An Introduction to Foreign Language Learning and Teaching

This article proposes a refl ection on the status attributed by public schools to the compulsory teacher training taken by undergraduate students of Languages, as well as the role played by students-teachers and foreign language teacher training supervisors in the matter, based on the author’s experience as a teacher training supervisor in a university in the south of Brazil. The article starts with a description of the new teacher training courses set by the Language Institute of the university, and is followed by an analysis of the underlying reasons for the changes taken into effect. Both the description and the analysis take into consideration (i) the national policies to foreign language (FL) teaching and learning and (ii) the general context in which foreign languages are taught in public schools. Possible outcomes deriving from such changes are also discussed. Keywords: FL teacher education. Curriculum. National policies to FL teaching and learning. Language teachers’ professional development.

Contents: Introduction. Part I: Important Social Contexts in Research on Second Language Teaching and Learning. Introduction. M.E. Brisk, Bilingual Education. M.R. Hawkins, ESL in Elementary Education. P.A. Duff, ESL in Secondary Schools: Programs, Problematics, and Possibilities. D.E. Murray, ESL in Adult Education. S. Carkin, English for Academic Purposes. P. Master, English for Specific Purposes. C. Roberts, English in the Workplace. B. Tomlinson, English as a Foreign Language: Matching Procedures to the Context of Learning. Y. Kachru, Teaching and Learning of World Englishes. Part II: Methods in Second Language Research. Introduction. L. Harklau, Ethnography and Ethnographic Research on Second Language Teaching and Learning. L. van Lier, Case Study. A. Lazaraton, Quantitative Research Methods. D. Nunan, Classroom Research. A. Burns, Action Research. Part III: Applied Linguistics and Second Language Research. Introduction. T. Pica, Second Language Acquisition Research and Applied Linguistics. S.L. McKay, Sociolinguistics and Second Language Learning. J. Zuengler, K.M. Cole, Language Socialization and Second Language Learning. G. Kasper, C. Roever, Pragmatics in Second Language Learning. J.P. Lantolf, Sociocultural and Second Language Learning Research: An Exegesis. N. Markee, Conversation Analysis for Second Language Acquisition. R.B. Kaplan, Contrastive Rhetoric. S. Conrad, Corpus Linguistics and L2 Teaching. Part IV: Second Language Processes and Development. Introduction. G. Ioup, Age in Second Language Development. R. DeKeyser, A. Juffs, Cognitive Considerations in L2 Learning. Z. Han, L. Selinker, Fossilization in L2 Learners. M. Swain, The Output Hypothesis: Theory and Research. E. Tarone, Speaking in a Second Language. M. Rost, L2 Listening. T.G. Wiley, Second Language Literacy and Biliteracy. P. Byrd, Instructed Grammar. D.E. Eskey, Reading in a Second Language. I.S.P. Nation, Teaching and Learning Vocabulary. J.S. Hedgcock, Taking Stock of Research and Pedagogy in L2 Writing. E. Hinkel, Analyses of Second Language Text and What Can Be Learned From Them. Part V: Methods and Curricula in Second Language Teaching. Introduction. S.J. Savignon, Communicative Language Teaching: Strategies and Goals. S. Fotos, Traditional and Grammar Translation Methods for Second Language Teaching. J. Williams, Form-Focused Instruction. M.A. Snow, A Model of Academic Literacy for Integrated Language and Content Instruction. R. Ellis, Instructed Language Learning and Task-Based Teaching. M. Celce-Murcia, E. Olshtain, Discourse-Based Approaches: A New Framework for Second Language Teaching and Learning. C.A. Chapelle, Computer-Assisted Language Learning. N.J. Anderson, L2 Learning Strategies. Part VI: Second Language Testing and Assessment. T. McNamara, Introduction. A.J. Kunnan, Language Assessment From a Wider Context. A. Davies, C. Elder, Validity and Validation in Language Testing. M. Chalhoub-Deville, C. Deville, A Look Back at and Forward to What Language Testers Measure. T. Lumley, A. Brown, Research Methods in Language Testing. D. Douglas, Testing Languages for Specific Purposes. C. Leung, Classroom Teacher Assessment of Second Language Development: Construct as Practice. Part VII: Identity, Culture, and Critical Pedagogy in Second Language Teaching and Learning. Introduction. T. Ricento, Considerations of Identity in L2 Learning. M. Byram, A. Feng, Teaching and Researching Intercultural Competence. S. Canagarajah, Critical Pedagogy in L2 Learning and Teaching. Part VIII: Language Planning and Policy and Language Rights. R.B. Baldauf, Jr., Introduction. R.B. Baldauf, Jr., Language Planning and Policy Research: An Overview. T. van Els, Status Planning for Learning and Teaching. A.J. Liddicoat, Corpus Planning: Syllabus and Materials Development. R.B. Baldauf, Jr., R.B. Kaplan, Language-in-Education Planning. D.E. Ager, Prestige and Image Planning. S. May, Language Planning and Minority Language Rights.

This study focuses on primary foreign language teaching and learning. It seeks to reveal the perspectives and practice of three different stakeholders: specialist teachers, generalist teachers and head teachers. The study then places these beliefs and practice within a local, national and international context, considering the supporting factors for Primary Foreign Languages (PFL), as well as the challenges. It is a timely piece of research as it was conducted during the period when foreign language learning, for the first time in England, became statutory in primary schools. Furthermore, it took place during a timeframe of rapid change at all levels of education, which has had an effect on the translation of policy to practice. Data collection took place in two phases. In Phase One, an initial PFL practice mapping online questionnaire was sent to all schools in the Local Authority (LA) (n=69). Three schools agreed to participate. In Phase Two data collection methods employed in each of the three schools consisted of participant observations, semi-structured interviews, a self-reflective diary, informal conversation with staff and analysis of policy documents. The findings of the study show that all stakeholders in each school were supportive of PFL. However, this support did not translate into practice as the responsibility for PFL often rested solely with the specialist. As a result, the subject and specialists could be described as annexed, not fully integrated into the curriculum, and the specialists sought support from private companies instead of internally within the school. The majority of generalist teachers did not feel qualified to deliver the subject and there was a lack of future training options open to teachers wishing to train as PFL specialists. Those teachers who did express an interest in learning how to teach PFL felt that they could not engage fully with this endeavour due to internal and external pressure imposed upon them to achieve the highest possible pupil attainment in English and Maths. A disconnect was also revealed between the teachers’ most popular rationale for PFL teaching, which was preparing children to be ‘21st century global citizens’, and their actual practice. The teachers in the study recognised that, through learning a language and experiencing its culture, it may be possible to move from “egocentricity and ethnocentricity to a more altruistic sense of mutual benefit” (Byram, 2008:131). However, while espousing support for the teaching of intercultural understanding (ICU), the study reveals a lack of understanding in practice from stakeholders, policy writers and teachers. Overall, there is much goodwill for PFL as a subject, however, due to national and international drivers, it occupies a vulnerable place within the curriculum.

This study focused on instructors teaching German as a foreign language at two UK universities and examined their experiences with and attitudes toward free online neural machine translation (FONMT). In September 2022, eight semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather data. The results indicate a general openness toward FONMT, with instructors making varying assumptions regarding their learners’ reasons for utilizing FONMT. In addition, the instructors’ underlying conceptions of language learning in relation to FONMT became apparent and influenced their perspectives on assessment. The author presents FONMT from an instructor's perspective as a triangular relationship between assumptions (about students’ rationales), expectations (in light of language learning), and assessment (of language learning). Consequently, it appeared essential to consider potential reasons for using FONMT and the objectives of language learning when implementing FONMT in foreign language teaching and learning. By doing so, strategies become visible for both teacher training and language instruction that may assist learners in a purposeful use of FONMT while resisting its allure.

This special issue of NJLTL comprises contributions from researchers and practitioners engaged in foreign language teaching and learning in higher education – both within a Nordic context and beyond. Due to the large number of contributions received, the special issue will be published in two parts. The first part is scheduled for publication at the end of 2025, with the second part due to appear in Spring 2026. The first part includes 6 research contributions in the main section and 8 articles in the forum section. The articles, which focus on teaching and/or learning English, French, German, and Spanish as foreign languages, are written in Danish, English, Norwegian, and German.

Due to the changes in the approaches and methods in English language teaching throughout history, the use of mother tongue (L1) has been one of the most important topics discussed in the foreign language teaching field. Although most of the approaches used nowadays do not support the use of mother tongue, there is a change in the perception towards teachers’ code-switching in foreign language (L2) learning classrooms. There are various recent studies suggesting that using mother tongue facilitates foreign language learning. In this respect, the purpose of this study was to examine the teachers’ and students’ perceptions towards L1 use in L2 classrooms and under which circumstances they preferred using mother tongue. In addition, learners’ preferences of teachers’ code switching were also analyzed. Both teachers’ and students’ perceptions and beliefs on code switching were investigated using the questionnaires, classroom observations and interviews as data collection tools. There were 2 hour-observation periods (90 minutes) in the classrooms of 2 nd grade, 4 th grade and 7 th grade in which the circumstances of L1 use were analyzed to determine if there were any common characteristics of the L1 use. Findings of the revealed that there were some common circumstances where teachers code-switched to facilitate learning in the classroom and that students had some clear preferences for their teachers to switch to L1.

This article addresses the l issue of digital competence of foreign language teachers of higher educational institutions. Digital competence plays an important role in the successful teaching and learning of foreign languages. The study presents findings on the digital competence of foreign language teachers before the COVID-19 pandemic and examines how crisis-induced changes have influenced their professional development. The research explores various aspects of digital competence among foreign language teachers, including knowledge of computer programs, application of Internet resources, integration of multimedia tools in the educational process, and effective use of digital tools for evaluation and student collaboration. The authors also research the existing training programs for teachers on digital technologies and suggest methods for organizing effective training courses on digital competence for foreign language educators. The article highlights the challenges encountered by teachers when incorporating digital tools into their work, such as limited resources, apprehension towards new technologies, and restricted access to educational platforms. Conclusions are drawn on the significance of digital competence for foreign language teachers and its impact on students’ foreign language proficiency, motivation, and engagement in the educational process. In conclusion, the article emphasizes the importance of continuous professional development for foreign language teachers in the realm of digital competence. It also underscores the necessity of creating a supportive environment that encourages the seamless integration of digital technologies in higher education institutions. Overall, the article contributes to the study of digital competence of foreign language teachers and the integration of digital tools into higher education.

3D multi-user virtual environments (MUVE) bring new opportunities to foreign language teaching and learning as a platform for teaching practices. Due to immersive and interactive nature of 3D MUVE, these tools have gained popularity in the field of foreign language learning and teaching. The power of virtual learning environments lies in creating immersive 3-D spaces that give users a sense of learning by doing. Moreover, the environment is interactive and is much the same as real world interaction. MUVE provides strong support for synchronous collaborations, interactions, and immersive environments for experiential and constructivist learning settings. Some key features of the virtual worlds comprise the ability to construct 3D environments that simulate real world situations, as well as the ability to have a virtual identity to create a cross-cultural self and the ability to have participants from around the world acting virtually in designated roles that convey new types of learning within this environment.

Language teaching and learning today are dynamic processes that are marked with continuous interaction between the participants. Having employed adequate teaching methods, the lecturer can create a quality environment for teaching thus enabling students to be motivated, learn at an adequate pace and achieve the desired learning outcomes. Foreign language teaching and learning have been closely tied to using ICT tools in classrooms for many years, since using ICT tools generates motivation in students. Therefore, teachers usually integrate a wide array of tools into their lessons, ranging from audiovisual tools, interactive presentations, whiteboards, mobile applications etc. However, with the change of setting from the physical classroom to the online classroom in 2020, ICT tools have adopted an even more important role than they had in the traditional classroom: they have evolved from the means of facilitating the teaching and learning into the medium where teaching and learning take place. The aim of this paper is to explore how motivation and attitudes of students for learning foreign languages are shaped in a new synchronous virtual medium of teaching. To explore motivation and attitudes towards foreign language learning in a virtual classroom in great detail, in-depth interviews were conducted with a selected number of students who participated in a virtual Croatian Language and Culture course.

The article presents the peculiarities of future teachers training in the digital age, particularly to the use of immersive technologies in foreign language teaching. The revealed experience of the future teachers’ training is based on the experience of training 012 Preschool education specialty students of the Faculty of Pedagogical Education of Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University specifically in terms of their mastering “Modern Technologies of Teaching a Foreign Language to Preschool Children” discipline. The study clarifies the notion of immersive technologies as an umbrella term and a structural unit of digital technologies and gives its overview in foreign language teaching as well as highlights the influence of their use in the digital age and describes their educational potential. The four basic immersive technologies are mentioned and clarified. The advantages of the use of immersive technologies in foreign language teaching and learning are discussed. The general scientific analytic methods are used in the article. The literature analysis is the major method used to summarize the experience of the implementation of the use of immersive technologies in the field of foreign language teaching and learning. The received data emphasizes the further necessity to investigate the professional training of future teachers to the use of immersive technologies in foreign language teaching, specifically the aspect of their readiness for the aforementioned technologies implementation in professional activities

There are a large number of foreign language learners in China. Lots of research has been done on how to improve foreign language learning efficiency, but in reviewing the foreign language learning researches, it can be easily seen that the cultural effects on foreign language learning have not been given its due attention. Much of the research has been done within the scope of particular theories. This thesis attempts to explore the science of foreign language learning from the perspective of cultural effects on language learners, especially the effects of culture on foreign language learning beliefs. The efficiency of foreign language learning can be improved by improving learning strategies, which in turn are determined by language learning beliefs. The language learning beliefs are adversely affected by such cultural factors in Chinese culture as patterns of social hierarchy, face, collectivism and past oriented time concept. These cultural patterns help explain the existing language learning beliefs in China. Understanding the effects of these cultural patterns on foreign language learning beliefs, foreign language teachers can better understand students' learning beliefs and help students in turn with the evaluation of their learning beliefs; students of foreign languages can develop their own independent understanding of the foreign language, avoiding some false language learning beliefs.

<p>Foreign language instructors want and need to keep up with the rapid changes in the field of foreign language teaching and learning, but sometimes have a hard time identifying which areas they should focus on (and within each area, what to do) to make their instruction in line with 21st century approaches. The present article describes 10 areas instructors should examine and reflect on (technology, culture, collaboration, interaction with native speakers, communication and grammar, materials, skills, content, motivation, and professional development) to assure they are using innovative techniques that reflect modern philosophies in the field of foreign and second language teaching. </p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0761/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

The implementation of the Department of Education’s Special Program in Foreign Language (SPFL) marked the beginnings of the nationwide institutionalization of a range of foreign languages (FL) in the Philippines, stimulating new sites of inquiry for the field of critical language studies. Many of the languages offered under the SPFL do not share the historical and social grounding of the country’s official languages. However, they find common ground with English in the extant colonial framings of language teaching and learning, which have often impeded local agency in structuring or reimagining encounters with the “foreign.” As such, this paper aims to explore decolonial approaches to issues that have emerged alongside the promotion and teaching of foreign language classes across all levels of education in the Philippines by drawing inspiration from the decoloniality movement in Latin America and related efforts to de-center knowledge and digress from extant canons. First, it problematizes the implicit reinforcement of the one-nation one-language habitus, paying particular attention to assumptions that guide foreign language policies, materials, and teaching methods that reinforce global linguistic hierarchies and assumptions in favor of “competitiveness.” Second, considerations for alternative foreign language teaching approaches and materials are put forward, factoring in the Philippines’ sociolinguistic and historical features that have guided its framing of the “foreign,” as well as extant challenges in promoting intercultural reflection in an increasingly neoliberal educational setting. Challenges in integrating a decolonial perspective in institutional conceptualizations and policies on foreign language teaching in the Philippines conclude this paper to stimulate reflection on how language teaching may offer opportunities to rethink our relationship to language and interlingual/intercultural encounters.

Family factors significantly influence the development of critical thinking (CT) dispositions. Yet, the dynamics of this influence among foreign language (FL) learners remain underexplored, with potential moderating factors still unclear. Building on social capital theory, social support theory, and ecological systems theory, this study explored this relationship among FL learners and further investigated whether teacher support moderates this connection. A total of 16,006 secondary students from China participated in the study, spanning grades 7 through 12 (M age = 14.842 years, SD = 1.416). Data were collected using student-reported CT disposition scale, FL teacher support scale, and SES questionnaire. Multiple regression analysis revealed a positive relationship between SES and CT dispositions of FL learners. Furthermore, moderation analysis showed that teacher support positively moderated this relationship. That is, higher levels of teacher support enhanced the positive effect of SES on CT dispositions among FL learners. This research has both theoretical and practical implications for the development of CT dispositions among FL learners.

Foreign language competence is one of the general skills necessary for the European knowledge society. It is also an essential criterion for personality maturity subservient to mutual understanding, democratic stability, and communication with the world. Learning of foreign languages is perceived as a part of life-long learning. Therefore, higher education institutions (HEI) should, on the basis of what has been achieved in secondary education in the field of language teaching and learning, aim at further development of foreign language teaching and learning. Moreover, internationalisation of higher education (HE) all over the world, including Lithuania, enhances the provision of more and more programmes taught fully or partly in English as the interest of international students to acquire education abroad has been increasing constantly. Consequently, students of higher education institutions are required to be proficient in English. The authors of the article consider it purposeful to analyse the proficiency in English as a foreign language of higher education graduates. Taking into account the disparity in the language competence of graduates from different HEIs which is a major obstacle for not only their international mobility but also raises difficulties for academic mobility and choice as concerns the graduates’ further studies at the level of Master’s programme in their own country in the context of life-long learning, the study aims at determining language proficiency of the graduates from the first cycle studies at HEIs, applying for the Master’s degree programmes in Lithuania, and comparing the level of graduates’ English language proficiency among different HEIs. The analysis of the research findings revealed insufficient language competence of the higher education graduates as well as remarkably divergent range of language competence among graduates across HEIs. Therefore, the study argues for more attention to foreign language studies at HEIs by introducing specific language related courses and raising requirements for foreign language competence, also for the necessity to have a standardised instrument in Lithuania for HEI graduates’ foreign language competence assessment to ensure efficient movement of students within the country’s HEIs and comparability of their language competences, and to ensure foreign language competence development at the level of post-graduate studies. Key words: