The COVID-19 pandemic forced university-based language teachers to rely on technology for teaching. While the challenges of the rushed move to online teaching have been well documented, less is known about how teachers adapted to online teaching through professional development. This article focuses on the experiences of four English-language teachers in Indonesian higher education, who took part in an exploratory practice study for the integration of technology-enhanced pedagogical practices in teaching. In this article, we explore the pedagogical puzzles they explored with their students, the challenges faced by the teachers and the gains achieved by undertaking exploratory practice for integrating technology into language teaching in 2021. Drawing on data gathered through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions, we identified that the application of exploratory practice principles enabled the participant teachers to tackle a variety of pedagogical puzzles related to online teaching and professional development. We also found that they overcame a variety of challenges and used potentially exploitable pedagogic activities to better understand students and their learning needs, which encouraged them to recognize students as partners in teaching. Further investments of resources and support are necessary to ensure that language teachers fully benefit from exploratory practice in terms of professional development during and beyond the pandemic.

Although a surfeit of research has investigated the technicality and efficacy of feedback, much less attention has been directed towards student engagement with written feedback. In second-language writing scholarship, student engagement is considered the linchpin that connects feedback provision with learning outcomes and is crucial for feedback to be effective. This article aims to provide a critical review of empirical research on student engagement with written feedback on second-language writing, as well as suggestions for future studies and classroom practice. Utilizing systematic and explicit methods to identify, select and critically appraise relevant research, the article provides a synthesis of research findings concerning: (a) the ways second-language students engage with written feedback; (b) factors that influence student engagement with written feedback; and (c) impact of pedagogical activities on student engagement with written feedback. Based on the reviewed evidence, this study also outlines several areas for future research and provides pedagogical recommendations for second-language teachers. By synthesizing empirical findings on student engagement with written feedback and distilling their implications, the article advances existing knowledge on this under-researched yet important topic and suggests implications that could inform new avenues of research and pedagogical practice.

This study reports on English-as-a-foreign-language teachers’ beliefs about coursebooks and their adaptation profiles; it also unveils the demographic characteristics that differentiate the profiles. Responses from 3654 Chinese English-as-a-foreign-language teachers were analyzed using Latent Profile Analysis, descriptive statistics and Scheffé's method. Results indicate four distinct coursebook adaptation profiles: Highly Active, Moderately Active, Lowly Active and Adding-Deleting-Oriented. The four profiles differed significantly in the distribution of teachers by professional titles, administrative posts, types of students they teach, and participation in coursebook writing and coursebook use training. The teachers tended to regard coursebooks as resources rather than scripts.

The rapid advancement in video technologies in recent years has made the creating and editing of subtitles for a video increasingly feasible. For a long time, however, the pedagogical potentials of subtitling in language teaching and learning have been neglected. To fill this gap, this technology review introduces VisualSubSync, a free and flexible tool for subtitle editing, as a practical instrument to facilitate the teaching of listening and viewing skills. This review first provides an overview of the main features of the software and then discusses the possible benefits it offers to listening and viewing pedagogies in the English-as-a-foreign-language classroom. Finally, the challenges that teachers and learners may face with subtitling are considered.

As diverse linguacultural users of English use English in different contexts, the language has evolved into diverse varieties. With this transformation, traditional English-as-a-foreign-language-oriented pedagogies with strict compliance to native English norms are directly challenged by Global Englishes pedagogies. However, with fewer studies on Global Englishes-oriented activities in English-as-a-foreign-language contexts, this qualitative study sought to critically examine in and out of classrooms global Englishes-oriented activities implemented by 10 Thai teachers in 5 universities in order to raise learners’ Global Englishes awareness. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews and analyzed using qualitative content analysis based on the Global Englishes Language Teaching framework. The participants reported implementing five main Global Englishes activities in their teaching practices, including: (a) student–foreigner classroom interaction; (b) Global Englishes video-based Englishes exposure; (c) on-campus meet and greet; (d) Global Englishes discourse topics presentation; and (e) watching English-language films. The participants observed that these activities, if implemented, could greatly increase the students’ awareness and acceptance of English diversity.

The effect of first language transfer on second language acquisition and learning has been a major theoretical concept in second language research and pedagogy since the 1950s. In order to give a historical perspective, the authors offer a brief presentation of some of the major topics from the broad spectrum of issues that have been examined by the applied linguistics research community during the past six decades and some significant developments in neuroimaging and cognitive science that have allowed researchers to investigate the role that first language plays in transfer to second language during neural activity and cognitive processing. The paper concludes with some pedagogical implications for second language instructors.

One of the driving forces for a wider adoption of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in higher education is that students may demonstrate improvements in English language proficiency through an increased English exposure from content learning. However, to what extent previous English exposure has an impact on students’ learning experiences remains unanswered. This paper contributes to filling this gap by analysing quantitative data of 73 undergraduate science students from Hong Kong, classified by their prior English language exposure. Students completed a survey exploring their perceptions of their (1) exposure to EMI prior to university admission and the actual language use in classrooms; (2) English abilities in different learning activities; (3) English language challenges; and (4) learning strategies. Results showed that students’ perceptions of EMI learning varied with their levels of English exposure prior to university admission. Despite encountering more difficulties in using English among first-year students with lower-level English exposure, all students perceived the importance of English skills in science education and adopted different learning strategies to overcome the EMI study challenges.