This article reports findings from a larger research project which aimed to promote learner autonomy among Thai secondary school learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) through strategy-based instruction (SBI). The study involved 30 learners from an intervention class and 32 learners from a comparison class. Nine strategies were introduced…

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…

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…

There now exists an established body of work outlining the challenges international students can face as part of the acculturation process, including a range of academic and non-academic pressures to overcome. For many students, writing essays in academic English for the first time is problematic. This article considers pedagogical approaches for…

This article addresses visual literacy as a crucial competence for fostering intercultural literacy and intercultural dialogue. Visual literacy has been defined as a combination of skills needed to interpret the meaning of images, latent reasons behind their making and their impact on audiences. Individuals need to develop such skills to…

Studies examining culture representation in language textbooks have rarely adopted the semiotic approach, despite its potential for presenting and (re)creating cultural meanings at their various levels (i.e. cultural, intercultural, multicultural, and transcultural) in the co-instantiations of texts, tasks, and images. To address this issue, a…

This classroom-based action research (CBAR) corroborated our belief in the valuable role rubrics play in a tertiary L2 writing context where English is the medium of instruction. The three-stage CBAR involved ongoing discussions between us, two writing teacher-researchers, as we adapted our teaching and assessment strategies to explore the…

While research into various dimensions of language learning strategies has been thriving over the recent years, grammar learning strategies (GLS) have largely remained under-explored. The present mixed methods research aimed to explore GLS in the three stages of classroom grammar tasks, while striving to determine the sequence of GLS and their…

Motivation to learn languages strongly correlates with language achievement, and the school context has a great influence on the motivation of young learners (YLs). A key rationale for the implementation of content and language integrated learning (CLIL) programs, therefore, was pupil motivation. Very few studies have measured motivation in this…

While interest in the learning of a language other than English (LOTE) has increased, research on how to foster learners' motivation towards learning a LOTE is still scarce. With a specific focus on learners' ideal LOTE and multilingual selves, this article reports on an intervention study which employed near peer role model (NPRM) to construct…

The present research aimed to explore the dynamic growth of two emotional constructs: foreign language enjoyment (FLE) and foreign language learning boredom (FLLB) among L2 learners. To do so, we used a method that would capture the inherent dynamicity of L2 learners' enjoyment and boredom during an EFL course. To this aim, a bivariate latent…

This study uncovers the under-explored influences that encourage teachers to incorporate task-based language teaching (TBLT) for teaching Chinese as a second language, and the process of teachers' pedagogical attempts at a Chinese university. Activity Theory (Engeström, 1987) was adopted as the conceptual framework. As a qualitative study, the…

This study investigated the relationship between learner beliefs about peer feedback and development of second language (L2) pronunciation skills after peer feedback on pronunciation had been used in the classroom. Seventy-four first-year learners of German were assigned to a peer feedback provider group, a peer feedback receiver group, and a…

To sustain students' continuous learning in a COVID-19 pandemic context, schools and universities have shifted traditional classroom teaching to synchronous online teaching. However, there is limited understanding of acceptance and adoption of synchronous online teaching by university teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL). This study,…

While previous research has investigated the effectiveness of various second language (L2) writing instructional approaches upon students' writing performance, whether and how the instructional approaches relate to students' writing motivation and engagement remains largely unexplored. This study used the adapted Motivation and Engagement Scale…