This study reports on EFL teachers' self-reported teaching practices aimed at stimulating students' language awareness. It investigates whether, and to what extent, awareness-raising practices are currently implemented in EFL secondary education in the Netherlands, how these practices can be characterised, and how awareness-raising practices can…

Recent research has studied teacher emotions vis-à-vis teachers' learning, practice, and identity development and called for teacher-learning practices to include an intentional focus on emotions. Responding to this call, I designed a teacher-learning activity called 'critical autoethnographic narrative' (CAN). I coached teacher candidates (TCs)…

While Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is recognised as an effective approach worldwide, its implementation in foreign language (FL) classrooms remains difficult. Earlier studies have identified factors impeding CLT implementation, such as a lack of communicative lesson materials or teachers' more traditional views on language learning. In…

This study draws on teacher perception data gathered from 65 secondary school modern languages (L2) teachers in South-East England. Data were collected via four iterations of an online questionnaire and follow-up interviews with six heads of department. This paper reports respondents' perceived strengths and development needs in relation to their…

The concept of learner engagement, widely researched in educational psychology, has recently gained attention of language acquisition researchers (cf. Mercer, S. and Z. Dörnyei. 2020. "Engaging Students in Contemporary Classrooms." Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Mercer, S. 2019. Language learner engagement: setting the scene. In…

This study proposes a novel, context-specific, theoretical framework for understanding language learning motivation among secondary pupils in Anglophone settings. It builds on much recent theoretical and empirical work in language learning motivation which has placed increasing emphasis on both the dynamic, fluid nature of motivation, as well as…

There is a dearth of knowledge on the emotional challenges content-area teachers in English-medium instruction (EMI) programmes face, and how they manage their emotions in their efforts to negotiate a top-down language policy. This paper examines the entangled emotional experiences of EMI content-area teachers in Nepal's school education. In…

Although much has been discussed about the use of reading aloud (RA) outside China, it has been one of the least investigated learning/teaching behaviours in ELT in China. The paper reports the results of a series of semi-structured interviews, in which learners and teachers were invited to identify the reasons and problems in the use of RA in…

This article explores the extent to which task-based language teaching (TBLT) as an emerging but increasingly popular language teaching approach can be used successfully for teaching te reo Maori as a minority and endangered language in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The article presents the experiences and perspectives of one beginning teacher of te reo…

In the shift to English-medium instruction (EMI) in European higher education, policy often runs ahead of research and curricular decisions are taken independent of evidence regarding their suitability for achieving broader educational goals, which may range from internationalisation as a general strategy to English language learning as a more…

This study examines the meanings attributed to literature in language education by Finnish General Upper Secondary teachers of English as a Foreign Language. The study employs a phenomenological research design structured around the concepts of language education, literature and values in education. The phenomenological analysis examines five…

There has been ample research establishing the effectiveness of the task-based language teaching approach on improving learners' language skills. Some studies have also taken account of teachers' experience and their views of working in task-based classrooms, as experimentation with an approach is different from implementing it in real classroom…

This paper investigates the relationship between the decisions made by school leaders in England concerning their school policy for teaching modern foreign languages (MFL) post-14, and student motivation for MFL. Seventy head teachers, 119 heads of modern languages and 666 students aged 14-15 from schools in England took part in the…

Despite the difficulty of defining young adult literature (YAL), the benefits of it have been well recognised for adolescent learners. With the aim of exploring pedagogical approaches to L2 literature, this study reports on a YAL reading programme carried out in a secondary EFL classroom in China. To gain both teacher and student perspectives,…

While task-based language teaching (TBLT) is a teaching methodology favoured by the Chinese Ministry of Education, it has not been sufficiently researched to be validated empirically in practice in the EFL classroom. Few studies have investigated teachers' responses to TBLT in the Chinese college English context. This research contributes to…