Experts' View on In-service Mexican English Teachers’ Knowledge Base Framework*

Language assessment can be a valuable tool for providing information regarding language teaching. Given the importance of assessment that has undergone much change, there are important issues that warrant investigation, particularly those related to language instructors. Understanding the assessment beliefs of ESL instructors, especially at the tertiary level, is important since it can help improve the quality of assessment practices as well. Therefore, this study investigated English language instructors’ assessment beliefs in the Malaysian context. This study adopted a cross-sectional research design. The survey method was utilized to collect data from six Malaysian universities using a purposive sampling strategy. English language instructors (n=83) were selected via purposive sampling for the study. Findings of the study revealed that English language instructors believed that the purpose of assessment was to improve teaching and learning. Regarding the assessment beliefs that are related to the assessment purposes, analyses of data showed that the items that received the highest percentage of agreement were diagnosing strength and weaknesses in students, providing information about students’ progress and providing feedback to students as they learn, respectively. Although they reported using both formal and informal assessment of their students’ work, English language instructors relied heavily on paper and pencil assessment while giving more weightage on formative assessment. The majority of English language instructors reported employing marking schemes for the courses they taught, carrying out sample marking and providing feedback. Finally, English language instructors reported using different types of assessments for every language skill taught in their language unit/center. The findings highlight the fact that English instructors should be more empowered in their role as the assessors of students. Their knowledge about what, how, when to assess should be developed through long professional development courses; one-shot workshops or seminars would not be enough to improve instructors’ assessment literacy.

This study presents English teachers' professional, personality, social, leadership, and classroom interaction attributes which senior high school and university students expect from their English teachers. By knowing those attributes, English teachers are expected to be able to help their students attain better English language proficiency. For the investigation, five sets of questions were distributed in order to find out the respondents’ favourite English teachers attributes. The respondents consisted of senior students of three high schools and undergraduates of three universities who had high, mediocre and low English language proficiency. The results show that the students' levels of education and English language proficiency influence the students' perceptions on their English teachers' attributes. This study suggests that English teachers recognize the attributes that their students highly expect from them. It is suggested that English teacher training institutions should conduct more professional English language and language teaching trainings that help teachers to develop the attributes. It is also suggested that the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education of the Republic of Indonesia to monitor and evaluate universities and institutions which establish English Education Departments.

This study examines the level of Language Assessment Literacy (LAL) of English language teachers at the university level in Pakistan by adopting a mixed-methods explanatory approach. The study offers a comprehensive analysis of language assessment awareness among English language teachers in the Pakistani context along with their language teaching-learning experiences. Likewise, English language teachers shared their perspectives regarding the role of LAL in enhancing language teaching and learning processes at the university level. The theoretical framework of the study, which is comprised of three seminal theories, viz. Classical Test Theory, Generalizability Theory and Item Response Theory, has informed the interview protocol used for qualitative data collection. In the same vein, the current study investigates three core areas including the current level of LAL among university English teachers, the challenges they face while assessing their students’ language proficiency, and the possible solutions for these challenges for the improvement of language assessment, teaching and research practices. For the said purpose, data is collected from 15 English language teachers who are currently serving at five different public sector universities including Kohat University of Science and Technology (KUST) Kohat, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan (AWKUM), National University of Modern Languages (NUML) Islamabad, FATA University, Kohat, and Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) Islamabad, through semi-structured questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Correspondingly, quantitative findings of the study reveal that most of the participants (73.33%) are PhD degree holders but many of them lack professional language assessment trainings both pre-service and post-service. The study highlights that English language teachers have limited exposure to standardized testing frameworks like CEFR, IELTS, and ELLT. Among them, only 13.33% had studied language assessment as a course at the PhD level while 46.66% of language teachers had not attended any training in the last five years of their professional life. Given the gaps between language teaching and assessment practices as the qualitative data highlights, language assessment trainings need to be offered to teachers and students at the university level with a view to enhance their theoretical as well as practical knowledge regarding language assessment which will furnish their language assessment skills. The major findings of the study also have significant implications for English Language Teaching (ELT) and assessment practices and language policies with a view to bridge the gulf between language teaching and assessment practices in multilingual contexts like Pakistan.

This paper will NOT address the catastrophic effects of the government-imposed structural changes to Hungarian teacher education since 1990, nor will it concern itself with the low quality of life our teachers face, or how English linguistic and cultural imperialism is resisted or enhanced by our teacher training programs. Instead, I will demonstrate how our Humboldtian/neohumanist tradition of teacher education dating back to 1872 has dominated English language teacher training even in the last fifty years, and will give a criticism of the snobbery in our academic life which deems educational linguists’ and language educators’ work “unacademic” and looked down upon. The traditional teacher education model was significantly challenged when, in addition to the double major[1] 5-year teacher education programs, 3-year single major programs were started in 1990, with considerable help from the World Bank, the British Council, USIS and Peace Corps. These new programs focused on language pedagogy and practical teacher education, and provided considerably increased teaching practice. Similarly to the Netherlands in the 1970s, this was “an uphill fight against tradition, vested interests and mental inertia” (van Essen, 1996, p. 21). The quality of the programs was internationally recognized and the Centers for English Teacher Training (CETTs) became a model for restructuring English teacher education in Central Europe. The 1990s saw the all-time peak of English teacher education in Hungary. After 1997 the CETTs were forcibly (re)merged with the traditional philology departments (aka Departments of English Studies), and a lot of their achievements were wasted. The quality of teacher education seems to be under serious threat again and the academic prestige of teacher educators continues to be minimal, despite the international fame of some Hungarian applied linguists and teacher educators, and the high-quality MA and PhD programs they direct. In conclusion, I will offer my ideas on what could be done in this situation, which is aggravated by chaotic educational language policy decisions from our governments and the curse of the age-old SCHOLARLY teacher vs. PRACTICE ORIENTED teacher controversy in our (English) teacher education.

In the last decade, there emerged a rapid increase in the use of digital platforms and applications in educational field and language education was no exception. Various technological tools and many platforms which provide interactive learning experience for language learners, taking their needs and interests into account, have been introduced. Among those tools, artificial intelligence (AI)‐based ones have become quite popular and using them has resulted in crucial transformations in language education. This study aimed to investigate English language teachers' knowledge about AI and their attitudes and beliefs towards using AI‐based tools in language teaching considering some variables such as age, gender, years of experience and so on. We also aim to find out whether they trust these tools. A mixed‐method research design was used to collect the data. The participants were 144 English teachers from primary, secondary and higher education. They were given the instrument to measure teachers' trust in AI‐based education technology first, and then 11 volunteer teachers were interviewed to reach their in‐depth knowledge. The results indicated that English language teachers have positive attitudes towards AI, yet they have some pedagogical and ethical concerns such as data privacy, algorithmic bias, accountability, transparency, inclusivity and lack of human touch.

The objective of this study is to assess the impact of the Physically Active Learning Portfolio (PALP) on English language teachers' inclination towards incorporating sports-related activities into their teaching practices, as well as their perceptions of these activities. PALP activities were developed with the aim of enhancing English teachers' abilities to integrate various physical movements into course content, fostering an active, healthy, and enjoyable learning environment, and leveraging movement to facilitate rapid and enduring learning outcomes. This study sought to facilitate collaboration between physical education experts and English teachers to integrate movement into language learning. The study group comprised 30 English teachers selected from various public schools across different cities in Türkiye, constituting the study's participant cohort. The research design employed in this study was an explanatory sequential mixed-method approach (Creswell et al. in Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches, Thousand Oaks, 2003), where quantitative findings guided the qualitative exploration. Quantitative analysis indicated a statistically significant improvement in only one of the measured dimensions—teachers’ personal interest in participating in PALP activities—while no significant changes were observed in other areas. These results suggest that the intervention had a targeted but limited effect within the scope of the short-term implementation. It is important to note that the study employed a single-group pretest–posttest design without a control group, and the small, homogenous sample (N = 30) limits the generalizability of the findings. Nevertheless, qualitative findings provided additional insights into teachers’ positive perceptions and their expressed willingness to apply movement-based strategies in their language instruction.

Teacher quality is sine qua non of student achievement; however, choosing a qualified teacher is possible only when a valid and fair teacher assessment and evaluation (TAE) model is in place. The present mixed-method research aimed to develop a TAE model that can tell apart qualified English prospective teachers (who have required knowledge, skills, and attitudes) from unqualified ones. The qualitative data used in this research were collected from 78 stakeholders, whereas quantitative data were obtained from 271 in-service English teachers. Stakeholders’ perceptions of testing were gathered as they are informative in terms of consequential validity of exams. The sample of prospective teachers and in-service teachers involved graduates of both English Language Teaching (ELT) and other departments such as English Language and Literature (ELL) since they could become English language teachers by obtaining a teacher certificate. Semi-structured and focus group interview techniques were used to obtain quantitative data. Regarding quantitative data, the English Teachers’ Attitudes towards Recruitment System (ETARS), a valid and reliable scale developed by the researcher, was applied. SPSS was used to analyse quantitative data, and content analysis was used for qualitative data. The codes and categories were formed primarily by the researcher, and NVivo 12 was used to prevent data loss. Quantitative data showed that English teachers had a negative attitude towards the current TAE model. The qualitative findings were supported by quantitative data and indicated that the current TAE model is ineffective and unfair as it has both construct under-representation and construct-irrelevant variance (favouring graduates of ELL in terms of scoring). In this context, a new TAE model that can evaluate applicants’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes has been developed. This model is considered to be helpful in selecting qualified teachers, thus improving the quality of foreign language education.

<p><b>Identity is constituted in and through language (Norton, 2005) demonstrating social, political and cultural ideologies of individual selves in interaction. Exploring identities of individuals as language users, learners and teachers allows linguistic and applied linguistic researchers to disclose meanings behind complex language related behaviours. This supports insights for the development of language education. </b></p> <p>In the current study, I explore identity performance and identity negotiation of multilingual English language teachers (MELTs) in New Zealand (NZ). I define MELTs as English language teachers who speak any other language(s) in addition to English. Exploring how MELTs perform and negotiate their identities in NZ is important due to several factors. First, people in society have various ideological assumptions regarding multilingual teachers involved in teaching English in an English speaking country; therefore, MELTs are required to negotiate their linguistic and social identities to suit the expectations of the institutions and students they serve. Secondly, there is no known study in NZ focused on MELT identities, even though the population of NZ is diverse, comprised of multilingual communities. Thirdly, revealing identity negotiation of MELTs supports language teacher educators to understand language teacher identities with regard to classroom realities. This provides insights to develop language teacher education programmes accordingly. </p> <p>I employed four different research methods: semi-structured narrative interviews, identity portraits and classroom observations followed by stimulated recall sessions to explore how MELTs perform negotiated identities in the classroom (RQ 1) and what ideological and interactional functions are served when they perform negotiated identities (RQ 2). Data from narrative interviews provided insights to understand teacher identities revealed through their biographies and classroom stories. In addition, teachers’ narratives revealed how teacher identities are constructed and positioned while being negotiated in their stories. Identity portraits and the recorded interactions provided insights to understand how teachers make semiotic links to various linguistic and social identities they perform as English language teachers, providing various indexical meanings to those identities. I observed how teachers perform negotiated identities in interaction with students through classroom observations. I also conducted stimulated recall sessions to investigate teacher responses for classroom scenarios. Triangulated data from all the sources generated themes answering the two research questions.</p> <p>The findings of the study show that MELTs perform multiple negotiated identities in interaction with students and myself with reference to the micro and macro social contexts in which they are situated. MELTs also demonstrate positive and negative identity practices in the classroom based on their English language and English language teaching ideologies. Furthermore, MELTs’ identity performances were observed to serve various ideological and interactional functions in the classroom. For instance, their negotiated identities support them practicing either monolingual or multilingual friendly language teaching. Moreover, some MELTs employ their negotiated linguistic identities to translanguage in the classroom, catering to the language needs of multilingual students. They also negotiate their teacher identities based on contextual factors. Thus, the findings of my study support language teacher educators, researchers and administrators to understand the contribution of MELTs towards English language education in New Zealand.</p>

The study aimed to investigate the condition of implementing the English language for primary school first graders in Saudi school. In 2021, the Saudi Ministry of Education introduced English language teaching in the first grade of primary schools, and there is a research gap in this area. In order to do so, this study used a mixed-method approach, with questionnaire as the main instrument to reflect the perspectives of 224 teachers, including 112 Arabic and 112 English teachers, as well as an approximate total of 5600 pupils in two cities in Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire garnered quantitative data through close-ended questions, whereas qualitative data were collected using open-ended questions. The study found that both English and Arabic language teachers highly value the implementation of English language teaching in primary schools in Saudi Arabia. Students exhibited a preference for English classes over Arabic classes. The study reported no negative effects of learning English on Arabic language skills. However, challenges faced by English teachers in implementing English language education included a shortage of English language teachers and limited time allocated to teaching English. To overcome these challenges, the study recommended the use of technology-enhanced language learning and out-of-class activities and mobile apps to supplement the limited in-class English language teaching time.

Purpose: This paper aims at discovering the problems faced by English Language Teachers in knowledge sharing, knowledge creation, and knowledge use.
 Design/Methodology/Approach: The factors like large-size classes, lack of resources, prescriptive curriculum, unmotivated students, and the faulty assessment system create impediments for English language teachers in knowledge use whereas the factors like centralized organizational structure, excess of work, lack of trust, lack of motivation and an absence of knowledge sharing and knowledge receiving behavior among English teachers are hurdles in knowledge sharing and knowledge creation. Data was collected through a randomly selected sample of 150 in-service teachers of English. Data was simply elaborated through charts by the researchers.
 Findings: Finally, based on findings, certain generalizations are made about the factors that hamper the process of knowledge sharing, knowledge creation, and knowledge use.
 Implications/Originality/Value: There are also given some recommendations that may be valuable for the betterment of the process of knowledge sharing, knowledge creation, and knowledge use in educational organizations

Although the teaching of English can significantly contribute to the teaching of environmental topics, the integration of ecological literacy into language teaching is not supported by English teachers because they feel uneducated in this field. In the current study, we aimed to explore the experiences of preservice English language teachers as they learn to integrate ecological literacy into their teaching practices. The study utilises Ecopedagogy as a framework to emphasize the role of English teachers in promoting environmental awareness and contributing to a sustainable society. The study was conducted as part of an eleven-week program aimed at enhancing the ecological literacy skills of 11 preservice English language teachers enrolled in an undergraduate course on modern teaching approaches. Data were collected through two reflection papers and individual semi-structured interviews. The thematic analysis focused on shifts in the preservice English language teachers’ understanding of environmental issues and their roles in promoting environmental sustainability within their future classrooms. The results revealed significant changes in the preservice English language teachers’ perspectives regarding environmental issues and their responsibilities as educators in fostering sustainability. These shifts highlight the potential of integrating ecological literacy into English language teaching practices. Additionally, the study underscores the need to incorporate ecological education into teacher training programs to prepare future educators for fostering an environmentally conscious and sustainable society. Finally, the study suggests that enhancing ecological literacy in teacher preparation can play a crucial role in shaping future generations' environmental awareness.

The increase in pressure to teach English as a foreign language from an early age, and the privatization of education, are two issues discussed in education literature which are more advanced in Lebanon than in other Arab countries. This article reports on the first stage of investigation into English language teacher education in Lebanon. The research project begins by identifying who Lebanon’s English teachers are, how they have been trained and how they perceive the usefulness of their training. The results of a survey of 715 teachers are discussed along with insights from four semi-structured interviews, three with teachers and one with an official from the Ministry of Education. The discussion highlights issues of concern such as, the low status of the profession, the female majority among teachers, as well as the poor perception many teachers have of the usefulness of most training, whether pre- or in-service. It is argued that this last point is related to the varied contexts produced by such a private and public mix in the educational system and the difficulty of making any training immediately relevant to a specific situation. It is recommended that English Language Teacher Education (ELTE) providers plan a reflective, practice-based approach, exploiting the knowledge of local expert teachers in order to develop critical reflection skills for teachers in training. Such an approach should make it possible for knowledge and practice to be integrated consciously by teachers themselves, in whichever situations they are employed.

This study examines English language teachers' beliefs about action research, their capacity to conduct it, and their actual implementation practices. It also aims to identify the disparities between the participants' beliefs and actual practices. Employing a case study design and a mixed-methods approach, the study focuses on Mettu town in Ethiopia and English teachers from three secondary schools within the town. A non-probability sampling method was used to select 31 teachers for participation. Data was collected through questionnaires and in-depth interviews. The findings reveal that the participants hold positive beliefs about action research, possess moderate competency in conducting action research, but exhibit very low levels of action research implementation. Despite their extensive teaching experience, advanced educational qualifications, and high professional status, their competency levels and action research practices fall short of expectations. These findings highlight the need for training, school-based motivation, resource availability, and reinforcement of Ethiopia's teacher development policies. The findings suggest that further research should attempt to explore the underlying contributing factors for the discrepancy between the English language teachers' beliefs and practices about action research.

This study examines how English Language Teachers perceive teaching in mixed-ability classrooms within the context of community schools in Nawalpur District. During their teaching activities, what barriers do they face while teaching in mixed-ability classrooms? I employed the qualitative case study as a research design or methodology. The data were collected from interviews, personal stories of English Language Teachers, and experiences with open-ended questions asked to four English Teachers who have been teaching in mixed-ability classrooms at the secondary level, as well as classroom observations. The issues include diverse socio-cultural backgrounds, varying levels of proficiency, different learning styles, varied instructional techniques, and varying student numbers. Teachers have been facing many challenges and issues in addressing the needs of learners in mixed-ability classrooms. The collected data was analyzed under the Sociocultural Theory of Vygotsky (1978) and Constructivist Learning Theory (1950). Previous research and literature have not given in-depth attention to the challenges faced by English Language Teachers, focusing instead on differentiated instruction. This research reveals that teachers should adapt their pedagogical approaches to incorporate various instructional methods, as the learning pace and style differ among students. The class size, peer learning, and teachers' scaffolding can also address the challenges they face in their classroom activities and improve and increase the student's learning outcomes. Furthermore, it contributes to the current issue of mixed-ability classrooms by filling the gap in the existing literature and providing some solutions and guidelines to enhance students' learning outcomes in community schools.

Language assessment literacy (LAL) is a critical field for researchers, scholars, or anyone interested in improving the language teaching environment. Understanding the basics of testing and the ability to perform testing-related activities becomes more significant in test-oriented countries. As such, in the extremely exam-oriented milieu of Bangladesh, giving tests and preparing students for high-stakes tests are the two core tasks performed by language teachers. English teachers’ readiness and ability to perform various test-related tasks determine the quality of English education in the country. In this regard, earlier studies have investigated various factors related to English language teaching. However, the assessment literacy of teachers has rarely been investigated within the context of Bangladeshi language teaching. There is no publication or broader research to understand how LAL operates in English teachers in the country. Considering the test-oriented nature of Bangladesh, it is essential to explore if the LAL of language teachers is benefitting classroom teaching and learning. Hence, this research aims to examine the nature and functionality of LAL among English teachers in Bangladesh. The study focused on two central concerns: first, whether the English teachers in the country are academically and professionally ready to perform various testing tasks; and second, how the teachers perceive LAL in their teaching practices. Semi-structured interviews were used as the data collection method for this qualitative study. The results provided insights into how the inadequate academic and professional testing background of teachers hindered their performance in conducting assessment-related tasks and contributed to their limitations in the use of assessments to improve teaching. Based on the findings, the article concludes with suggestions that can be implemented to develop language assessment awareness of English teachers in Bangladesh.