While English as a medium of instruction (EMI) is becoming a global phenomenon across higher education contexts, little attention has been paid to the instructional experiences of EMI teachers. Informed by a spatial perspective, this study explored how a cohort of Chinese university teachers navigated their EMI instructional settings. Different…

Although teachers have access to a great deal of scholarship on teaching academic vocabulary (AV), much less is known about the experiences and perceptions of English language learners regarding AV. To address this gap, we used an online metaphor elicitation survey and follow-up interviews to collect data from 432 undergraduates at a Hong Kong…

This paper reports a case study of teaching Cantonese to Hong Kong ethnic minority pre-schoolers using process drama. Based on Deleuzo-Guattarian concepts of minor literature and language, becoming and de-/re-territorialisation, this paper aims to reconceptualise a playful adaptation of process drama developed by Joe Winston (2012) as a…

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…

A considerable body of work now exists on the role that identity plays in understanding teachers and teaching. Developing and sustaining teacher identities in higher education can, however, be challenging given the subordinate positioning of teaching in some educational contexts. Despite the growth of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programmes…

Synchronous online language lessons (SOLLs) are distinctly different from in-person lessons. Although digital tools, specifically, videoconferencing software, make doing SOLLs possible, these tools have specific affordances and constraints pertaining to how we engage, interact, and relate -- creating new literacy practices. This study reports on a…

The development of corpus-based language pedagogy (CBLP) is a complex and intriguing process that pertains to how corpus technology is directly applied to classroom teaching. Using a case study approach, this study investigated how two experienced university English teachers integrated corpus technology in authentic classroom teaching. Data…

Working memory (WM) may be an essential component of incidental vocabulary learning and retention from captioned videos. However, how WM affects young learners' incidental vocabulary learning under different types of captions remains unclear. The present study employs a between-subject research design. The main purpose is to examine how two types…

Set against the backcloth of increasing recognition and attention to literature in foreign language education (FLE) globally, this article reports part of a large-scale study of 1,190 secondary-level learners' views of the benefits of literature, as instantiated by short stories (ShS) and poems and songs (PS) in their English-as-a-foreign-language…

This study investigated instruction in vocabulary consolidation strategies over eight months and vocabulary learning among a group of secondary students in Hong Kong. Two vocabulary tests and one vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) questionnaire survey were administered near the end of the school year. The data were analysed using t-tests and…

This research aims to investigate the effects of two teaching sequences -- interleaving and blocking -- on the participants' use of three types of cohesive devices (conjunctions, conjunctive adverbs and prepositions [thereafter CCPs]) in their argumentative essays. The participants included 50 native Cantonese-speaking university students taking…

For the past two decades, a significant number of ethnic minority students from diverse racial, cultural, linguistic, and religious backgrounds have entered Chinese language classrooms in Hong Kong for the first time. Simultaneously, Chinese language teachers have come under criticism for their lack of understanding of diversity and their failure…

Despite a plethora of studies on how to teach critical thinking (CT) in different subject classrooms, there is limited research on how teachers foster their CT and learn to teach CT through pre-service teacher education. Such a gap gives impetus to the present study, which seeks to examine to what extent and how a group of student teachers are…

Despite the increasing use of English as a medium of instruction (EMI), teachers who teach at EMI schools encounter significant challenges, such as difficulties in teaching content-subjects in English and students' limited understanding of content presented in English. To examine the extent of these challenges, six early-full and 14 late-partial…

This mixed methods study explores EFL students' experiences and perceptions as they learn to write a composition with ChatGPT's support in a classroom instructional context. Students' perceptions are explored in terms of their motivation to learn about ChatGPT, cognitive load and satisfaction with the learning process. In a workshop format,…