This article explores church language cafés (CLCs) in Sweden and their significance as non-formal language learning venues for migrants. Using an ethnographically inspired case study, this article employs metaphors to bring together place and space, capturing the functions and meanings of CLCs for migrants. Challenging the often-limiting…

A critical approach to "neofalante," newspeakers of Galician and their theoretical framework, is presented. In order to do so, we take as a case study some of its documented cases as a popular notion, its transformations, and its mobilisation in the planning discourse, along with its construction and evolution as an analytical category…

This longitudinal case study describes a male Korean English teacher's identity development during two years of compulsory military service. An "investment and imagined communities" framework undergirded the thematic analysis of emails, mobile messaging, and casual conversations. Three recursive themes emerged: English user, researcher,…

Using Desimone's (2009) framework for studying the effects of teacher professional development (PD), this qualitative study examines the effectiveness and impact of a 10-week professional development course on 31 foreign language (FL) instructional faculty and staff in a U.S. Government language school. Data sources included 31 K-W-L reflections,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how teachers engaged in curriculum deliberation through lesson study (LS) and how different types of teacher knowledge were elicited, co-constructed and transformed in integrated ways across LS stages. It also clarifies how different school-level orientations influence the nature, depth and scope of…

Culture is an important element of language teaching. This multiple case study explores the beliefs of 14 novice Indonesian EFL teachers regarding teaching about culture. Data sources included: interviews, lesson observations, professional learning community sessions, and journal entries. Data analysis classified participants in two groups: those…

In recent years, an increasing number of non-native EFL teachers have been recruited to teach English in English dominant settings. Grounded in sociocultural views of identity, the research question of this study focused on how contextual factors influence the professional identity construction of three EFL teachers in a Saudi School in Kuala…

This ethnographic case study aims to examine second language socialization (SLS) in a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) called Stronghold Kingdoms (SK). To explore the affordances of this community for SLS, the social dynamics in a Faction community during 4 life-time periods, namely, war, post-war peace and life in exile, end of the world,…

International teaching assistants face unique and often challenging experiences when entering graduate studies in the United States. Challenges include navigating socialization into graduate education, and instructional, linguistic, and social difficulties. Communities of Practice can impart academic knowledge and information to assist with…

English teachers' professional development responds to individual needs and societal discourses about teaching, learning, and language use. This paper reports the findings of a case study that explored the factors that increased or limited the active and committed participation of nine Colombian teachers of English in professional development…

This article reports the findings of a multiple case study that identifies and describes the collaboration and networking practices of four Mexican English language teaching professionals belonging to two MA cohorts: 2005-2007 and 2007-2009. For two years, curriculum vitae analysis, maps, and in-depth interviews were used to collect data on these…

Purpose: The provision of inclusive learning materials has been a longstanding issue in FL education. During the 2020 pandemic, school closures have posed additional challenges to educators seeking to engage learners and provide egalitarian access to learning opportunities. Approach: This case study documents a collaborative materials design…

Drawing on communities of practice, this article considers social support for international students in Japanese as a foreign language classroom at an Australian university. Social support, which is a means of promoting well-being, is often set outside international students' day-to-day routines, especially outside classrooms in that academic…

This study aims to explore the influence of contextual factors on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers' professional identity formation in the context of Saudi Arabia. More specifically, it aims to examine how the participants' educational background, life experiences and professional setting influence their professional identities as EFL…

This paper reports the uses and practices of literacy in English of primary schoolchildren in Malaysia. Data was gathered from two children, their parents and the English subject teacher. The results reveal four major findings. First, the results reveal that the students' experience with out-of-school literacies in English were largely afforded by…