This article presents two empirical studies investigating the extent to which general English proficiency (GEP) and selected learner dispositions in online learning maintain their predictive utility for academic success in English-medium instruction (EMI) contexts in Türkiye across the pre-pandemic, pandemic, and post-pandemic periods. Both studies sampled engineering students from a large public university, with Study 1 involving 474 participants and Study 2 including 460. Study 1 examined the predictive roles of GEP, online learning readiness, beliefs, and satisfaction during the pre-pandemic and pandemic periods. Findings showed that GEP was a significant predictor of academic success before the pandemic, but this predictive relationship was statistically disrupted during the pandemic period. Study 2 extended the analysis to the post-pandemic context, where EMI courses were delivered both face-to-face and online. Results revealed a reinstatement of GEP’s predictive power in face-to-face EMI settings, while readiness, beliefs, and satisfaction with online learning were stronger predictors in online courses. This fluctuation illustrates a ‘passing cloud effect’, in which the predictive weight of language proficiency temporarily wanes under extraordinary contextual conditions but resurfaces when structured environments return. Based on the findings, several pedagogical implications are provided, and some relevant suggestions are made, underscoring the fluctuating nature of academic success in EMI.

In Spanish linguistics today, it is widely recognized that Spanish corresponds to the image of a pluricentric language. Different normative centers coexist, which are perceived as such by the speakers. However, the degree of recognition, status, and prestige of these linguistic norms varies greatly. This article examines the extent to which the pluricentrism of Spanish is represented in textbooks for Spanish as a foreign language. As a case study, three textbooks – Puente Nuevo , ¡Adelante! , and A_tope.com – used in high schools in Basel, Switzerland, are analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively in terms of their pluricentric character. The study examines the textbooks as a whole (thematic priorities, topics of units, maps) and selected linguistic phenomena, namely: the forms of address (morphosyntax), seseo (pronunciation), and the use of regional vocabulary. At various levels, it can be demonstrated that the textbooks are based on a Eurocentric view of language, which gives Castilian Spanish a superior role to that of other language norms, without this being explicitly stated. The article concludes with some practical recommendations for a more pluricentric approach to teaching Spanish.

While research suggests that vocabulary learning through task completion is more effective than direct instruction, the underlying cause of this advantage—whether task involvement load (IL) or time spent on tasks—remains unclear. Extending the work of Hill and Laufer (2003, International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching , 41 , 87–106), this study examines the effects of IL and employs eye-tracking to investigate how time spent on tasks, target words, and context, as well as regressions to targets, influence incidental vocabulary acquisition. Seventy-three second-language (L2) English learners were randomly assigned to a control ( n = 24) or one of three conditions: reading-only task ( n = 16; low IL), meaning-oriented task ( n = 16; low IL), and form-oriented task ( n = 17; mid IL). Participants completed a pretest, an immediate posttest and a 2-week delayed posttest assessing receptive form knowledge (recognition) and receptive form–meaning relation knowledge (recall and recognition). Eye movement data were collected to measure time on task and processing of target words. Results generally align with the predictions of the IL hypothesis that higher IL led to better learning, and indicate vocabulary acquisition was not solely attributed to time on task. Notably, time spent processing the context was negatively associated with recall of receptive form–meaning relation knowledge (retention), and regressions to the targets negatively affected receptive form knowledge (learning). Methodologically, this study demonstrates the potential of integrating online and offline measures for a deeper understanding of L2 vocabulary acquisition. The findings support the pedagogical value of form-oriented vocabulary tasks, such as fill-in-the-blanks, in enhancing incidental vocabulary learning when tailored to learners’ needs.

Complex Dynamic Systems Theory has redefined second language development as co-adaptation between language users and context, but few studies have proactively manipulated the context to model and optimize such co-adaptation. The applied nature of the field calls for research to move beyond observation toward intentional, Complex Dynamic Systems Theory-informed intervention and the development of corresponding methodological frameworks. This study addresses this gap by theorizing and operationalizing the context as an applied construct to examine the dynamics of agency–context co-adaptation. The context is more than a passive environment for language practice, serving as an actively shaped site that facilitates agency–context co-adaptation. Situated within a semester-long business Chinese course, this study delineated a closed-to-open context which took the form of a rubric co-constructed assessment series where learners proceeded from the recipients, to editors, to creators of the assessment rubrics, engaging reflexively with their evolving roles. Process tracing on qualitative data, including student reflections and rubric construction recording, revealed a progression in collective learner agency from taking control of grades over an opening context to improving performance over a guided context. Individual learner agency exhibited diverse profiles dependent on students’ varying focuses on task completion and language skills, buy-in of the assessment and rubric construction, and acknowledgment of the instructor’s guidance. In response, the closed-to-open context adapted to these variations through an ad hoc intervention addressing emerging needs for guidance.

Almost since the onset of emergency remote teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020, studies examined how teachers and students adjusted to the change, including in language courses. Some of this research has explored language teachers’ self-efficacy and confidence in teaching remotely, and to a lesser extent how student language learning has been affected; most studies have not differentiated among languages taught or between different student age groups. Through a survey of 173 PK–16 language instructors in the United States who switched from face-to-face classroom teaching to remote teaching in the spring of 2020, the present study examines teachers’ perceptions of their success in transferring specific teaching skills to a remote teaching context and their perceptions of the effects of remote learning on their students’ language learning experience. Across the teaching skills respondents were asked to report on, a majority of teachers reported that their in-person teaching skills were at least somewhat useful for remote teaching, but PK–12 teachers were more likely to report poorer transfer of teaching skills than instructors of adult students. Across different aspects of the student learning experience, teachers of PK–12 learners generally reported a more negative impact of remote instruction on their students’ learning than instructors of adults, while teachers of less commonly taught languages reported a more positive impact of remote teaching on their students’ learning than teachers of commonly taught languages. Our results provide new evidence of differences in the remote language learning and teaching experience between different groups of students and teachers, and underscore the importance for teachers and schools to prepare generally for flexibility in teaching, which includes remote teaching.

This study investigates the written feedback practices of Cambodian university teachers of English, drawing on 390 student journals and interviews with 11 instructors at a public university. Teacher feedback was dominated by grammar-focused, direct correction, influenced by student expectations for comprehensive error marking, heavy teaching loads, and limited institutional guidance. At the same time, many teachers described feedback as encouragement and emphasized the emotional support they hoped to provide, revealing a tension between their relational intentions and the predominantly form-focused practices. This pattern reflected not only pedagogical beliefs but also the institutional, cultural, and evaluative conditions that made surface-level correction the most feasible and professionally legible option. While these dynamics echo findings from other exam-driven English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) settings, the Cambodian case illustrates how institutional ambiguity, workload constraints, and hierarchical classroom norms can intensify belief-practice tensions. The study offers context-sensitive empirical insight from a less-researched setting and suggests that improving feedback practice requires both teacher preparation and institutional frameworks that acknowledge workload demands, cultural expectations, and the emotional labor of feedback.

Research on how foreign language learners use discourse markers (DMs) has largely centered on English, with limited attention to functional category development in other languages such as Spanish. At the same time, the relationship between study-abroad (SA) experience and proficiency in shaping DM usage remains inadequately understood. This study analyzes how proficiency (B1 versus B2 levels) and SA experience (with versus without) relate to Chinese learners’ use of functional DM in Spanish. More specifically, the study employs a between-subjects design with two oral tasks, and the collected DM data were classified into four functional categories: Estructuradores de la Información (EST, information-structuring markers), Conectores (CON, connective markers), Operadores Argumentativos (OA, argumentative operators), and Marcadores Conversacionales (MC, conversational markers), based on a functional–pragmatic framework. Analysis reveals that proficiency is strongly associated with increased frequency, diversity, and functional flexibility in DM deployment, with advanced learners (B2) showing significantly higher frequency, proportion, and preference for MC-type markers. In contrast, SA experience shows a more limited relationship, linked in some cases to a heightened reliance on CON-type markers among lower-proficiency learners (B1). Overall, the study extends DM research into Spanish as a foreign language and clarifies how proficiency and study abroad experience differentially relate to pragmatic development.

A central concern among qualitative researchers over the last two decades has been enhancing its visibility and credibility, particularly among quantitative researchers as well as general audiences. Addressing calls for top-down insights to help stakeholders of research take stock of an increasingly large and complex literature body, this bibliometric analysis provides quantitative insights into 3,758 qualitative studies in language education, published in 34 major academic journals from 1999 to 2021. It investigates patterns of research productivity across authors, their institutions and the countries these are located in, the journals authors publish in, the research approaches they use, the topics they address, and the sources they commonly cite. The study uncovered a sizeable increase in the literature body, particularly in 2019–21, driven by growing interest in staple topics relating to teaching and learning featuring predominantly case study, conversation analytic, and ethnographic methods. The literature body, starting off as largely Anglophone centric and individually authored has become more diversified. Implications largely in the form of gaps in the dataset and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Self-regulated learning (SRL) is crucial to online language learning. Previous studies have shown that learners’ self-efficacy, task value, and SRL strategies improve SRL in online language learning contexts. However, how self-efficacy and task value affect different types of online SRL strategies is understudied. This study investigated the determinants of different types of online SRL strategies in online language learning courses to determine whether task value mediated self-efficacy and online SRL strategies. A total of 425 international university students who studied online Chinese language courses were recruited to complete self-report questionnaires measuring self-efficacy, task value and four types of online SRL strategies. Structural equation modelling showed that self-efficacy had significantly direct and positive effects on two types of strategies, including management of time and effort and complex cognitive strategies. Self-efficacy indirectly predicted simple cognitive strategies and contact with others through the full mediation of task value in online learning contexts. Task value had direct and positive effects on all four types of online SRL strategies. The pedagogical implications for improving online Chinese language education were also discussed.

Although formative assessment has been gaining increasing importance, most of the previous research focuses more on how formative assessment affects the cognitive aspects of students’ learning process and less on the emotional aspects. This research aims to explore whether formative assessment can reduce second-language students’ writing anxiety and how different types of formative assessment achieve the results. The researcher designed a writing course according to Black and Wiliam’s theory of formative assessment, and integrated self-assessment, peer assessment, and teacher conferencing into a 17-week teaching schedule. By adopting a mixed-methods approach, the researcher measured second-language students’ writing anxiety before and after the program, and collected students’ perceptions on self-assessment, peer assessment, and teacher conferencing with open-ended questions. The findings show that students’ second-language writing anxiety was successfully reduced after 4 months’ teaching with formative assessment. Their low self-confidence in writing English, aversiveness to writing in English, and evaluation apprehension were all significantly reduced. The effects of three formative assessments vary. Peer assessment and teacher conferencing were more effective than self-assessment in alleviating anxiety. Self-assessment provides students with clear criteria and task requirements, which reduces their blind fear and boosts their confidence. Peer assessment ensures an encouraging and pressure-free environment by offering positive feedback. Teacher conferencing solves students’ problems efficiently by real-time and one-on-one tutoring, and provides emotional supports. In a word, formative assessment achieves results through solving writing problems and fostering positive emotions at the same time. However, because of individual differences and other reasons, formative assessment may even increase anxiety among a small number of people. This study highlights the great potential of formative assessment in enhancing emotional support in second-language learning.