Purpose: Second and foreign language (SL/FL) teachers' informal problem-solving has received little explicit research attention while it is widely acknowledged that problem-solving is crucial to expertise development in any complex knowledge domain. To develop a clearer understanding of the role of informal problem-solving in SL/FL teachers'…

While motivation has been recognized as a key catalyst for the uptake of self-initiated professional development (PD), motivational changes that occur in the course of self-initiated PD practices remain unexplored in English Language Teaching (ELT) contexts and beyond. Yet this research area warrants closer attention since motivation is a dynamic…

Researching mindsets has become a topic of considerable interest in language learning. However, the majority of studies tend to focus on learners and their mindsets, with very little research examining the mindsets of teachers, either in-service or pre-service. Yet, teachers' mindset beliefs about their competences as educators are likely to be…

The current study aimed to examine the effect of empowerment on English language teachers' commitment to schools and attitudes towards curriculum reform and the mediation effect of teachers' attitudes towards curriculum reform on the relationship between the teacher's empowerment and commitment to schools. A questionnaire was used to collect data…

The global pandemic has forced all language teachers, regardless of their affinity to and preparation for online teaching, to convert their face-to-face courses into online versions of crisis teaching. Despite being a crisis, it has also opened opportunities for language educators and researchers to identify innovative ways of evaluating,…

Purpose: This poetic inquiry investigates second language (L2) learners' experiences of English language learning and examines the role of emotions in the language learning process. Design/methodology: The methodology chosen in the current study is qualitative, case-study research through which 209 English poems written by twenty-one Japanese EFL…

The study reported in this article explores Thai secondary school students' English as a foreign language (EFL) learning experiences and examines the effects of using drama-based activities and Facebook on the students' English speaking skills, attitudes and motivation in learning EFL. The study employed a mixed methods approach to collect both…

Target language instruction in multilingual settings cannot ignore the linguistic diversity of both the learners and the society. Rather than ignoring the individual and societal multilingualism, leveraging them as resources in learning the target language can be beneficial. Developing such multilingual instruction is an organic, iterative process…

In language teaching, current understanding of complex classroom contexts and post-methods L2 pedagogy encourages us to adopt a situated and dynamic perspective of the language classroom. Exemplary teaching in such contexts is characterized by critical moment to moment decision-making for building L2 classroom environments that are engaging,…

Learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) is a lengthy, demanding, and challenging process, which requires learners' L2 grit relating to their perseverance of effort and consistency of interest. Motivated by the growing body of research on L2 grit over the past few years, this study examined the role of perceived teacher support and learning…

Purpose: Despite the growth of theory and research on young English learners and the widely-recognized importance of critical incidents (CIs) in teachers' professional development (PD), little research has examined young-learner teachers' CIs. This study investigated the impacts of a PD course structured around CIs sharing/discussing on 14 L2…

Learner autonomy (LA) has become an intriguing topic in the field of language teaching. This study explored Iranian EFL teachers' beliefs about and practices of LA in light of two under-researched variables, namely experience and licensure. To this end, a cluster sample of 50 teachers were chosen who were further categorized into TEFL versus…

There remains a dearth of research on the effects of student perception of teacher happiness and the ramifications of those perceptions on student feelings and attitudes. Using an online questionnaire, data were collected from 129 adult students of ESL/EFL across the world who were enrolled in formal English classes of intermediate to advanced…

Purpose: Despite the growing interest in the applicability and value of educational research for improving educational policy and practice, few studies have demonstrated how English-as-a-second-language (ESL) teachers apply research findings in their second language (L2) teaching. This paper reports on a study in which four Hong Kong ESL teachers…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to get a better understanding of the challenges teachers are confronted with when suddenly moving from face-to-face to online teaching. It also aimed to investigate the change of power dynamics in sudden online learning environments, particularly focussing on the role of foreign language learner autonomy in…