This study examines the effectiveness of using the cartoon "SpongeBob SquarePants" to enhance sociolinguistic awareness among young English learners. Recognizing the difficulty in developing metalinguistic skills in young learners, this research uses cartoons to create authentic and engaging sociolinguistic contexts. Participants were provided with language scenarios involving family, friends, and school settings. Data was gathered through one-to-one interviews, focusing on their experiences, awareness of language variations, and its relevance to daily life. The transcribed interviews were analyzed thematically to uncover insights into the participants' sociolinguistic experiences. The study addresses a gap in the literature, as most sociolinguistic research has centered on adults. Findings suggest that young learners’ language use is influenced by contextual factors such as setting, gestures, and mimicry. Emotional and demographic factors like sincerity, formal relationships, and age differences also impact language use. The study concludes that integrating sociolinguistic elements into EFL classes can improve linguistic skills, cultural awareness, and social competence. It recommends further research on the long-term effects and integration of sociolinguistic education in curricula.

This study examines pre-service English language teachers’ grounds and connections between the use of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in EFL writing skills and future prospects to integrate them into their teaching practices. Employing a qualitative research paradigm, a researcher-developed survey was used to elicit the perspectives of 28 pre-service English language teachers and 10 teacher trainers. The stages of qualitative data analysis were followed, emergent ideas embedded in the responses were labeled and the codes were clustered into broader themes to obtain a description of their reflections. This study documented reflections on the transformative impact of generative AI in EFL writing. Benefits were reported considering the use of AI tools to overcome writer’s block and get language support, and instantaneous and personalized feedback to the texts. Foregrounding concerns regarding academic misconduct, a need was highlighted for ethical guidelines and enhancement to AI literacy to ensure the validity of AI-generated content. Further, they suggested reformulating assessment and evaluation in EFL writing skills and moving away from result-oriented exams suggesting the adoption of performance-based and process-oriented assessments. Accordingly, ethical and pedagogical implications were offered to adopt a critical stance to improve AI literacy skills in EFL writing development.

Corpora have primarily been used in linguistic research, but they have not yet become a pedagogical mainstay of language teaching and assessment practices.Therefore, this narrative review paper aimed to inform practitioners and researchers by examining the advantages and disadvantages of data-driven learning and exploring the use of corpora in foreign language teaching, particularly in writing.Specifically, the goals of this paper include: (1) elucidating what data-driven learning is and its potential to shape the learning experience, (2) explaining and exemplifying how learner corpora can guide EFL learners with particular attention to academic writing, and (3) providing insights into the indirect uses of corpora in teaching and assessing academic writing in L2.The review has met its objectives by presenting evidence compiled from the results of corpus-related studies and references to the use of corpus in language instruction.

There has been a growing interest in the concept of mindfulness and how it can be used in foreign language (FL) teaching to promote the well-being of both teachers and learners.In FL education, mindfulness is a novel practice, and it can be used as a tool to positively transform negative arousal in the language classroom to create enhanced learning environments.Thus, implementing mindfulness into FL teaching and learning may affect the conscious management of reactions to events happening in a language classroom and establish a less stressful learning atmosphere.However, FL teachers may lack both knowledge and practical realizations of mindfulness; and hence, need guidance in how mindfulness can be incorporated into their own teaching contexts.Based on this insight, this paper presents the latest findings from mindfulness research in language teaching and offers ways to promote mindfulness in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms.For this purpose, several activities, including breathing exercises and meditation practices, to foster a mindful attitude for teachers are suggested along with mindfulness practices for the development of language skills.Moreover, this paper proposes insight into mindfulness-based language teaching with notable implications to enrich FL teaching/learning environments and highlights the importance of integrating mindfulness in FL teacher education.

Providing teachers with adequate professional development (PD) is a central tenet to enhance education quality. In Vietnam, despite the blossoming of PD activities promoted over the past decade, the central question of how effectively these existing activities facilitate changes in teachers' practice has been underresearched. This mixed-method study responded to the scarcity in understanding the effectiveness of PD activities in the Vietnamese setting by employing a questionnaire administered to 80 high school teachers and six semi-structured interviews. Evidence from the questionnaire and interviews revealed that EFL teachers participated in PD activities on an occasional basis. Institution-internal or in-house professional activities were most common, while joining a professional affiliation such as a TESOL association was the rarest. Also, PD activities have positively reinforced the teachers' language proficiency, teaching practice, and planning practical lessons to meet students' learning needs. The discussions and recommendations are made for enhancing the quality of PD activities.

This study aims to reveal the attitudes and beliefs of English teachers about reflective teaching by using a technique called diary keeping. It also focuses on the effects of keeping diaries on teachers’ self-reflection and tries to bring the contributions it can provide teachers’ reflective teaching skills into the results of this study. It has been presumed that teachers will benefit the most in this process with this technique that allows them to look at their own practices closely through an introspective, mirror-like experience. For this study, the data were collected from four English teachers. Diaries were used as the instrument of this study. Pre-diary questions were also asked teachers to identify the level of awareness on the topic. The data were analyzed qualitatively by using content analysis. It is found out that teachers have used this technique both as a source and as a tool. They have used it as a source of awareness, self-evaluation, and preparation for further lessons and as a tool to analyze student needs, detect the same types of activities and uncover the problems. As a result of this study, diaries have been suggested for further educational practices and current English teachers as they lead one of the best ways the teachers can be reflective, give themselves effective feedback and advance their teaching skills.

While test anxiety is a strong predictor that affects the achievement and proficiency in the foreign language learning process, how it relates to the current theories and hypotheses remains an unanswered question. In addition, while test anxiety within the scope of descriptive and correlational studies is an issue that has attracted researchers, its theoretical background is mostly ignored. Thus, this paper aims to present a theoretical framework of test anxiety in the foreign language learning context. For this purpose, the paper first introduces the terms, definitions, concepts, theories, and hypotheses in relation to test anxiety. Then, the paper focuses on foreign language anxiety. Finally, it presents a theoretical background for test anxiety in a narrower scope. The paper concludes that more research is warranted, whereas teachers need to be trained to moderate the effects of test anxiety among foreign language learners.