This paper presents the findings of a survey on research activities and research cultures across the CercleS network. The survey was conducted under the auspices of the CercleS Focus Group on Leadership and Management and aimed to explore the scope of research in Language Centres; the links between institutional factors such as staff contracts and…

EFL teachers' professional development in Colombia has been characterized by top-down policies that neglect the regions in terms of contextualized professional development programs and resources. This article is an effort to make EFL teachers' needs in the Eastern region of Antioquia, Colombia, visible for academic institutions and local…

English as a lingua franca (ELF) represents a substantial paradigm shift in ELT because it challenges the traditional norm of standard English. Despite this changing trend, there is a gap in research on incorporating ELF into in-service teachers' professional development (PD). Given the backdrop that (trans)disciplinary courses are expected to be…

This case study explored 18 Taiwanese novice elementary school English teachers' practice of critical friendship models as an avenue for professional development. Based on the thematic analysis of the interviews, documents, and observation, the following major conclusions were drawn. Participants spent most of their time with critical friends in…

As English is today's lingua franca, ESP is a flourishing domain of English language teaching and learning for learners seeking to enhance their professional or academic performance in a specific target situation. This review aims to classify research tendencies in the MENA region through topical themes explored in two major journals of ESP,…

This mixed methods designed-based research (DBR) study explored one iteration of an online teacher professional development (oTPD) course about K-8 English language pedagogy. The study examined 85 educators' beliefs pre- and post-course about teaching academic and literacy content to English Language Learners (ELLs) and analyzed their discursive…

This paper reports on a qualitative study of 13 bilingual paraprofessionals at a university in the USA enrolled in a second language acquisition class that was part of a professional development programme. Drawing on socio-cultural theory, the study focused on documenting how the paraprofessionals negotiated the academic demands of a hybrid online…

Reflective practice has long been considered an important part of professional development for educators; however, accounts of utilizing reflective practice with groups of experienced teachers remain scarce. We consider reflective practice to be an important means of fostering professional discourse among experienced teachers regarding their…

Mid-career teachers are often described as experienced and comfortable in their jobs with higher motivation and self-efficacy (Hargreaves 2005); yet, at the same time, the mid-career phase has also been portrayed as a period marked by a career plateau and feelings of stagnation (Farrell 2014). Despite the criticality of this career phase and the…

The teaching of English for Special Purposes (ESP) has become the mainstream of English teaching in Chinese universities. This article, from a perspective of Educational Ecology, explored ESP lecturers' professional development in Chinese universities. Semi-structured interviews were conducted on 13 ESP lecturers who were in the interim of…

This qualitative study focuses on the professional development aspects of adult educators who teach languages to older learners by using one-to-one counselling. Open-ended questionnaires were used to explore participating adult educators' reflective practice during and after the professional development programme. We used a grounded theory…

This paper outlines how digital technologies support innovation in teaching and learning the English language across Palestinian Higher Education Institutes. A European project collaborated to build staff capacity in knowledge and skills, shown here through the redesign of curricula, pedagogical training, the design and implementation of…

We report on research conducted during a language assessment literacy (LAL) project set up for employees at a university language centre. Teachers, students and an external accreditation body requested a revision of the end-of-course exams to increase comparability, transparency and alignment to course aims. We used a collaborative approach where…

This study sought to understand how teachers of Maltese as a foreign language (MFL) develop intercultural capabilities by exploring the importance of intercultural competence (IC) to MFL teachers, the characteristics of interculturally competent MFL educators, and the ways in which educators develop IC. The study adopted the interpretivist…

The escalating incorporation of digital pedagogical technology in higher education, particularly in the post-pandemic period, posits a potential evolution in the paradigm of language instruction and assessment. The focal point of this research is to uncover the digitally-mediated language assessment practices (D-LAP) employed by Thai EFL lecturers…