This paper aims to establish that globalised social and linguistic changes have a more complicated impact on local behaviours and attitudes than is believed. Based on statistical analysis of nationally representative surveys in Japan, the paper presents evidence against the following two propositions: (1) globalisation increases local demand for…

This paper, adopting questionnaire survey method, investigated 367 non-key local university English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students' demotivation to learn English. The collected data revealed that there were two main categories of demotivators: internal factors ("lack of intrinsic interest," "experience of failure and lack of…

Teaching English to young learners has gained speed in the past twenty years. Many countries in Europe are offering English at the primary level as advised by the EU. The efforts to lower the age for foreign language learning have echoed in countries in Asia as well. Turkey as one of these countries has changed its educational policy in 2012 and…

In a Colombian private English institution, a qualitative evaluation system has been incorporated. This type of evaluation poses challenges to students who have never been evaluated through a system that eliminates exams or quizzes and, as a consequence, these students have to start making sense of it. This study explores the way students face the…

To investigate the context-related teacher efficacy (TE) of experienced teachers in Taiwan, this study examined elementary English teachers more than a decade after a major educational reform to determine whether their TE levels were affected by school location (e.g. urban vs. suburban). The 438 responses to the adapted Teacher Efficacy Scale…

Since the Communities of Practice (CoP) concept has been adopted in various learning environments, visualizing its development in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms is complicated. Thus, based on the CoP concept, this study investigates the changes in learners' degrees of participation and CoP elements in EFL writing/reading classes…

The assessments designed for and analyzed in this study used a task-based language design template rooted in theories of language reflecting heteroglossic language practices and funds of knowledge learning theories, which were understood as transforming classroom teaching, learning, and assessment through continua of biliteracy lenses. Using a…

The new national educational policy was implemented at secondary schools in 2002 in Japan. The revised Course of Study for foreign language education corresponding to the national educational policy decreased the number of English lessons per week from four to three at the junior high school level, which resulted in a 25% decrease in English…

The current study aimed to investigate the role of teaching experience in language teachers' perceptions of a top-down curriculum change. One hundred twenty-seven language teachers who have been experiencing the change for three years participated in the study. Their perceptions of change were quantitatively assessed by perceptions of change…

Teacher preparation is important as the component of teachers' ongoing learning and development. Well-designed teacher preparation can also be a powerful vehicle for preparing the next generation of teachers to implement new curriculum and innovative teaching methods. The rationale for this quantitative study was to explore stakeholders'…

Using a quasi-experimental design, the effects of a student support intervention were estimated for the math and reading achievement of first-generation immigrant children (n = 667, M = 11.05 years of age) attending high-poverty, urban elementary schools. The intervention was designed to help schools identify developmental strengths and barriers…

Educational authorities in Ghana have generally established that the performance of school leavers especially at the pre-university level offered a large room for improvement, due to so many factors. Hence, the introduction of the New Educational Reform in 1987 which led to the new system of Senior Secondary School with the first product in 1993.…

This article presents a Foucauldian analysis of the political rationalities of national testing and accountability practices in Australia, and their inconsistencies for students for whom English is a second or additional language. It focuses on a problem associated with the statistical data category "Language Background Other Than…

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is advocated by many applied linguists as a common vehicle to curriculum innovation in many ELT contexts. It represents a change of focus in language teaching from linguistic structures to learners' need for developing communication skills. In recent years, the Iranian Ministry of Education has introduced the…

The Australian field of English as a Second Language (ESL) teaching is globally respected for its research and practice achievements over a period of some 30 years. However, this essential field of pedagogy is being diluted in the current Australian reform agenda which is firmly founded on a traditional vision of English as first language, and…