This qualitative study sets out to understand the beliefs, functions, and practices of using L1 among EFL learners while they learned new L2 vocabulary. Forty-two Saudi male university students were randomly assigned to 21 pairs and asked to complete three reading comprehension tasks. All pair interactions were audio-recorded. Afterward,…

Purposeful and strategic use of L1 can help with L2 learning. However, in many contexts, monolingual immersion approaches dominate, leading language teachers to refrain from using L1. It can also mean that teachers are not professionally prepared to implement evidence-informed uses of L1. In this article, we share the findings of an intervention…

The increasing use of digital educational technologies in higher education (HE) means that the nature of communication may be shifting. Assessments of English for academic purposes (EAP) need to be reconceptualized accordingly to reflect the new and complex ways in which language is used in HE. With a view to inform EAP assessments, our study set…

English as a lingua franca (ELF) is a recent paradigm in ELT which acknowledges non-native varieties in their own right and NNSs as having their own unique characteristics rather than assessing them against an NS benchmark. Despite the changing needs of today's English language learners, there is little research on how to integrate ELF into…

The inherent coloniality of ELT, as both driver and product of Anglophone political power, poses particular challenges for ELT teachers and learners looking to engage with decolonizing agendas. With only scant evidence of these agendas translating into ELT practice, I explored decolonial options, counter-hegemonic actions, with my undergraduate…

In this article, we advocate for the enriching role of arts-based practices in the delivery of a translingual pedagogic approach. With a growing interest in translanguaging, ELT practitioners are searching for models and creative ideas that foster a translingual environment for their learners. We have responded to this call and developed a…

This study explores variation in willingness to communicate (WTC) in English between whole-class interaction and dyadic and group interaction, and teacher interaction strategies identified to sustain students' WTC in whole-class interaction that primarily followed the initiation-response-feedback (IRF) pattern. Data were collected from a regular…

Variation in the use of terminology in the field of ELT can make dialogue difficult, if not impossible, with significant implications for sharing knowledge, structuring language provision, and, ultimately, teaching practices. Furthermore, such variation has the potential to influence negatively the perceptions of stakeholders both within and…

The English as a lingua franca (ELF) and languaging research areas have challenged the norm that the goal of ELT is to teach a standardized language. This article reports on a course following the principles of ELF and languaging where the goal is to support students to use and grow their existing repertoire of resources to do things in English.…

With the development of language corpora, linguists have been able to identify how often specific words, phrases, and expressions are used, and in which contexts. However, applications of corpora in the wider domain of language teaching have remained limited. This article presents an approach to utilizing corpora, combining principles from…