Earticle

A central goal of language education is the development of resourceful speakers, people who have both good access to a range of linguistic resources and are good at shifting between styles, discourses, registers and genres. Communication becomes possible not because we adhere to global or even regional norms, but because language users are able to bring their communication into alignment with each other. Drawing on a series of studies of both online and face-to-face interaction in different cities in Asia, this paper suggests that to understand communication in contexts of diversity, we need to focus less on a supposed shared code and more on the interactions among language resources, activities and space. This in turn suggests that in order to pursue intelligibility in multilingual contexts we need a model of principled polycentrism, not the polycentrism of a World Englishes focus, with its established norms of regional varieties of English, nor the reduced communicative domain of the English as a lingua franca framework, but a more fluid yet principled approach to the diversity of contemporary contexts of communication.

This study was designed to investigate the impact of teacher’s written feedback and the learners’ attitudes about it in the context of Iran. To this end, 60 intermediate-level learners of an institute participated in three 20 members groups, each group receiving one type of teacher’s written comments (i.e., imperatives, statements, and questions). The participants were asked to write four drafts on each of the two IELTS topics during a semester, and then a one-way ANOVA was conducted on the average gain scores from the first to the last drafts. The results showed that different feedback types can affect writing improvement differently, and statement feedback is the most effective comment for the context of this research. Moreover, the participants’ attitudes was investigated through using a questionnaire (adapted from Hamouda, 2011 & Beaumont et al., 2008), and statement feedback was reported as the most preferred comment type. Finally, correlations were conducted between the types of comments and the participants’ attitudes, the result of which indicated a match between the two results.

“Flipping” the classroom is an instructional strategy in which students do homework in class and classwork at home, with the ultimate goal of spending more in-class time on problem-solving and individualized instruction (Lage, Platt, & Treglia, 2000). Although this strategy has been embraced by K-12 teachers in the United States, research into applying the “flipped” model in an English as a foreign language (EFL) context at the university level has yet to be published. To address this issue, an experiment was conducted with intermediate level EFL classes at a university in Macau, China. Data from observations and surveys revealed that initially the flipped model did not match learner expectations of teacher roles in the classroom. However, at the end of the 15-week course, students in the experimental classes requested additional flipped materials and appeared more comfortable with the model. Additional findings from teaching journals uncovered that three out of the four teachers recommend the flipped approach for promoting creativity and opportunities for higher order learning in the classroom. The journals also indicated some skepticism among teachers in regards to applying the flipped concept to language instruction and struggles with student engagement with the materials.

Recently Viet Nam National Foreign Language 2020 Project was launched as a government initiative to improve the foreign language learning and teaching system nationally. One task of the project is to introduce English at grade 3, which requires significant re-training for the country’s large number of primary English teachers in both English proficiency and methodology. Training-of-trainers (ToT), a cascade model of trainer training, has therefore been adopted as an option. Drawing from two recent ToT programmes in Viet Nam for primary teachers, the paper discusses the needs of the participants and analyses how the programmes have and have not responded to these needs. Adopting the stakeholder approach in evaluation, the study provides an initial formative evaluation based on insider self-assessment. One of the key findings is that, despite significant efforts, the programmes still need a shaper focus on course design and delivery knowledge and a better connection with participants’ target training contexts.

This paper explores an English learning activity designed from the perspective of critical literacy; the activity addressed the exploration of multiple perspectives through a picture book and different learning tasks. In particular, it integrated students’ language learning with their personal experiences. The class consisted of 34 college freshmen, all non-English majors. Two research questions were formulated: 1) How did the students respond to an activity designed from a critical perspective? and 2) How did the students compare their learning in this activity to their prior experience? Data included classroom observations, students’ artifacts and assignments, their reflection papers, and follow-up interviews with students. The present study found that this activity led students to assume the role of social agents. They developed a critical stance, investigated multiple perspectives, and re-examined their familiar world. In addition, adopting the role of language learners, students formed critical responses to the activity; three themes recurred with regard to classroom materials, topics, and tasks. To sum up, this research suggests that critical literacy merits more attention and implementation in Taiwan if we hope to help students cultivate a critical competence in addition to the traditional four language skills.