Research on professional development (PD) in higher education settings is still scarce and little is known about how contextual factors influence PD of English as a foreign language (EFL) lecturers. Employing a transcendental phenomenological approach, this study seeks to extend research on this topic in order to understand how PD currently…

Context has been recognized to exert a significant influence on language policy and planning (e.g., Cross, 2009; Gorsuch, 2000; Köksal & Sahin, 2012) as well as on teachers' decisions in the field of English language teaching and assessment (e.g., Fulmer et al., 2015; Shulman & Shulman, 2004). However, research on the interface among…

Purpose: The growing body of knowledge on language teacher agency highlights the positive contributions of agency for teacher identity construction. However, teachers may face challenges in effectively exercising agency, and their agentive actions may be impeded by multiple contextual factors. The present study adopts a narrative inquiry…

Challenges of English for specific purposes (ESP) course development and instruction have still been reported in a number of studies. They could affect ESP teachers' belief and confidence in their ability to do such tasks. This qualitative case study explores the development of self-efficacy, along with source information concerning challenges in…

Continuous assessment (CA) is believed to have great potential for improving learning in higher education. Students' beliefs about CA are a determining force for optimising CA's formative potential. This study explored 27 Chinese undergraduates' beliefs about CA functions in their college English course through individual semi-structured…

With U.S. classrooms increasingly characterized by linguistic diversity, policies mandating teacher training around English learning have proliferated. Recent federal oversight prompted Massachusetts to implement an initiative to endorse its 70,000+ teachers in Sheltered English Immersion (SEI). While policy research has productively emphasized…

The purpose of the present study is to investigate 1) the teachers' beliefs about classroom assessment in English, 2) their actual classroom practices, and 3) the extent to which their beliefs are congruent with their actual assessment practices. The participants were grade-6 English teachers in a school district from the northeastern part of…

There have been widespread concerns over the decline of modern languages and waning interest in learning languages other than English (LOTEs) around the world, thought to be partly due to recent political events including Brexit and Trump's aggressive isolationism in the United States. By contrast, governments in Greater China have energetically…

In contrast to the waning interest in learning languages other than English (LOTEs) worldwide, mainland China is pursuing to diversify LOTE education because of the 'Belt and Road Initiative.' In response to language policy shifts, individual stakeholders in local contexts such as universities have to take actions to initiate LOTE programs or…

There are many assumptions about the ways in which textbooks and other learning and teaching support materials (LTSM) can contribute to improved learning outcomes in many international contexts. These can focus on ways that they can implement the school curriculum, often in lieu of good pedagogical practice. Drawing on case studies from Rwanda and…

Despite widespread discussion in the United States, up until now there has not been a review of the demographic and contextual factors associated with Canadian academic achievement. Using Arksey and O'Malley's (2005) framework, a scoping review was conducted to answer two questions: What demographic and contextual factors are most commonly used in…

This state-of-the-art review provides a critical overview of research publications in Spain in the last ten years in three areas of teaching and learning foreign languages (especially English): context and language integrated learning (CLIL), young language learners (YLL), and technology-enhanced language learning (TELL). These three domains have…

It is a norm for people from a multilingual and multicultural country such as Malaysia to speak at least two or more languages. Thus, the Malaysian multilingual situation resulted in speakers having to make decisions about which languages are to be used for different purposes in different domains. In order to explain the phenomenon of language…

Language-in-education policies are developed and implemented within contexts of great complexity. Where policies appear less than perfect on paper, this presents a valuable opportunity to examine the contextual factors that have led to their development, helping policymakers to understand the conditions under which policy change must take place.…

Many studies show positive correlations between content and language integrated learning (CLIL) and the learning of English as a foreign language. However, findings from CLIL research in Sweden do not match those obtained elsewhere. The aim of this article is to show that some explanations for discrepancies in results obtained across CLIL contexts…