This article explores the potential implications of theorizing in translingualism and translanguaging for foreign language teaching and learning. I discuss key terminology and introduce a translingual continuum as a potential way to understand language use practices both within and across communities. I report on an exploratory study into the…

Although English-medium instruction (EMI) is now widely spread throughout the world, there is surprisingly little research into the challenges students face as they try to learn subject matter by means of a non-native language, or how learners attempt to address these challenges. The study reported in this article employed a qualitative approach,…

Increasing students' awareness of the globalization of English is a daunting task for teachers, especially considering the lack of globally oriented ELT materials available. This study builds on previous research in response to recent calls for more classroom-level research, and reports on the use of a student presentation task to introduce and…

The present study investigated the relationship between student use of self-efficacy-building strategies through motivational partnerships and student levels of self-efficacy and motivation in an adult intensive English programme in the United States. The extent to which self-efficacy influenced motivation was also examined. After being organized…

This article reports on the implementation of an out-of-class communication component of a university ELT course in Hong Kong to raise students' awareness of the pluralistic nature of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). Drawing on students' written reflections as part of the coursework, the study investigated how out-of-class ELF communication…

Portfolio assessment (PA) is promulgated as a useful tool to promote learning through assessment. While the benefits of PA are well documented, there is a lack of empirical research on how students' self-regulation can be effectively fostered in writing classrooms, and how the use of PA can develop students' self-regulated capacities. This…

ELT professionals are in a position to investigate methods and techniques that might be incorporated into language teacher education programmes to train teachers more effectively. Video is among the more popular techniques and forms a central component in ELT teacher education. However, there is little empirical evidence on why video is popular in…

The textual and interpersonal functions of modifiers are extensively discussed in the literature. However, how these linguistic devices can be strategically used to assist lecture comprehension has been under-investigated, particularly in EFL/ESL contexts. Drawing on corpus analyses, interviews, and questionnaires, this study compares Taiwanese…

This article charts the chequered history of the PPP model (Presentation, Practice, Production) in English language teaching, told partly through reference to articles in "ELT Journal." As well as documenting its origins at the dawn of communicative language teaching (and not in audiolingual approaches, as some have suggested), I chart…

Learners' language background is one of the factors which may influence the amount and functions of own-language use in English instruction. This article reports a study in which a group of almost 400 Polish and Norwegian secondary school learners of English were asked how their own languages are used in the classroom, how they use them when they…

It is now relatively straightforward to program software to detect words and phrases containing errors in the free-form writing of L2 learners of English. This article, however, reports on progress in the development of software which not only detects errors but also provides feedback explaining the nature of each error and how to correct it. Such…

It is increasingly recognized that opportunities for continuing professional development (CPD) are needed to support teaching as lifelong learning, and that if these incorporate a nurturing bottom-up approach, this is more likely to lead to teacher empowerment. However, top-down approaches, including formal courses and workshops on predetermined…

English language teachers are expected to use their talk, "teacher talk," effectively; however, teacher education courses do not always clarify how student teachers can achieve this. This article advocates that understanding and using effective teacher talk is crucial for successful ELT and as such is a "threshold concept" in…

Lessons designed to teach reading and listening typically concentrate on the use of higher-level skills and strategies, such as predicting, scanning, inferencing, understanding text structure, or activating background knowledge. Given that these normal communication skills are already available to students for mother-tongue use, they should…

Michael Swan and Catherine Walter (see EJ1142765) take issue with the current emphasis in the teaching of listening and reading on higher-order skills-and-strategies training. They argue that L2 learners typically already possess the relevant skills and strategies necessary for listening and reading in L2, and, by implication, can and do deploy…