What do we see when we observe an excellent English lesson? What's going on in the room? Perhaps what stands out is a collaborative making of meanings inspired by stimulating texts. Perhaps what's most important is an ever-deepening knowledge about, and facility with, the many ways that language works. Maybe what we're seeing is a carefully…

The word "performance" is the basis for our medium. It's what we work toward, look forward to, and talk about with endless fervor. But does this word, this concept, this idea, actually stifle learning, artistic expression, and growth? As a director and professor of theatre for the past 13 years, I have watched this word become the knave…

Introductory sociolinguistics courses at university can be challenging, especially for students at the very beginning of their tertiary studies. Difficulties may arise due to students not having any prior exposure to the discipline's content or methodologies, which is likely to be a result of these aspects not generally being taught in high…

With the globalization of higher education, the tertiary institutions in Macao have adopted English as the main medium of instruction in order to strengthen their competitiveness, having attracted a large number of Mainland Chinese students. However, little has been known about their experiences and perceptions of English use in Macao, especially…

Translanguaging supports emergent bilingual students to draw on languages they bring to the classroom to learn, even as they develop English. This practice also supports schools to develop stronger partnerships with students' communities. Mina Hernandez Garcia, Mary J. Schleppegrell, Hasna Sobh, and Chauncey Monte-Sano report on a…

The Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) implemented a plan in 2019 to improve the mindset of at-risk students with the goal to increase their overall success. In developing their plan, BMCC's Enrollment Management team explored behavioral science research in order to gain a greater understanding of the sociological and emotional…

This paper reports a teaching intervention based on cognitive load theory designed to improve postgraduate business students' understanding of double-entry bookkeeping. In response to learning difficulties, a simplified scaffolded method of learning was introduced involving: simplifying accounting terminology drawing on familiar non-technical…

Educators tend to think about the problem of distraction in the classroom as a modern one. Educators might battle digital devices for students' attention, but literary and philosophical heritage testifies to a robust tradition of people who have lamented their inability to pay attention in contexts that demanded it, from work and school to…

This chapter identifies and presents a range of factors that impedes North Korean students' learning and social adaptation in the South Korean educational system. Such factors include differences in learning approaches, social experiences, behaviour, mindset, language use, among others. All of these lead to low acceptance by the host towards the…

Each of us have our own way of writing. We all put words together differently, use different syntax, different vocabulary, and express our thoughts differently. This is our writing footprint. It is important that we empower our student writers to develop and expand their own writing footprint. Our students come to us with their writing footprints…

Deficiency-oriented attitudes are still common occurrences despite growing emphasis on linguistic and cultural diversity. Promoting inclusivity in learning, Herrera (2016) proposed "biography-driven instruction" emphasizing the power of students' assets. Though her work was intended for young learners' biliteracy, I argue that the tenets…

Twenty-six learners of English enrolled in an MA course were asked to give the metaphors which they think best capture the essence of their learning experience so far. Their metaphors tell how English learning had introduced them to a brand new world and, once they were inside it, led them to a seemingly endless series of new discoveries. The…

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.…

Drawing on theoretical insights from a complex dynamic systems framework, this work explores the ways that learner selves, as they relate to learning and using languages, manifest across different contexts and timescales and emerge in interaction with various factors. First, a broad overview of dynamically-oriented L2 motivation research is…

Since 2012, I have been using home-made poetry to supplement my teaching of trust law. My experience illustrates how English -- in this case poetry -- can enhance teaching in other fields. Poetry can capture complex concepts in understandable and memorable ways, provide the human context behind abstract principles and increase authenticity in the…