Unwillingness to communicate (UWTC) was initially conceptualized as a trait-like predisposition in L1 studies, but later research shifted the focus to willingness to communicate (WTC). In second language acquisition, WTC was introduced as a situational construct where time is highlighted by the immediate context of decision to communicate.…

Teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) encourage students to take a more active role in the oral activities in the classroom through different strategies. This study examines the use of picture descriptions as a strategy to develop and enhance communication skills among the eighth-grade students attending a private English school in…

This article reports a mixed-method study that examined the washback effect from a locally-produced, theme-based, high-stakes English language proficiency test in tertiary education in a Turkish EAP context. The aim was to explore the extent to which washback on teaching was induced by an integrated theme-based English proficiency test designed to…

Recently, situated willingness to communicate (WTC) has received increasing research attention in addition to traditional quantitative studies of trait-like WTC. This article is an addition to the former but unique in two ways. First, it investigates both trait and state WTC in a classroom context and explores ways to combine the two to reach a…

While research on CLIL suggests positive impacts on lexical proficiency and on spoken language, the crucial question of the effect of CLIL on advanced learners, both in terms of subject-specific language (SSL) proficiency and content knowledge, has received less attention. We argue that the ability to negotiate a factual position appropriately is…

The purpose of this article is to raise awareness of how the varied form and responsive and response-able use of teacher questions can invite and direct not only more student talk in classrooms but elicit specific and varied features of student talk that enhance comprehension building and provide evidence of student engagement and high-level…

How does teacher-guided whole-class interaction contribute to expanding students' potential for making and exchanging mathematical meanings? We address this question through an interpretative analysis of a whole-group conversation in a sixth grade class taught by an experienced teacher in a school in Southern Argentina. The extended interaction…

Orchestrating inquiry-based science learning in the classroom is a complex undertaking. It requires fitting the culture of the classroom with the teacher's teaching and inquiry practices. To understand the interactions between these variables in relation to student learning, we conducted an investigation in two different classroom settings to…

The present paper seeks to assess the opportunities for learner involvement and negotiation of meaning that teachers provide in the unfolding interaction in an EFL setting. Classroom data from a Chilean EFL setting were collected in order to assess how teachers deploy a number of interactional features when managing contingent learner turns. The…

A study involving 106 fourth graders and two teachers from a school in Beijing investigated the impact of a peer-led, open-format discussion approach, called collaborative reasoning (CR), on students' reading comprehension and teacher's professional learning. Mixed results of effects of CR on children's reading comprehension were found. After…

To equip graduates with the capability to meet complex demands of work and life, it is important that higher education teachers engage students in self-sustained learning--the persistent, self-initiated pursuit of expertise development in one's subject area. This requires building a positive synergy between learning and teaching, which implies…

Discourse markers are seen as one of the fundamental units in spoken discourse due to their frequent and multifunctional use by native speakers of English. Discourse markers also have significance in foreign language instruction. In this respect, this study explored the perceptions of Turkish EFL teachers towards the use of discourse markers in…

In Australia, recent policies for educational development have emphasised the importance of stakeholder involvement and advocacy in the promotion of student outcomes. There is robust support for the promotion and development of inclusive educational communities able to respond to the various educational needs of students, communities and staff.…

This article describes ethnographic action research that explored experiences of the first author and her undergraduate students as they engaged in collaborative learning (CL) activities in a university Japanese language course. The purpose of the study was to generate new practical knowledge of CL for her, so that she might subsequently improve…

The aim of this study is to determine to what extent the Primary School Teachers can accomplish the effective teacher attitudes in science lessons. In this context, the observations of 83 primary school preservice teachers, who studied teaching practice course, have been used. In order to determine the accomplishment levels of primary school…