Although doctoral students are increasingly expected or required to publish during their candidature, few studies have focused specifically on how they manage to do so while juggling multiple, and often competing, demands from their busy doctoral studies. This study set out to bridge this gap by examining the strategies adopted by four Chinese…

Research investigating L2 (second language) willingness to communicate (WTC) has gained ground in the past two decades. Added to that is the emergence of complex dynamic systems theory (CDST) with a focus on the phenomenon of change, the implications of which for WTC research have opened up new avenues to enhance our conceptualization of the…

Due to globalization, an increasing need for advanced speaking skills, and the interest aroused by English public speaking (EPS) competitions, EPS is increasingly important, especially among university students. Although self-efficacy is strongly associated with performance, no psychometrically sound instruments to measure EPS self-efficacy among…

Elicited imitation tasks (EITs) have been shown to be a valid, reliable, and practical method for establishing second-language (L2) oral proficiency across a variety of languages. Nevertheless, research that has validated existing EITs has most often explored a narrow range of learner proficiencies or has examined how well the EIT distinguishes…

Being a lucky child, I played lots of games, as my parents were primary-school teachers, and playing games is a natural part of growing up and learning. More recently, I took the opportunity to create new games while teaching a course called "Teaching English to Young Learners" to preservice teachers of English. Among these games, there…

As human longevity increases, the proportion of older people worldwide increases as well. Statistics show that, while the population of older adults (ages 65+) was 5% in the 1960s, in 2018 it increased to 9%, and it is projected to rise to 16% by 2050. According to the World Health Organization, the proportion of the population aged 80 and over is…

Using multimodal conversation analysis, this article analyses language learning as an "in situ" process during a teacher-assigned, experientially based pedagogical activity. The activity involved a three-part pedagogical structure, where learners first prepared for and then participated in real-life service encounters, and later…

The flipped classroom model (FC), as a new instructional approach, has been implemented by different disciplines over the past few years. However, the use of this model is still in its infancy in the field of foreign language education. The present study explored the efficacy of using the FC model in facilitating the acquisition of grammar among…

The present study investigated learner autonomy level and the use of language learning strategies in a sample of 163 first-year English majors in university. The aim of the study was to find out the correlation between language learning strategies and autonomous learning. The data collection instruments included a self-rating questionnaire and an…

The main objective behind this study was to investigate the association between EFL teachers' reflective behavior and their language learning and teaching beliefs. Accordingly, two respective questionnaires were given to 130 male and female EFL teachers who were conveniently sampled, and the elicited data were analyzed via correlational and…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of using hard and soft scaffolding on Iranian EFL learners' reading comprehension ability in two different experimental conditions, i.e. symmetrical and asymmetrical. One hundred and twenty Iranian intermediate EFL learners were recruited from a population of 400 based on their performance on…

This paper uses conversation analysis (CA) to trace changes in one learner's repair practices during a repetitive storytelling activity in an intermediate-level ESL classroom. An analysis of the learner's phonological and grammatical repairs is guided by two questions: How are the repair sequences organized, and what changes occur in the sequences…

This study explored the effects of increasing the number of elements and the degree of reasoning on second language (L2) writing and also examined the relationship between writing motivational beliefs and anxiety and L2 writing in simple versus complex tasks. Sixty upper-intermediate L2 learners were invited to write simple and complex…

This paper helps to address the need for improvement related to the teaching of pragmatic abilities in the ELT classroom. Some of the issues surrounding direct pragmatic instruction are discussed with regard to teachers' and learners' roles and expectations. The paper is part of an ongoing research project that practically applies key components…

This study reports the findings of the research conducted on the effects of Interest-Based Language Teaching (IBLT) on Persian students' interest in L2 learning, and their achievement in reading comprehension. With the aim of improving L2 learning in the university level, the study investigated whether selecting instructional materials based on…