When teaching foreign languages to very young learners, motivation is an issue that needs to be taken into account even more than in the case of any other age group. Teaching materials and students' textbooks used in schools and preschools, however carefully crafted, often fail to cater for the genuine interests of children and to invoke intrinsic…

This article reports on an in-depth case study of a novice middle school EFL teacher's cognition development during the process of learning to teach in the workplace. Data was collected mainly through classroom observations and interviews. Results indicate that the teacher exhibited a considerable amount of change in her classroom practices, which…

English language teaching (ELT) currently occurring in diverse social settings points to the need to locate ELT in its social context. Many researchers have highlighted the need to explore local vernacular practices, in particular ELT practices in peripheral contexts. The present study investigates events in an English language classroom at a…

This qualitative case study describes in detail a college teacher's experience in teaching critical literacy to English major students in Taiwan. A qualitative analysis of the data collected from classroom observation, class discussion and interviews shows that the teacher struck a balance between language skills teaching and critical literacy…

This study employed an ethnographic methodology to explore the use of "literacy bags" (LBs) to promote parental involvement in Chinese children's literacy learning in the English language. It was conducted with a first-grade class consisting of 18 students and their parents in Taiwan. Data resources were obtained from teaching…

This ethnographic study attempts to find, reveal and understand the learning possibilities, from the social learning perspective, in the process of peer feedback activity in a College English classroom for non-English majors in China. The study reveals the nature of Exploratory Practice (EP), and the investigation is guided by EP principles,…

Learning about foreign language (FL) cultures is becoming an important objective in the FL curricula and national standards of different countries throughout the world. The purposes of the study were to examine the effects of the cultural portfolio project on (1) students' specific aspects of development of cultural knowledge and change in…

This study investigated the negotiations and challenges experienced by five Chinese ESL (English as a second language) students of Commerce through their engagement in an academic presentation in a regular content course at a Canadian university. Multiple sources of data were collected, including interviews, class observations, group discussions,…