In addressing vocabulary explanations in language classroom settings, a growing number of studies have examined the different ways teachers respond to the vocabulary explanation requests made by students in second language (L2) classrooms. Relatively lacking is an investigation into the nature of vocabulary explanation requests made by students in…

This study explores how the concept of Assessment for Learning (AfL) is practised in the CLIL contexts. It focuses on the assessment purpose of understanding and supporting students' content and language learning. Ten CLIL teachers in the bilingual program of three different regions in Taiwan were involved in the study. Results from the class…

As working life across the world is increasingly multilingual, multicultural and multidisciplinary, higher education language teaching is faced with a challenge of how to prepare students for it. Many universities have recently developed multilingual pedagogies but central to their success is learners' perceptions of these practices. To fill this…

Pragmatic markers perform important communicative functions, but they can be difficult to learn in a second language because of their multifunctionality and lack of salience during communicative events. This study has two goals: (1) to describe the communicative functions of the pragmatic marker "I mean" in academic discourse; and (2) to…

According to research in pragmatics, gender represents an important factor in individuals' turn-taking behaviour, with results indicating overall male-dominated conversational patterns. Despite the significance of gender in the students' conversational styles in an academic setting, gender and turn-taking has yet to be investigated in the foreign…

In China, code-switching (CS) is frequently used in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms. However, the functions of CS in Chinese secondary schools remain unclear. Moreover, student perceptions have rarely been considered in previous studies. This paper therefore sets out to examine why English teachers code-switch in EFL classrooms. In…

Second language trainee teachers need to use effective classroom language, or 'teacher talk', otherwise opportunities for second language learning can be reduced. However, trainees are often not aware of how their teacher talk influences opportunities for language development in the classroom. This study explores teacher talk data collected from…

The present study was designed to explore the situational variables and their interaction determining the willingness to communicate (WTC) in English (L2) of six postgraduate business students in a university classroom in Pakistan. While much research has been undertaken to examine trait-like psychological antecedents, only a few studies have…

This article reports on the development of a scale for measuring the self-regulated motivation for improving speaking English as a foreign language (EFL). The scale, which is informed by Pintrich's self-regulated learning (SRL) model, addresses motivational aspects of SRL. The scale was constructed in three stages: item pooling, exploratory factor…

This study explored teachers' perceptions of learner engagement in L2 task-based interaction. Fifty-four pre- and in-service ESL/EFL teachers with different L1 backgrounds and L2 teaching experiences were asked to define and rate learner engagement in two learner-learner interactions. The results revealed three major indicators that the teachers…

This article adopts the methods of conversation analysis to track the details of three English as a foreign language novice teachers' language alternation practices in a Vietnamese tertiary context. The analyses focused on teacher instruction-giving in the pre-entry and main instructional phases of lessons. Findings show that language alternation…

This study investigated incidental focus-on-form in a free discussion English as a foreign language (EFL) class with no pre-selected syllabus. Fifteen hours of classroom interactions in an upper-intermediate class with 15 homogeneous adult learners were audio-recorded and analysed. The participants also completed separate uptake sheets for each…

Dynamic shifts of language learners' willingness to communicate (WtC) have been investigated in a number of studies with a view to establishing the impact of various cognitive, affective, social and contextual factors. Looking into such influences in the context of a language classroom gives an opportunity to identify variables that might remain…

The article presents research findings on the professional growth of three in-service EFL teachers from Germany who took part in a teacher education programme centred on technology-mediated plurilingual education. The study investigated how the programme influenced the development of the teachers' pedagogical and digital skills in creating and…

The present article deals with language choice as communicative strategies in the language learning environment of an English-medium content and language integrated learning (CLIL) workshop at an auto mechanics class in a Swedish upper secondary school. The article presents the organisation and functions of language alternations (LAs) which are…