Students need opportunities to be creative and express themselves while learning a new language, during both classroom activities and tests at the end of a term or unit. The focus of the author's practice when assessing students' knowledge is to use creative dialogue techniques as a way to prevent students from simply repeating a given dialogue…

In this article, we examine the ways in which an ESL instructor constructs contextually relevant meanings through the synchronization of speech and gesture during unplanned vocabulary explanations. Video recorded data are analysed, with focus on an in-class homework review in which students demonstrated difficulty in comprehending several key…

In this article, we argue that teachers' epistemic cognition, in particular their thinking about epistemic aims and reliable processes for achieving those aims, may impact students' understanding of complex, controversial issues. This is because teachers' epistemic cognition may facilitate or constrain their implementation of instruction aiming to…

This article describes an informal program in one school where grade K-1 students learn a variety of new science vocabulary words relating to animal characteristics. The students are introduced to a new group of animals and their characteristics through storytelling, games, discussion, and crafts (see Table 1, p. 34). The new vocabulary words are…

Reflective career conversations are a necessary instrument in the career guidance of students in vocational education. These conversations help students to learn from their (work) experiences and gain a better understanding of their motives on the labour market. Research shows that in a society in which change seems to become the only constant…

This study focuses on teachers' use of informal formative assessments (IFAs) aimed at improving students' learning and teachers' recognition of students' learning processes. The study was designed as an explorative case study of four middle school teachers and their students at a charter school in the northeastern U.S.A. The data collected for the…

A growing number of task-based learning (TBL) research has employed a process-oriented research framework to analyze second language data in L2 classrooms using a task-in-process vs. task-as-workplan dichotomy (e.g., Seedhouse, 2004). Adopting the task-in-process framework, the current study analyzes how students in Korean EFL classrooms interact…

The paper investigated the differences between teacher-centered (TC) and leaner-centered (LC) methods and the views of the students about the same in an academic context in Pakistan. Keeping in view the nature of research, mainly a qualitative research method was used. Data was collected by audio-recording two classroom discourses on LC and TC…

This article introduces the construct of teacher noticing, situates it in research on second language teacher cognition, and considers its implications for research on second language teacher training, acknowledging socio-cognitive perspectives on language learning and teaching. We then present a mixed-methods observational study that utilized…

In China, preschool curriculum has undergone reform and profound changes. Much remains unknown, however, regarding preschool teachers' teaching beliefs after 30 years of curriculum reform and adaptation. This study aimed to address the issue and investigate teachers' beliefs concerning teaching mathematics. Twelve preschool teachers in China…

This article reports findings from an investigation into how novice teachers' classroom discursive practices were influenced by history-in-person processes. Thought-based and practice-based data sources of two novice teachers were analysed to understand how history is brought to the present through the minds and bodies of individuals as they are…

Although research on second language (L2) humor and language play is burgeoning, most previous studies have addressed language learners. Thus, L2 teachers in general and EFL teachers in particular have comparatively received much less attention in the literature. The present research, to my knowledge, is the first study in the Iranian context and…

There has been a major shift in the demographic landscape in US public schools within the last decade. The population of English learners (ELs) has increased rapidly. How to increase opportunities for them to learn is the focal point of discussion in many urban and rural schools. With this change in the cultural and linguistic landscape,…

In this formative experiment, we examined interventions in and modifications to literacy instruction in a first-grade classroom with the aim of cultivating a love of reading among the students. Consistent with the design of formative experiments, the teacher established a pedagogical goal of building a love of reading, and throughout the year…

In light of the move towards a bi/multilingual turn and recent reevaluation of translation in the field of applied linguistics, this article looks at the translation of culture-specific lexis (CSL) and its role in developing learners' intercultural discussion and reflection. It examines learning journals kept by students in two different contexts,…