The present study investigates the emotional experiences of seven student teachers through the process of lesson study in a pre-service language teacher education course at a university in Macau. Drawing on data from semi-structured interviews, individual reflections, and observational notes, the study reveals a variety of emotions experienced by…

Mobile-assisted language learning is a growing feature of contemporary language learning, and their distinct gamification design produces new and increasingly popular contexts for language learning. This paper explores the gamification features of the two most popular EFL vocabulary learning applications widely used by Asian learners --…

Despite the difficulty of defining young adult literature (YAL), the benefits of it have been well recognised for adolescent learners. With the aim of exploring pedagogical approaches to L2 literature, this study reports on a YAL reading programme carried out in a secondary EFL classroom in China. To gain both teacher and student perspectives,…

While task-based language teaching (TBLT) is a teaching methodology favoured by the Chinese Ministry of Education, it has not been sufficiently researched to be validated empirically in practice in the EFL classroom. Few studies have investigated teachers' responses to TBLT in the Chinese college English context. This research contributes to…

The research on incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading has claimed that repeated encounters of unfamiliar words and the context in which these words occur facilitate word learning. However, so far both variables have been investigated in isolation. This study was conducted to explore the impact of context types, word occurrence…

When students of English deliver oral presentations at university on academic topics, there is often a dilemma as to whether to incorporate academic vocabulary into their monologues or not. Academic vocabulary can help students to present their ideas concisely and be a 'badge of identity' to the academic community. However, acquiring a productive…

The progression from receptive vocabulary knowledge to productive word use in language learning to date is unclear. Vocabulary size has been the primary focus of receptive and productive vocabulary research. The present study looks at the internal structure of vocabulary knowledge along the receptive and productive continuum within a multi-aspect…

The present study aims to investigate the effects of gloss use, L2-gloss frequency and learner proficiency on incidental L2 lexical acquisition. A total of 163 university students in China were assigned to one of the three reading conditions: no gloss (NG), higher frequency L2 gloss (HFLG) and lower frequency L2 gloss (LFLG). The participants read…