This article documents the reflections of six African second-year master's students on their international educational experiences in Kazakhstan with a special focus on their challenges, strategic learning efforts and identity development. It is guided by Norton's conceptualisation of investment in identity, language learning, and social change.…

The purpose of this study is to analyze the grammatical complexity features of international teaching assistants' (ITAs) mock-teaching presentations and to compare the distributions of these features to those found in the Oral English Proficiency Test (a local ITA assessment), university classroom teaching, conversation, and academic writing. The…

This critical interpretive study aims to contribute to the scholarship that calls for epistemological recognition and representation of the global South. This call is seen as displacing questions of redistribution. The article utilizes interviews and focus group sessions with Kazakhstani graduate students to explore their experiences and…

English online learning has been largely practiced nowadays as a result of global adaptations during the pandemic. However, learners' motivation is known to differ between online and onsite learning modes. This study examines the correlation between learners' motivation and their perception of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) in an online English…

Following Dynamic Systems Theory (Thelen & Smith, 1994) and Sociocultural Theory (Vygotsky, 1978), this study compared the developmental paths of low and high-achieving EFL individuals and dyads, considering production features of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF). The participants included six MA students majoring in Industrial Design…

This paper reports on a pilot course responding to facilitating academic writing for an academic writing program implemented at a provincial key university in China. Taken from an activity theoretical perspective, it discusses the practical experience collected during a pilot process of designing, implementing, and assessing a genre-based approach…

Anxiety in spoken English is a common topic in ELT research. However, little is discussed in the literature regarding anxiety in English public speaking particularly in a very awaited yet the most thrilling event called a Thesis Defence Examination (TDE). Therefore, this study aims at investigating postgraduate students' anxiety in facing TDE at…

This study investigates postgraduate (PGs) and faculty needs concerning academic writing (AW) tutors' qualifications in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context. Tutors are the core element of a writing center (WC) (Hays, 2010). These professionals listen to (Burns, 2014), advise, and exchange information (Reid, 1993, in Hays, 2010)…

Research has indicated that first language (L1) English speakers acquire derivational knowledge--the ability to understand and produce derived forms of a word--through increased exposure to the language (e.g., Anglin, 1993). Second language (L2) research has shown that L2 English learners tend to have limited productive derivational knowledge in…

In recent years, machine translation post-editing (MTPE or PE for short) has been steadily gaining ground in the language industry. However, studies that examine translators' perceptions of, and attitudes towards, MTPE paint a somewhat negative picture, with PE pricing methods and rates being a major source of dissatisfaction. While the European…

Using self-paced reading, the present study compared native English and adult L1-Korean-L2-English speakers' processing behaviors during online comprehension of underinformative scalar sentences and non-scalar sentences like "Some/All elephants have trunks and ears." Results indicate that native speakers showed online sensitivity (i.e.…

The global expansion of English has raised a call for English-language teachers around the world to frame English as an international language (EIL). This is especially true in rapidly developing contexts such as China, where teachers are expected to prepare learners to engage effectively in intercultural interactions. As such, the present study…

From a post-structuralist standpoint, this chapter interprets the meaning of the narratives embedded in the lived experiences of these L2 learners and users after describing and uncovering the social variables that affect the participating Chinese graduate students' learning process and learning outcomes described in the previous chapters. Section…

This chapter introduces the learner profiles and the sociocultural roadmap of participating Chinese graduate students. The learner profiles illustrate the demographic and linguistic background of each participating student. Their lived experiences include pre-departure experience (i.e., learning the English language as a foreign language),…

The university curriculum plays a role in motivating students to take up research. This 2-year action research explored the curriculum in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and its influence on student further engagement in research work. The data were collected from University Master's students through two questionnaires given to them before and…