The purpose of this article is to offer suggestions teacher trainers might implement to improve their understanding of the local teachers they work with as well as ways of knowing the self and how the self interfaces with local contexts. The first part of the article focuses on ways a teacher trainer can better understand the needs of the local…

Traditionally, many English language teachers around the world have conformed to an English as a foreign language (EFL) model. In this model, they expose their students to the standard language norms of English-dominant nations, such as the United States and the United Kingdom. However, English learners do not only need language skills to…

In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, households around the world experienced a surge in remote learning and teaching. However, as many teachers and students can attest, online education was not initiated by the pandemic. Online programs had already become well established over the past few decades--in higher education (Moore, Dickson-Deane, and…

Writing centers have long been a hallmark in supporting the development of student writers at North American academic institutions. Writing centers are often connected to a writing program or learning center open to all students for one-on-one tutorials regarding a writing project. Tutors function as coaches or collaborators, rather than as…

Bojana Nikic Vujic: English teacher, teacher trainer, television personality, and textbook author are just some of the roles she has filled during her career as an educator. While still an undergraduate, Bojana worked part-time at kindergartens in Belgrade. She took home her master's degree in English Teaching and Methodology in 2005 from the…

One of the biggest challenges seasoned English language teacher Mina Gavell has faced in the classroom is how to liven up reading classes. Not only is reading inherently a quiet and solo task, but the standard skills teachers are trying to build in their students--skimming, scanning, making predictions and inferences, guessing vocabulary meaning…

Accrediting agencies for English language programs, such as the Commission on English Language Program Accreditation (CEA), require a plan in writing for monitoring and reviewing assessment practices. Nonetheless, web-search queries such as "assessing assessment," "how to assess assessment," "assessing assessment…

While teaching written communication to international business school students in Korea, the author received an email from a student to lacked thoroughness and clarity. He decided to use the email as a learning opportunity for his students to rewrite it. He discovered that while the results were good, there was an inability to write in a register…

Nonnative speakers of a language are often at a disadvantage in producing extended speech, as they have differing native (L1) phonological systems and rhetorical traditions or little experience in giving talks. Prosody in the form of stress, rhythm, and intonation is a difficult but crucial area needed to master extended speech because prosody…

In this article, Elaine Kerry describes the educational context and perspectives of International University of Grand-Bassam (IUGB) Instructor Mohamed Lekrama. Kerry describes his beginnings as a Mauritania-born teacher, who first came to Cote d'Ivoire in 2017 after many classroom journeys of his own, what attracted him to IUGB and Cote d'Ivoire,…

With the emphasis on building twenty-first-century skills in learners, English language teachers are challenged to find activities that will build English language proficiency while promoting higher-order thinking in the target language. One reason is that an individual learner's zone of proximal development (ZPD) for language proficiency and for…

When it comes to L1 and L2 differences in second-language writing, some researchers are not fully convinced that there is a fundamental difference. However, when comparing L1 and L2 writing, many would agree that macro- and micro-level writing characteristics exist and overlap (Eckstein and Ferris 2018). This article identifies some of the…

In English as a foreign language (EFL) classes, teachers face the common challenge of demonstrating the importance of English to students who do not have much contact with users of English in their daily life. This often translates to a lack of progress in English language learning in settings such as Thailand, where in spite of the emphasis put…

When the author began teaching in Paraguay, he ran into a series of classroom challenges familiar to English teachers around the world: a classroom overflowing with students, a large range of English abilities, and insufficient textbooks and traditional teaching resources. The activity described in this article is a one-size-fits-all activity that…

When you want to learn about teacher training in Namangan, everyone knows--ask Mamura. Mamura Alimova is a senior teacher in the English Philology Department at Namangan State University, located in the beautiful Fergana Valley of eastern Uzbekistan. Ms. Alimova, through her involvement in countless projects, has established herself as an…