In recent times, the number of studies examining the use of humor in teaching English as a second language (ESL) in Asian countries has increased as researchers have acknowledged the positive effects that humor has on language teaching. This study presents a systematic review focused on the use of humor in ESL teaching within Asian countries. Its…

Research over the last two decades has shown that teaching pronunciation is both effective and important in language education. Nowadays, therefore, many English language textbooks include pronunciation activities. It is not clear yet how this has affected or changed teachers' beliefs and practices in different teaching contexts. The current study…

This study reports on an investigative study about using practice-based approach in business English curricula with 74 English-majors and 58 non-English majors using two stage surveys. The study found that the English-major participants had stronger oral communication needs whereas the non-English-major participants had stronger needs to develop…

This study investigates the impact of integrating the Production-Oriented Approach (POA) with mobile learning on learning outcomes, motivation, and satisfaction in the EFL context. The rationale is to improve learning effectiveness by integrating the POA's focus on real-world language use with the flexibility of mobile learning, addressing the…

This systematic review aims to identify the research trend and gap of strategy-based instruction research in second or foreign language domain from 2000 to 2021. The study involves both bibliometric and content analysis. To gain an overall understanding of the research on strategy-based instruction, this study employs keywords co-occurrence…

This study investigates English teachers' beliefs and classroom practices regarding the teaching of creative thinking (CT) and explores the factors that hinder these practices. A mixed methods approach is adopted, drawing data from 63 middle school English teachers in China through questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and classroom…

This study investigated the development of the integration among EFL student-teachers' PCK components during a 16-week mentoring-enriched practicum course. Data were collected from three EFL student-teachers using the content representation, follow-up interviews, and classroom observation. These data were then analyzed using the PCK Mapping…

This study investigated the effect of educational board games and the creative thinking spiral teaching strategy (CTSTS) on the learning outcomes of beginner-level Chinese language learners. Two dimensions were measured: learning outcome and writing ability. A total of 82 learners from one university in Taiwan participated in this study.…

Optimizing communication learning experiences for students is a promising development in English language education, enabled by ChatGPT-4, an artificial intelligence software that excels in customizing lessons to suit specific requirements, interests, and preferred modes of communication for each student. Given its critical role in enhancing…

This systematic review synthesizes recent trends in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) research, examining 149 empirical studies published in Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) journals between 2014 and 2023. Employing a six-dimensional coding framework, we investigated participants, pedagogical methods, research methods, research foci,…

This study examined the effectiveness of teaching phoneme categorization and segmentation to EFL underachievers using songs and rhymes as instructional materials. Two distinct groups of 11th-grade EFL underachievers from Taiwan participated in this quasi-experimental study. The instructional materials consisted of lyrics sourced from online…

This study examines the beliefs and practices of English teachers in China regarding pronunciation instruction, with a focus on how teaching experience and instructional context shape their beliefs and practices. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, data were collected from 436 teachers across primary, junior high and senior high schools, including…

While research into strategy-based instruction and language learning emotions has been thriving over decades as respective domains, research on how strategy-based interventions may influence learners' writing enjoyment has largely remained unexplored. Informed by (Positive Psychology) PP theories, this mixed-methods study aims to investigate the…

The present study was undertaken to analyze pre-service EFL teachers' (PSTs) noticing during the practicum process over 14 weeks. In total, 26 PSTs took part in the present study. Data were collected through joint reflection sessions (JRSs). For JRS, PSTs met in their group every week after their practicum days and discussed what they noticed on…

In this study, we conduct a longitudinal experiment to explore the effects of adaptive phonetic training on the identification of the English vowels /i/ and /I/ by learners in China. The vowel /i/ in English has a low F1 value, a high F2 value, and a long duration. In contrast, the vowel /i/ has a high F1 value, a low F2 value, and a short…