The vast majority of Chinese universities have embraced higher education reform that emphasizes a "publish or perish" ideology. This brings challenges to the early-career academics, especially those working in language-related fields. This paper employs a multiple case study to explore the identity tension of early career academics in…

Social networking service platforms and social media have generated a significant amount of discussion and debate regarding their use in second or foreign language learning. However, leveraging digital tools with pedagogical constructs to enhance accessibility and engagement in teaching and learning English idiomatics has not received equal…

Sociocultural perspectives of learning emphasise the role of social interaction and activity in the process of knowledge construction and foreground the social-cultural settings in which knowledge construction occurs. This paper examines how in-service language teachers co-construct technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) in…

Effective syllabus document design hinges on an alignment between learning objectives, teaching principles and curricular policy. Much of the work on syllabus design in the English Language Teaching (ELT) context focuses on the implementation of language teaching principles, such as those from the Communication Language Teaching (CLT) approach.…

The study is designed to examine the effectiveness of corrective feedback (CF) from Chinese second language (L2) teachers to their students in mainland China. Investigations into how CF works were carried out based on three aspects: teachers' perceptions of CF effectiveness, factors affecting it, and their interplay. An ecological approach--the…

Language teacher identity has received considerable attention in the past decade for its crucial roles in improving effective pedagogy and enhancing teacher learning. While a large number of studies have been conducted to investigate the multidimensional nature and complexities of in-service teacher identity, there is still insufficient knowledge…

The present study is a reflective nexus analysis of classroom discourse practices that emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic crisis induced online teaching and learning. Nexus analysis is an action focused approach to discourse analysis that incorporates aspects of ethnography to examine that actions that make up the discourse in complex social…

Research on EFL teachers' beliefs and practices is significant for teaching effectiveness. This paper investigated and compared the convergences and discrepancies between an EFL teacher's stated beliefs and observed classroom practices related to teaching an L2 speaking-oriented Topical Debates course. In mainland China, Topical Debates is a…

Existing research on learner identity stresses a need to explore how the way one perceives oneself as an EFL learner has impacts on his or her investment in the endeavor to learn English. Likewise, examining the factors that influence identity and investment in EFL learning is also essential. In the present study, data were triangulated to explore…