Traditional approaches to pragmatic competence in English language teaching have emphasized conformity to native-speaker norms from Inner Circle Englishes, an orientation that proves inadequate for English as a lingua franca (ELF) contexts where communicative success depends on interactional flexibility, accommodation and negotiation rather than adherence to fixed standards. This study addresses this gap by operationalizing a reconceptualization of pragmatic competence through the ELF-Aware Materials Checklist, a criterion-referenced tool that enables teachers to critically evaluate and adapt materials for global English contexts. The framework is structured around three interconnected components − awareness of language and language use, awareness of instructional practices and awareness of learning − each examined through four universal criteria of authenticity, variety, relevance and reflection. The study investigates how the Checklist functions as both a pedagogical and professional development tool by addressing two research questions: how Checklist-informed lessons promote learners’ pragmatic awareness for global communication; and how engagement with the Checklist supports teachers in understanding ELF-awareness, evaluating materials and designing ELF-aware lessons. Through a multi-stage, exploratory mixed-methods design conducted in a Greek secondary education setting, one experienced teacher redesigned a listening−speaking lesson on social media, replacing scripted native speaker monologues with authentic non-native speaker interactions featuring accommodation strategies, translanguaging and natural discourse features. Findings demonstrate that Checklist-informed lessons promote pragmatic awareness through sustained cycles of noticing discourse features, underlying norms, and learners' own communicative agency, reframing pragmatic competence as an interactionally achieved capacity rather than native-like correctness. For teachers, the Checklist facilitates critical examination of materials, supports rethinking instructional practices, and empowers pedagogical ownership while remaining grounded in established scholarship and current research. The study demonstrates that rather than replacing established principles, the framework extends them by integrating ELF-awareness into familiar practices, fostering communicative capability aligned with contemporary understandings of English as a global lingua franca.
English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers now face a growing conundrum. Although generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) can assist learners in producing fluent text, overreliance on GenAI may risk undermining students’ independent writing development. The present study investigated the effect of collaborative argument mapping (CAM), a non-GenAI pedagogical scaffold, on EFL learners’ argumentative writing. Adopting a mixed-methods research design, we integrated Kialo Edu, an online CAM platform, into the argumentative writing instruction for 50 Chinese postgraduate EFL students. Repeated measures analysis of variance showed no significant improvement in students’ writing scores; however, a significant improvement in global cohesion was revealed. Further, students reported: (a) strengthened critical thinking and argument structuring; (b) generally positive platform experiences that clarified relations among claims, reasons, and evidence; and (c) more deliberate writing processes. Nevertheless, they also noted some challenges (e.g., information load, uneven attention to language forms). The findings suggest that Kialo-mediated CAM can support EFL learners’ discourse organization and foster perceived gains in critical thinking and argument structuring. Practical recommendations for optimizing the CAM-based writing pedagogy are also proposed.
English functions as a widespread communicative resource which is protean - highly adaptable in form - and shaped by contingencies of context. This situated variability constitutes clear evidence that pragmatic competence is central in effective language use. Understandings of English as an emergent practice therefore inform the pedagogical and administrative framework of an English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) programme at a private university in Tokyo. Within this framework, departures from native-speaker norms are interpreted as expressions of the diversity of global English use rather than as deficiencies. Despite the importance of pragmatic competence for successful ELF interaction, its role in assessment within the programme has remained largely implicit, a limitation which forms the basis of the rationale for the present study. Accordingly, this study proposes a framework of analytic rubrics aimed at making pragmatic competence in speaking more overt and assessable, expressed through attention to three interrelated constructs: intelligibility; linguistic accommodation; and communication strategies. Founded on ELF research and established principles of language assessment, the framework emphasizes clarity-oriented intelligibility work, adaptive linguistic accommodation and multistep meaning-negotiation strategies, reflecting salient pragmatic processes identified in ELF research. Each construct is exemplified by samples drawn from the English as a Lingua Franca in Japan Corpus, a resource developed by teacher-researchers in the programme. The framework therefore challenges evaluative paradigms which reward linguistic 'correctness' and risk marginalizing multilingual speakers whose context-specific language use facilitates successful transcultural communication regardless of conformity to native norms. Although not yet implemented, its construct-oriented design is intended to support engagement with ELF-related pedagogies and to facilitate critical language awareness. The study also proposes future directions, including rubrics for written ELF and learner-facing iterations for self-assessment, while offering a reference point for integrating ELF-aware speaking assessment into English language teaching programmes.
This study investigates the impact of integrating the Conceive–Design–Implement–Operate (CDIO) framework into English public speaking (EPS) instruction for English as a foreign language (EFL) university students in Taiwan. EPS has been widely recognized as a critical competence in academic and professional contexts, yet EFL learners often struggle with anxiety, limited practice opportunities and low self-efficacy. To address these challenges, the study implemented a quasi-experimental design with two Freshman English classes: a control group receiving traditional presentation training; and an experimental group engaged in a CDIO-based presentation training. Over an 18-week semester, students’ self-efficacy was measured using a validated EPS self-efficacy scale, while performance was evaluated with a rubric assessing language use, content, organization and delivery. Pre-test results showed no significant differences between groups, ensuring baseline equivalence. Post-test findings revealed that the experimental group demonstrated significantly higher self-efficacy, as well as superior performance in content development, organizational structure and delivery techniques. However, no significant improvements were found in language accuracy and fluency. These results suggest that CDIO-based instruction enhances students’ confidence and competence in public speaking through authentic, project-driven tasks. The findings yield three key pedagogical implications: (a) integrating authentic, product-based tasks such as sustainable innovation pitches can foster mastery experiences and boost learner motivation and self-efficacy; (b) using CDIO's four-phase structure enables instructors to scaffold content and organizational development through guided brainstorming, outlining and rehearsed delivery; and (c) to address limitations in grammar and vocabulary acquisition, supplementary language-focused interventions such as vocabulary mini-tasks and grammar workshops should be embedded within the CDIO cycle to balance fluency with accuracy. These strategies can optimize the effectiveness of CDIO-based EPS instruction in EFL contexts.
This article introduces a Translanguaging for Critical Multilingual Language Awareness (TL-for-CMLA) approach and illustrates how it can be operationalized through concrete pedagogical activities in language teacher education and additional language classrooms. The paper argues for an explicitly critical orientation that foregrounds power, racialization, and linguistic hierarchies rather than treating multilingualism as a neutral resource. The purpose of this innovation in practice article is to present two classroom activities that bridge critical language ideologies and everyday teaching practice in English as a Second Language (ESL) and Kindergarten-Grade 12 (K-12) classrooms with multilingual learners. The first activity uses multilingual versions of Little Red Riding Hood to develop metalinguistic awareness and challenge target-language only assumptions. The second activity centers multilingual, identity focused spoken word poetry to engage learners affectively, critically, and multimodally with questions of language, identity, and belonging. Together, these activities present adaptable examples, reflection prompts, and underlying rationales that can be applied across proficiency levels and educational contexts. This paper contributes theoretically by clarifying TL-for-CMLA and pedagogically by offering adaptable activities that support socially just language education.
In this editorial, we introduce the RELC Journal April 2026 Special Issue, “Feedback in Writing in the Globalized Era: Perspectives, Opportunities, and Challenges.” We begin with a brief overview of research on written feedback, with an emphasis on L2 contexts, then situate the Special Issue within the globalized era by highlighting key issues relevant to feedback in writing. Finally, we review the contributions included in the Special Issue: 10 empirical studies, two thematic reviews, two viewpoints, one practice-oriented paper, one interview, and two technology reviews.
Responding to current interest in how pragmatic competence can be taught and assessed in Global English contexts, this study examines whether Global Englishes (GE)-informed classroom pedagogy can support the development of early pragmatic awareness in the absence of explicit pragmatics instruction. The study reports a re-analysis of classroom data from a GE-oriented module implemented in an Italian secondary school, in which learners engaged with Asian Englishes and other English varieties through presentations and reflective journals. Although the original module was designed to raise awareness of linguistic diversity rather than to teach pragmatics, the dataset provides insight into how learners attend to meaning, interaction and sociocultural norms across English-using contexts. The analysis is framed through the Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational (ACT-R) model, focusing on the emergence of declarative pragmatic knowledge as a precursor to later procedural development. Findings indicate that learners developed conceptual awareness of context-dependent lexical meanings, sociocultural expectations shaping interpersonal communication and discourse practices associated with different Englishes. These reflections were particularly pronounced when learners engaged with Asian Englishes, which appeared to prompt noticing of pragmatic variability and reasoning about communicative appropriateness across contexts. While no evidence of procedural pragmatic competence was observed, learners' reflections align with ACT-R's account of early pragmatic development as the accumulation of declarative knowledge through exposure, noticing and reflection. The study contributes empirical evidence to the underexplored relationship between GE pedagogy and pragmatics by showing how GE-informed classroom activities can foster foundational pragmatic awareness in school contexts where explicit pragmatics instruction is constrained.
This paper reflects on innovative pedagogical work conducted in English Language and Literature and Translation undergraduate courses offered in a university in China. In these courses, pragmatic routines were addressed through a corpus-informed Chinese translation of What Do You Say, Dear? , a picture book of manners featuring ordinary pragmatic routines embedded in fantastical scenarios, providing a playful yet contextualized entry point into critical discussions about language, culture and communication. In these activities, students follow a sequence of tasks required to complete possible translations while being invited to move between languages and semiotic systems, drawing on their translingual repertoires to negotiate meaning and justify choices. Rather than arriving at fixed equivalents, students are positioned as multicompetent users navigating between pragmatic norms. The pedagogical activity is designed purposefully to foster both contextualized language awareness and Global English pragmatic competence, with pragmatic meaning not modelled on monolingual ideals but constructed dialogically across languages.
This qualitative case study examines the influence of religious identity on English as a second language (ESL) teachers' identity in Malaysia. Coupled with the concept of transidentitying as a conceptual framework, this study applies the notion of ethical self-formation in language teacher identity (LTI) research to analyse how religious identity shapes professional ethics in ESL teachers' professional identity. This study employed semi-structured interviews, observation data and document analysis to explore how ESL teachers navigate their professional ethics using their religious identity. The findings reveal that religious identity is a formative force in ESL teachers' professional ethics in promoting fairness and inclusivity in ESL teaching, maintaining professional integrity, and building positive collegial relationships in workplace. Thus, this study offers insights for both researchers and educators regarding the complexities of ESL teacher identity in a multireligious setting such as Malaysia, and the need for culturally responsive training for ESL teachers to help them acknowledge and engage with these connections between religious and professional selves.
