with the assertion that decolonising the curriculum is a multifaceted and open-ended process of dialogue and conspiration between practitioners and researchers alike.

Peer response has gradually gained popularity in teaching English writing to English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in recently years. A number of researches have proved its advantages while Chinese English teachers are still doubting its validity and possibility. This paper aims to prove that incorporating peer response and teacher feedback is advantageous to EFL learners' English writing. It would start with the explanation of some key terms and then first examine the benefits of peer response to verify the necessity of introducing it to an English writing class for EFL learners. Then drawbacks of teacher feedback would be argued with the certification that it is corresponding to some advantages of peer response. Finally, the contribution of using peer response and teacher feedback together would be discussed to further attest the argument mentioned above. At the end of the paper, a conclusion will be made to generally summarize what has been discussed and how this relates to being a language professional. Hopefully, it could be informative and constructive for Chinese English teachers to take a closer step into the theoretical base of this teaching strategy which has been established by former researchers and seek for the possibility of its implementation in the real-setting classroom in EFL context.

Most people want to be able to read their reading materials quicker and remember them effectively. Covering a large quantity of reading materials at a normal speed requires much more time than is usually available. Good readers, however, can cover a lot of materials by identifying key elements of a sentence for key idea with the help of connectives when skimming. Constructivism theory emphasizes that students need to actively construct the meaning of their knowledge they have learned, and actively explore and discover knowledge. Syntax is the core of the whole language system with syntactic structure occupying a macroscopic and important position in improving students' language ability and language level in a real sense. This paper introduces and analyzes how to identify key elements of a sentence for key idea with the help of connectives under constructivism so as to find a practical and feasible reading strategy when skimming. It is advised that readers glance at secondary sentences by reading the connectives as they are helpful in getting possible additional information while successfully identifying key elements of a sentence for key idea. The method fundamentally helps students improve their reading speed and develop their skimming understanding ability. The research methods of this paper are the ones of experience, literature review, theoretical basis, the main language order and keen analysis. This paper concludes by understanding the method of identifying key elements of a sentence for key idea with the help of connectives in skimming practice when reading under constructivism theory and its role is to guide readers to apply the knowledge of subject-predicate-object grammatical rule as the main language order in the skimming practice to help readers to get the general meaning of a sentence, paragraph, passage and a text.

This paper examines the enactment of critical literacy pedagogy in secondary English language teaching in the face of globalisation. This qualitative case study signals that global citizenship education (GCE) and English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching can converge through offering equitable and globally contextualised learning opportunities. The overarching themes presented here challenge the dominance of instrumentalist orientations of EFL education in mainland China today while mobilising pedagogical choices that affirm students' local and lived experiences in relation to international socio-political issues. Findings provide EFL educators nuanced insights into how critical global literacies are extended through critical understandings of literacies, interconnections from a personal to a global level, and opportunities for social actions on multicultural issues, thus fostering globally competent and bilingual learners who critically engage with the contested terrain of an increasingly globalised world.

Corporate mission, a core part of corporate culture, plays an important role in the development and competition of companies. The study of mission statements is beneficial to both companies and stakeholders. This paper explores corporate mission from the perspective of linguistics on the basis of speech act theory and adaptation theory and reveals that assertives account for a large proportion with a small proportion of commissives and zero proportion of directives, expressives and declarations. Some skills can be used to polish the language of mission statements, like pun, personification and parallel structures. And some high frequency words are summarized. Several characteristics and writing skills are summarized about mission statements. The criteria of judging whether the mission statements are good or not are given in this paper.

Background Studies: Captioning and repetition are widely used multimedia instructional devices for non-native students. Generally, studies in this area have tended to focus on second language literacy skills rather than on learning new content knowledge. Additionally, posttests were administered immediately after the treatments, while the delayed influences of captioning and repetition have never been investigated. Objectives: This paper addressed these research gaps in two separate studies. More specifically, this study attempted to examine the influences of captioning and repetition on non-native students' immediate and relayed retention. Methods: In Study One, three captioning conditions; word-by-word captions, closed captions, and no-captions; were compared to examine their efficacies in immediate and delayed content knowledge retention on 82 Chinese university students. To address the limitations in Study One as the multimedia lesson was short and played only once, Study Two incorporated captioning and two repetition types in its design. One hundred and eleven Chinese university students watch a video lesson in one of four captioning and repetition conditions. Results: The statistical analyses of Study One indicated that there were no significant differences in both immediate and delayed retention test scores across the three captioning condition. Similarly, in Study Two, there were no significant differences in retention tests scores across the four captioning and repetition conditions. Findings: Neither the availability of captions nor the repetition types had any impact on the Chinese students' immediate or delayed content knowledge retention, which lent support to existing studies. Based on the research results, the limitations and future study possibilities are discussed.

China released two new policies in 2021, the 'double reduction' and a Gaokao (National College Entrance Examination) regulation, which have significantly impacted English learning and Languages other than English (LOTEs) learning respectively. This has intensified the existing dispute over 'English fever' and made people question whether the 'winter' of English education in China has come. In this article, findings from a multiple-case study exploring teachers' and students' opinions on the value of English learning in Chinese higher education are discussed under the circumstances of such new policies. This study employs the Bourdieusian approach and involves English major, non-English major learners as well as their teachers in Yunnan and Shanghai, two socio-economically different areas, to see diversity. The participants reported a cooling down of the 'English fever' in the universities and the wider society, yet an increasing demand for a higher level of English proficiency in particular industries or disciplines. The findings also demonstrate the tension between the standardised national curriculum and regionally different language needs along with the influence of an incoherent national curricula for different educational stages regarding foreign language education. This paper concludes with suggestions to modify the curriculum and teaching practices for multilingual and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) education in China as well as other English as a Foreign Language contexts.