Listening to academic lectures in a second language (L2) can be a daunting task, as the listener faces various challenges related to processing the speech stream, prioritizing the importance of information, and deciding when, where and how to take notes. A host of factors can contribute to student comfort in and ability to take "good"…

This article describes how a group of language undergraduates in a local university in the periphery in the Global South conceptualised and enacted the notion of the 'ecological university'. Theoretically grounded in critical and post-humanist perspectives on education, and language education in particular, and notions of the ecological and the…

This article explores the interplay between English language proficiency and social class. First, it discusses flaws in cognitive approaches to English language learning and applied linguistics. It then calls for the cultivation of a more holistic approach to learners' motivation and language achievement as the product of both micro and macro…

Learner emotions represent sudden, dynamic, and complex adaptations to the language classroom environment. Recent Second Language Acquisition research calls for a more holistic perspective in approaching classroom emotions, one that considers emotional variations between and across learners, and which foregrounds the interconnections among…

The research literature is rife with studies that explicate how novice academic writers face fears and experience anxieties when writing in English as a Second Language (ESL) contexts. However, many studies have failed to put forward a holistic approach to address the issue. This study fills in this gap by reporting how integrating language and…

This article reports the results of a qualitative, community-based research study that aimed to analyse the incidence of community-based pedagogies on the development of local cultural awareness at a rural public school in Colombia. We designed a pedagogical intervention drawing on community-based pedagogies and blended learning. We collected data…

When a Year 7 student physically reacted to a prompt of another student by anxiously drumming the desk with his ruler, exclaiming "uuuuhh", the initial thought of the observing researcher, Laura, was: "this is an interesting account". This started a reflective journey of first applying robust research methodologies to the…

This study utilises a holistic approach of positive psychology (PP) in the second language acquisition (SLA) domain to test a model of willingness to communicate in English language (L2WTC) among 328 Saudi learners. The model examines how potential connections among learners' negative emotions (anxiety and boredom), positive emotions (enjoyment…

The study aims to evaluate 9th grade English curriculum within scope of holistic education. It was designed on mixed method. Quantitative data was collected with "Teaching Tendency Inventory" and "Attitude Scale Towards Foreign Language" adapted into Turkish by the researcher (Babacan, 2016) and also "Holistic Learning…

Authentic learning tasks, resembling life-like situations, have been effectively used in this research with Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT) of English as a Second/Foreign Language (ESL/EFL). The present study also focuses on the implementation of the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach in ESL/EFL teaching comparing two…

Anxiety has a significant effect on oral communication, particularly when it occurs in the form of a public address. The quality of a public academic speaker's oral presentation may highly be determined by a variety of emotive elements. However, this has received much too little attention in the realm of academic dissertation oral defense…

The complexity and challenges of higher education (HE) in recent times have been widely discussed in HE literature, as have concomitant demands on university teachers and their professional learning needs. Much attention has been paid to new academics in these conversations, but less so to international PhD and post-doctoral researchers, who are…

Teaching for equity with bilingual learners means building on students' linguistic strengths. This critical qualitative self-study explored how pre-service bilingual teachers developed ideology and pedagogy through a structured, holistic approach to writing instruction. Seven bilingual teacher candidates implemented a strategic Transliteracy…

Learners of foreign languages (L2s) apply strategies to support learning processes and L2 development. They select strategies according to their individual needs and preferences and adjust their strategic actions to suit situational circumstances and contextual conditions. A holistic investigation of strategic L2 learning processes requires the…

Good oral communication skills are necessary to help people understand and process information in a clear manner. Aspiring language teachers must be able to exemplify good verbal ability to become competent in their fields. Therefore, it is important to develop a future teacher's ability to communicate in English. This study investigated the…