This article presents the findings of a study measuring perceptions of teacher autonomy of practitioners of English as a foreign language (EFL). This study also sought to identify areas in which Indonesian secondary schools need to improve to enable teachers to enjoy a greater degree of freedom while completing teaching-related activities.…

Despite growing criticisms of native-speakerism in English Language Teaching (ELT), the 'native speaker' concept is still used in the recruitment of teachers (Mahboob & Golden, 2013; Ruecker & Ives, 2015). This study critically evaluates the impact of native-speakerism on ELT hiring practices in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). To identify…

With today's strong focus on communicative competence in second language (L2) classrooms, speech acts like suggestions, requests, refusals, and apologies are often investigated in interlanguage pragmatic (ILP) as well as instructional pragmatics. Even though there is strong evidence in ILP research that purports that L2 learners respond well to…

The teaching profession has been characterized as having high levels of stress and record rates of burnout and attrition. Language teaching is no exception to this global trend. Indeed, it could be argued that it is subject to additional specific stressors such as high intercultural and linguistic demands as well as the frequent use of…

Since the start of the twenty-first century, English has come to be seen by the Chinese government as a linchpin of its continued economic and political influence. Its resultant efforts to promote innovation in English language teaching align with the aspirations of a population, many of whom regard competency in English as a determiner of…

World language teachers have historically relied on the notion of teaching methods to inform elements of design and procedure in their instructional practice. Teacher beliefs about teaching methods, however, have been shown to be significantly influenced by their context, including their institution and their learners. This phenomenon has led some…

Peer assessment has been found to have many advantages in learning particularly when viewing it through a socio-cultural lens. This study explored peer assessment across language teacher education coursework, following 15 teacher candidates through three semesters of TEFL coursework. This longitudinal approach is rare with peer assessment…

As a topic of rising interest, language teacher motivation has been studied through various lenses and across different contexts over recent years. Yet, relatively scant attention has been paid to Chinese language teachers teaching overseas. Using Q methodology and supplementary interview data, this study investigated the motivational profiles of…

Studies on teachers' beliefs about vocabulary learning and teaching have focused, so far, on English as a second language (L2), or foreign language (FL), in different contexts but little attention has been given to other L2s and FLs. In this study, 15 Spanish L2 instructors at large universities were interviewed in order to better understand where…

Despite a voluminous literature addressing English language teaching, the explorations focused on knowledge-building are rather limited in number. This is particularly the case with China's tertiary English education. Unlike existing research, this study investigated Chinese college English teachers' knowledge-building about rhetorical figures by…

In this enquiry, I (the first author) as a teacher of English as a foreign language (EFL) reflect on my own deep-seated reluctance to use pair/group work activities in my classroom, although I am aware of the benefits of pair/group activities for second language (L2) learning as abundantly documented in empirical studies. Through an…

This study explores the complexities of teacher identity formation for two Chinese teachers of English in China, who represent two growing groups of English teachers: Alice, who worked in a private English training institution and John, who was a self-employed private English tutor. Drawing insights from Barcelos' (2015) theorization of the…

This study used questionnaires eliciting quantitative and qualitative data to investigate (1) foreign language learners' beliefs about peer feedback on pronunciation before and after a peer feedback intervention and (2) peer feedback providers', peer feedback receivers', and teacher feedback receivers' experiences of the intervention. Participants…

Research in language learning indicates that process drama (PD), an educational approach where students and teachers work in and out of role to explore themes and issues, can be well suited to the Japanese higher education (HE) context. Despite the benefits highlighted in the literature, PD remains a niche approach to language teaching and…

Teaching has always been an emotionally demanding profession, which involves tremendous emotional labour on the part of language teachers. This is particularly true for instructors of English as a foreign language (EFL) suddenly obliged to teach online during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on the approach of autoethnographic self-study, this…