Showing papers in "Language Teaching Research in 2020"
TL;DR: The authors argue that greater attention should be paid to the design, enactment, and consequences of language teachers' training and education. But, given emerging trends in where, why, how, and to what end English language teachers are being prepared,
Abstract: Given emerging trends in where, why, how, and to what end English language teachers are being prepared, we argue that greater attention to the design, enactment, and consequences of language teache...
112 citations
TL;DR: Grit has been defined as a combination of perseverance and passion for long-term goals as mentioned in this paper, which has been found to be an important predictor of success in various aspects of life.
Abstract: As a personality trait, ‘grit’ has been defined as a combination of perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Past research in social psychology has found grit as an important predictor of succ...
106 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined the role of growth mindset, selfefficacy, and intrinsic value in self-regulated learning and English language learning achievements in Hong Kong primary school students, and found that self-efficacy and self-esteem were important factors for success.
Abstract: This study examined the role of growth mindset, self-efficacy, and intrinsic value in self-regulated learning (SRL) and English language learning achievements in Hong Kong primary school students
77 citations
TL;DR: This article investigated the short-term and delayed effects of comprehensive written corrective feedback (WCF) on L2 learners' revision accuracy and new pieces of writing (i.e., the transfer effect...
Abstract: This study investigated the short-term and delayed effects of comprehensive written corrective feedback (WCF) on L2 learners’ revision accuracy and new pieces of writing (i.e., the transfer effect ...
70 citations
TL;DR: This paper investigated the practices of five EMI teachers in a Chinese university and measured the reactions of their students both quantitatively and qualitatively, and found that these teachers switched to the L1 rarely and mostly to explain both simple and complex concepts in their academic disciplines.
Abstract: Although there is a wealth of research on the use of the first language (L1) in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms, there is as yet very little research of this kind in classrooms where the prime pedagogical objective is to teach academic content through English as a second language (English medium instruction; EMI). It is important to begin filling this gap because a purported aim of content-based programs is to expose students to large quantities of the target language. We investigated the practices of five EMI teachers in a Chinese university and measured the reactions of their students both quantitatively and qualitatively. Our findings show that these teachers switched to the L1 rarely (although with considerable differences among the teachers) and mostly to explain both simple and complex concepts in their academic disciplines. Although students were unperturbed by the switches to the L1, some felt that the teacher could have made more of an effort to explain it in L2 first.
55 citations
TL;DR: The teaching profession has been characterized as having high levels of stress and record rates of burnout and attrition as mentioned in this paper, and language teaching is no exception to this global trend. Indeed, it could be...
Abstract: The teaching profession has been characterized as having high levels of stress and record rates of burnout and attrition. Language teaching is no exception to this global trend. Indeed, it could be...
48 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined the relationship between Japanese undergraduate students' English language proficiency and English language-related challenges faced when studying an international business co-training course and found that Japanese students were more likely to encounter English language related challenges when studying in international business environments.
Abstract: This article examines the relationship between Japanese undergraduate students’ English language proficiency and English language-related challenges faced when studying an international business co...
47 citations
TL;DR: Although boredom can be regarded as a ubiquitous emotion in most educational settings, including foreign and second language classrooms, and this condition can have a detrimental effect on the performance of the students as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Although boredom can be regarded as a ubiquitous emotion in most educational settings, including foreign and second language classrooms, and this condition can have a detrimental effect on the proc...
45 citations
TL;DR: The authors investigated the relationship between L2 vocabulary knowledge (VK) and reading/listening comprehension, and found that L2 vocabularies were correlated with reading comprehension. But they did not investigate the relationship among L2 reading and listening comprehension.
Abstract: This study set out to investigate the relationship between L2 vocabulary knowledge (VK) and second-language (L2) reading/listening comprehension. More than 100 individual studies were included in t...
44 citations
TL;DR: Despite empirical evidence in support of the effectiveness of using tasks in young learners' classrooms, task implementation has been repeatedly reported as a thorny problem as mentioned in this paper, and task implementation is an essential but under-appreciated problem.
Abstract: Despite empirical evidence in support of the effectiveness of using tasks in young learners’ classrooms, task implementation has been repeatedly reported as a thorny problem. An essential but under...
44 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that the current predominant focus on the nature of school language gives the impression that school language alone can express complex ideas or use complex grammar, leaving little conceptual space for leveraging children's home language varieties.
Abstract: The author situates language education policy and scholarship on Academic English within the broader historical context of standard language ideology, the view that the language variety of socio-economic elites is intrinsically more complex than other varieties. It is argued that the current predominant focus on the nature of school language gives the impression that school language alone can express complex ideas or use complex grammar, leaving little conceptual space for leveraging children’s home language varieties. The author calls for a return to historical commitments to an asset-based approach to school and home language differences in mainstream language education research.
TL;DR: This article investigated the extent to which receptive vocabulary size test scores can predict second language (L2) speaking ability of international students with an advanced level of English as a Second Language course.
Abstract: The current study investigates the extent to which receptive vocabulary size test scores can predict second language (L2) speaking ability. Forty-six international students with an advanced level o...
TL;DR: English language teachers who work with children in schools need knowledge about how English works to construct and present knowledge as discussed by the authors, and three aspects of that knowledge are discussed in this article: under-understandability, under-knowledge, and over-knowledge.
Abstract: English language teachers who work with children in schools need knowledge about how English works to construct and present knowledge. This article discusses three aspects of that knowledge: unders...
TL;DR: The authors argue that a knowledge-base evolves in two ways: through changes in the field of knowledge, and through changes driven by the work that knowledge supports, and suggest three concepts: teacher language use, participation and agency, and professional confidence as a measure of outcome.
Abstract: This article examines how the concept of a knowledge-base in language teacher education has changed since the 1998 proposal. Arguing that a knowledge-base evolves in two ways: through changes in the field of knowledge, and through changes driven by the work that knowledge supports, I describe two problems: ‘translating’ theory into practice and the ‘positionality’ of those defining what counts as knowledge. The 1998 proposal outlined a work-driven framework in response to the former without fully acknowledging the latter: who is doing English language teaching, with whom, and to what ends. Revising the knowledge-base now depends on taking that positionality into account. With this in mind, I suggest three concepts – of teacher language use (English-for-Teaching), participation and agency, and professional confidence as a measure of outcome – as work-driven alternatives to our present thinking.
TL;DR: This article investigated Vietnamese EFL teachers' beliefs and practices regarding oral corrective feedback, exploring and seeking to explain some of the relationships between beliefs and classroom practices, and found that the relationship between belief and classroom p
Abstract: This study investigates Vietnamese EFL teachers’ beliefs and practices regarding oral corrective feedback, exploring and seeking to explain some of the relationships between beliefs and classroom p
TL;DR: InspInspired by the recognition of teachers and teacher learning in the knowledge base and the calls for greater attention to the pedagogies and development of teacher educators, in this brief essay as discussed by the authors,
Abstract: Inspired by the recognition of teachers and teacher learning in the knowledge base and the calls for greater attention to the pedagogies and development of teacher educators, in this brief essay we...
TL;DR: This article investigated the effect of the linguistic complexity of the input text on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' alignment, writing fluency, and writing accuracy in the continuation task.
Abstract: Previous studies demonstrated that the continuation task has great language learning potential and that various task-related factors may affect the extent to which the potential can be exploited (e.g. Wang & Wang, 2015). This study investigates the effect of one understudied factor, the linguistic complexity of the input text, on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ alignment, writing fluency, and writing accuracy in the continuation task. Two comparable groups of Chinese undergraduate EFL learners read and continued a simplified and unsimplified version of the same incomplete story whose linguistic complexity matched and exceeded their production ability, respectively. Compared to the unsimplified version, the simplified version resulted in more automatic alignment and greater improvement in writing fluency and accuracy. The implications of these findings for writing pedagogy are discussed.
TL;DR: In this paper, negative responses to classroom practice of a generally chronic nature are defined as a situated response to the activity's demands, and disaffection is defined as the negative face of engagement.
Abstract: Demotivation (Dornyei & Ushioda, 2011) and non-participation (Norton, 2001) characterize negative responses to classroom practice of a generally chronic nature In this article, focus is directed to negativity that emerges within the context of a particular language developing activity, and which can be understood as a situated response to the activity’s demands In conceptualizing negative responses at the activity level, disaffection – the negative face of engagement – is a construct of central importance Drawing on data from a large-scale ethnographic project in secondary English classrooms in Sweden, in this exploratory case study disaffection (Skinner, 2016) is examined in the context of two language developing activities Analyses reveal that disaffection can transform into active engagement, and that when called upon to perform an inauthentic identity, students can ‘redesign’ activities in ways that enable them to act authentically
TL;DR: The authors argue that language learning happens across many sites of social interactions; those scarred by injustices, conflicts and structural violence as well as those characterized by conviviality of human encounters and acts of welcoming the stranger.
Abstract: Language learning happens across many sites of social interactions; those scarred by injustices, conflicts and structural violence as well as those characterized by conviviality of human encounters and acts of welcoming the stranger. This article outlines new directions for language teacher education in this age of ambiguity. I propose that its core task should involve educating ‘responsive meaning makers in the world’, that is, teachers who are critically conscious of the politics of their social worlds while, at the same time, committed to growing their capacity to respond to the particular moment of an educational encounter. I suggest that creative arts may play a crucial part in preparing language teachers for such re-envisioned roles.
TL;DR: This paper investigated the relationship between pre-service English-as-a-second-language (ESL) teachers' pedagogical beliefs and their actual teaching practices and found that teachers' beliefs were correlated with their actual learning practices.
Abstract: This study investigated the relationship between pre-service English-as-a-second-language (ESL) teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and their actual teaching practices. To determine the nature of this re...
TL;DR: The regulation of language learners' emotions by affective, or emotion-regulation strategies has received limited research attention as mentioned in this paper, and this gap is being filled among others by researchers who have d
Abstract: The regulation of language learners’ emotions by affective, or emotion-regulation strategies has received limited research attention This gap is being filled among others by researchers who have d
TL;DR: The authors define context to explain their particular research/teaching issues, but definitions of context vary widely and the direct impact of the context is often unexplored and often unexpla....
Abstract: Researchers and teachers often invoke context to explain their particular research/teaching issues. However, definitions of context vary widely and the direct impact of the context is often unexpla...
TL;DR: This article explored a teacher educator's perceptions and practice of translanguaging in his education classrooms as a teacher of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) teacher, adopting a qualitat...
Abstract: This study aims to explore a teacher educator’s perceptions and practice of translanguaging in his education classrooms as a teacher of English as a medium of instruction (EMI). Adopting a qualitat...
TL;DR: The authors compared four well-established word lists available for teachers to choose from, teachers and students need to know which list provides the best return for learning, and four well established lists were compared and compared.
Abstract: With a number of word lists available for teachers to choose from, teachers and students need to know which list provides the best return for learning? Four well-established lists were compared and...
TL;DR: Flipped learning has become a popular approach in various educational fields, including second language teaching as mentioned in this paper, where the conventional educational process is reversed so that learners learn to adapt to a flipped learning paradigm.
Abstract: Flipped learning has become a popular approach in various educational fields, including second language teaching. In this approach, the conventional educational process is reversed so that learners...
TL;DR: This paper focused on understanding language teachers' lived experiences of their stressors and positive uplifts from a holistic perspective covering their professional lives in school, their personal lives, and their perso...
Abstract: This study focuses on understanding language teachers’ lived experiences of their stressors and positive uplifts from a holistic perspective covering their professional lives in school, their perso...
TL;DR: In this article, the optimal learning schedule for second language vocabulary within an authentic classroom setting in Hong Kong was examined, and the results indicated superior learning of the items presented under the spaced-short format, suggesting that lag effects might be attenuated by age, learning context and teaching procedure.
Abstract: This study examined the optimal learning schedule for second language vocabulary within an authentic classroom setting in Hong Kong. Following a pretest, treatment, delayed posttest design, fifty-two primary school students (Cantonese first language) studied 20 English adjectives over two learning episodes under spaced-short (1-day interval) or spaced-long (8-day interval) learning conditions. The spacing of the vocabulary items was manipulated within-participants, and learning was assessed on a multiple-choice posttest, administered following a four-week delay. In contrast to previous laboratory-based findings, the results here indicated superior learning of the items presented under the spaced-short format, suggesting that lag effects might be attenuated by age, learning context and teaching procedure.
TL;DR: In this article, the attitudes toward English lessons and the motivation for learning English as a foreign language (EFL) of 276 Danish EFL learners were investigated in a quantitative survey.
Abstract: This study has investigated, in a quantitative survey, how the attitudes toward English lessons and the motivation for learning English as a foreign language (EFL) of 276 Danish EFL learners (start...
TL;DR: In this article, the effective features of scaffolding in classes using content language integrated with teacher scaffolding are investigated. But little is known about the effective feature of scaffolds in classes.
Abstract: Teacher scaffolding plays a crucial role in shaping the quality of classroom learning, yet little is known about the effective features of scaffolding in classes using content language integrated l...
TL;DR: This paper explored the complexities of teacher identity formation for two Chinese teachers of English in China, who represent two growing groups of English teachers: Alice, who worked in a private school, and Bob, who represented two different groups of teachers.
Abstract: This study explores the complexities of teacher identity formation for two Chinese teachers of English in China, who represent two growing groups of English teachers: Alice, who worked in a private...