This article examines the use of the repertory grid technique as a method to investigate learner perceptions in language education research. An important issue raised in this article concerns how far a researcher's agenda may be unintentionally imposed onto a research study which is investigating learners' perceptions, and how far the ensuing data…

The COVID-19 pandemic creates physical barriers and raises issues about online learning and course design. These must be overcome in order to continue teaching three English language support papers in a transnational education programme. This autoethnography explores online communication strategies and their effect on students' learning…

This article examines how the concept of a knowledge-base in language teacher education has changed since the 1998 proposal. Arguing that a knowledge-base evolves in two ways: through changes in the field of knowledge, and through changes driven by the work that knowledge supports, I describe two problems: 'translating' theory into practice and…

The author situates language education policy and scholarship on Academic English within the broader historical context of standard language ideology, the view that the language variety of socio-economic elites is intrinsically more complex than other varieties. It is argued that the current predominant focus on the nature of school language gives…

This article offers a methodological synthesis spanning 35 years of instructed second language acquisition research on the efficacy of form-focused instruction. Eighty-eight (quasi-) experimental studies were sampled from six academic journals: "Applied Linguistics," "Language Learning," "Language Teaching Research,"…

Given emerging trends in where, why, how, and to what end English language teachers are being prepared, we argue that greater attention to the design, enactment, and consequences of language teacher education (LTE) pedagogy is critical in order to meet the needs of current and future English language teachers in an increasingly diverse, mobile,…

With a focus on Australian Aboriginal students, in this article we argue that translanguaging provides a useful resource for multilingual learners. We point out that although translanguaging is a relatively recent term, in Indigenous Australia is has been used consistently throughout the ages as people from different languages communicated with…

Situated in the Vietnamese context, this article argues that rather than sideline knowledge of learners in favour of subject matter knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge as the basis of the knowledge base of LTE, prominence should be given to knowledge of learners if teachers' competence to teach responsively is desired.

This article focuses on reframing the 'who' of second language teacher education (SLTE), building on the framework laid out by Freeman and Johnson (FJ) in 1998 with particular attention to their notion of the teacher-as-learner. The first half of this article is conceptual, outlining one way I have found helpful for engaging with this notion since…

Developing pragmatic competence implies the learning of the norms and principles that affect the behavior of participants in a culture (i.e. sociopragmatics) and the ability to choose the language to realize those norms (i.e. pragmalinguistics). Learning to be pragmatically appropriate in the second language (L2) is not easy, and although it is…

Instructed second language acquisition (ISLA) research has recently attracted more focal attention due to the publications of three books and as the theme of the 2016 Second Language Research Forum (SLRF) conference that celebrated its 35th anniversary in the field of second language acquisition (SLA). Recent definitions (e.g. Loewen, 2015) have…

Major advances have been made in research on language learning strategies (LLS) since it was triggered by good language learner studies (e.g. Rubin, 1975). Numerous accounts of strategy use have been compiled, key classifications have been proposed, some progress has been made towards furthering our understanding of the complex relationship…

Task-based language teaching (TBLT) and task-supported language teaching (TSLT) are often seen as incompatible as they draw on different theories of language learning and language teaching. The position adopted in this article, however, is that both approaches are needed especially in instructional contexts where 'pure' task-based teaching may be…

Research has shown that tasks provide second language (L2) learners with many opportunities to learn the L2. Task repetition has been claimed to benefit L2 learning since familiarity with procedure and/or content gives learners the chance to focus on more specific aspects of language. Most research on task repetition has focused on adult…

The present article argues for a conceptual distinction between corrective feedback and mediation that emphasizes the status of the latter not as an instructional practice but as a defining feature of human psychology (Vygotsky, 1987) that has direct implications for how instruction might be approached. Specifically, Sociocultural Theory (SCT)…