2025-10-10
Over the past 70 years, and in the past 40 years in particular, there has been tremendous growth in foreign-language teaching and research in China. While this growth has taken the teaching and associated research into an advanced sophisticated phase, bringing them into step with the development of their international counterparts, a new set of problems and challenges have emerged. The paper is a reflection on the features of the development and the problems the sectors must confront and cope with in order to develop sustainably. I argue in the paper that not all the problems are related to academic factors. Non-academic ones pose graver threats for the sectors to overcome.
This is a personal-professional reflection on 20 years of doing Action Research (AR), based on which AR is positioned as being at three different interfaces: the personal-professional; the theory-practice; and the quantitative-qualitative interface. In addition to AR being at those three interfaces, a number of additional key questions are contemplated in this article; questions which appear to have been largely overlooked – or at least under-researched – in spite of their importance. For example, rather than simply assuming that research is an inherently ‘good thing’ to be doing, the question of why we do research is considered, as a valid research question in its own right. Following on from that question, the question of why teachers should become action researchers is also considered. Another key question that is rarely asked but which is explored here relates to time, specifically how much time research requires, and how much time a busy classroom teacher can give to their research. In relation to the collaborative nature of AR, the question of trust is highlighted, as well as the question of who will benefit from the research and how.
This study examines the learning and related impact on classroom teaching of six EFL high school teachers' participation in collective lesson planning discussions (CLPDs) organised by a teaching research officer. Data were gathered from multiple sources, including observation notes, transcripts of collective lesson planning discussions and interviews, questionnaires and teaching materials. Data analysis shows that CLPDs exerted important influences on participating teachers’ EFL teaching as a result of sharing resources and exchanging ideas. Some factors were found to impede the implementation of ideas and methods suggested in CLPDs such as teaching environment and students’ language proficiency. Further research needs to examine the collaboration of teaching research officers and university researcher on a more constant basis to gauge the effectiveness of teacher development in fostering student achievement.
Numerous English training programs have sprung up in China for young learners aged between 5 and 12 as education technology companies and training schools have seen the huge commercial potential in children-oriented English courses. However, the attention given to literacy assessment in English is given scant attention, all the more surprising given the particularly onerous requirement for assessment among young language learners. This study looks at primary school English teachers’ assessment literacy through qualitative and quantitative methods. An online assessment literacy test was used to carry out a general evaluation of the participants’ theoretical base for pupil assessment. Then three teachers were observed in the classroom after they completed a placement test for English proficiency. The focus was on how they assessed students and gave feedback. A test revealed that the 65 participating teachers had only an intuitive understanding of assessment. They provided assessment according to their teaching experience, as is shown in the classroom observation. The lack of assessment education and qualifications posed formidable obstacles to those endeavouring to become professional teachers. Assessment courses and lecturers need to be well-prepared for undergraduates who are expected to be primary school English teachers.
In the field of computer-mediated communication (CMC), while many studies have focused on utilising various CMC-based tools (e.g. email, video conferencing and virtual worlds) to promote second language (L2) learning, scant attention has been paid to the crucial role of instruction. To enhance EFL learners’ competence, this mixed-methods study investigates the effectiveness of CMC on EFL learners’ competence in two settings: CMC-facilitated interaction alone and CMC-facilitated interaction combined with instruction. Fifty-three university-level Chinese EFL students took part in the study. The treatment group had CMC-based interaction with native speakers through instant messaging over the messaging software Skype and received two sessions of instruction in the targeted feature: the speech act of compliment responses (CRs), whereas the control group had CMCbased interaction without any instructional intervention. The result from an independent samples t-test on the post-intervention mean scores indicated a significant difference between groups for appropriately using CRs, favouring the treatment group (p = .011). In addition, qualitative data were gathered via semi-structured interviews to further interpret the quantitative data and unearth factors that would influence L2 learners’ behaviours. Three main themes were derived based on the thematic analysis, encompassing learners’ L2 pragmatic knowledge, the influence of first language on L2, and their English-learning experience. These findings provide further insight into the positive impact of combining CMC with instruction on EFL learners’ competence. Pedagogical implications for adopting the integration between CMC-based interaction and instruction in L2 pragmatics are discussed.
This study aims to apply collaborative writing to the teaching practice of continuation tasks. More specifically, it attempts to explore: 1) The differences between texts produced by pairs and those finished by individuals; 2) The characteristics of collaborative dialogues during the co-authoring process; and 3) Students’ attitudes towards the use of collaborative writing in continuation tasks. The collected data indicated that collaborative writing had a positive impact on the English continuation task of senior high school students, and that the effect of interactive alignment noticed in continuation tasks was greatly highlighted in the process of collaborative continuation. The analysis of the collaborative dialogues produced evidence that pair work offers students the chance to co-construct texts, pool their language and idea resources, and thus complete more linguistically complex and grammatically accurate texts. According to the survey of students’ perceptions to collaborative continuation tasks, most of the students in the study had a positive attitude to their collaborative writing experience despite some reservations. Finally, pedagogical implications for adopting collaborative continuation are provided based on the study.
As mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) has become increasingly popular among learners of English, their motivation in using mobile technologies to learn the language has attracted the attention of researchers. This study investigates possible factors that may influence learners’ motivation in MALL in natural learning environments. A case study was conducted involving four Chinese adult EFL learners who used a mobile application named MintReading for eight weeks. Weekly learning journals and semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect in-depth data from each participant. The results indicated that the following affected learners’ motivation as they were learning: (1) interesting and useful reading content; (2) language difficulties; (3) affordance of mobile technologies; (4) motivational design of the application. On the other hand, their interaction with an online community, that of the social media app WeChat, failed to contribute to their learning motivation. Discussions of the research findings are based on self-determination theory, and implications and limitations of this study are also addressed.
Assessment of pronunciation has long been established as an integral component of speaking assessment, usually combined with other dimensions such as fluency, lexico-grammatical resources and topic development to generate an overall score for the speaking section in major English tests. Few studies have focused on assessment of pronunciation per se, which plays a critical role in pedagogical context such as pre-service teacher training. This study attempts to develop a diagnostic rating scale of pronunciation for the purpose of pronunciation instruction in a pedagogical practice and provide supporting evidence for the construct validity of the scale by many-facet Rasch analysis. Results from statistical analysis suggest overall satisfactory construct validity of the scale. The statistical findings are further corroborated by focus group interviews with raters and examinees. This study has implications for second language pronunciation instruction, assessment and self-learning, as well as the development and validation of diagnostic rating scale of other aspects of organizational competence.
The purpose of this paper is to share options for language instruction and present opportunities for language learning based on what the literature says about what makes an effective learning task. The paper focuses specifically on uses of technology to support learner engagement. The tasks and technologies presented are not intended to be prescriptive but rather to serve as models and idea generators for task design in a variety of English learning contexts. To meet the purpose, this paper presents a brief overview of conditions for language learning, and it then explains principles of task engagement. Applications and examples of technology uses that can support task engagement are included.
The field of TESOL has seen paradigmatic shifts related to how language and language proficiency are conceptualized as well as how we approach teaching English as an additional language (EAL). Embedding the teaching of English within the world of multilingualism is a third shift. Given the importance of multilingualism for the 21st century and a globalized and technology-enhanced world, viewing EAL teaching as integral to becoming bi/multilingual is imperative. Rather than seeing EAL as separate from students’ home language practices, this article argues that, even in foreign language contexts, teachers can accelerate English language learning by extending and building on students’ entire linguistic repertoire.
Distance learning offers an affordable and convenient way to study and improve one’s knowledge in one’s spare time. This trend has been accelerated by information and communication technologies that have pushed to new boundaries the ways in which online learning is undertaken. The prevalence of such learning has greatly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, enabling education in a relatively safe environment. This paper studies how satisfied learners are with such learning. It also looks at interactivity and communication self-efficacy and the effects on student satisfaction with online courses. Analysis of these factors and their cross-effects was undertaken using a case study in a virtual online classroom of 75 students. A questionnaire was designed (with a reliability coefficient of 0.93) and the results were analysed using correlation analysis and ANOVA in SPSS. Satisfaction of students with the course significantly correlated with satisfaction with the online discussion, and positively correlated with satisfaction with course content. The student perception had a significant impact on communication self-efficacy and the interactivity. The results revealed that the key indicating factors for the satisfaction were course content and structure, and the quality of online discussions.
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