ABSTRACT This review explores the pedagogical affordances of Gemini Live, Google's multimodal generative AI (GenAI) chatbot, for communicative language teaching, with particular attention to task‐based interaction. Unlike earlier text‐ or voice‐based GenAI chatbots, Gemini 2.5 released in 2025 integrated live vision and voice to support context‐rich, goal‐oriented communication. It enables learners to engage in interactive, multimodal activities such as object‐based exchanges, gesture‐supported interaction, and screen‐shared collaboration. Although such activities do not automatically constitute full task‐based language teaching (TBLT), Gemini's multimodal environment offers a promising platform for scaffolded, authentic interaction, reflective post‐task discussion, and task‐supported language learning.
ABSTRACT Through autoethnographic narratives, this study explored how one is becoming a feminist EFL instructor in a Japanese university. The purpose of this study is to examine the complex relationship between a feminist identity and classroom practices by examining my lived experience through discussions of Japan's foreign language education policies, language interactions within academic communities, and critical self‐reflexivity. For this study, feminist autoethnography was utilized as a research method. My narrative text, field notes, research memos, pre‐existing documents, and other textual artifacts were collected. I employed a post‐structural feminist theory of identity and scrutinized the (re)constructing process of teacher identity. Through analyzing the data, I foregrounded my lived experience of teaching gender‐related topics in university EFL classes and divided my developing feminist EFL teacher identity into three parts: (1) struggles and difficulties of teaching gender topics in EFL classes, (2) “breakthrough” moments that helped overcome struggles and difficulties, and (3) interrogating internalized homophobia. The analysis revealed that my feminist EFL teacher identity was constituting, contesting, and evolving through the influence of sociocultural and political contexts, discursive interactions within academic communities, and critical self‐reflectivity. This autoethnographic study contributes to research of teacher identity and feminist pedagogy in TESOL.
ABSTRACT Critical media literacy activities can make visible, interrogate, and disrupt linguistic and racial hierarchies enacted through mediascapes of classrooms, schools, and communities. Informed by critical applied linguistics, media literacy, and media ecology, I share examples of how analog and digital media convey ideologies about language and race and how pedagogy can help dismantle colonial ideologies.
ABSTRACT This Conceptual Feature article introduces arts‐based pedagogical translation as a translanguaging and dialogic approach that positions multilingual learners as active creators, collaborators, and meaning‐makers across languages and modes. Through two illustrative examples in the Northeastern United States—(1) a collaborative translation project in a teacher education setting and (2) a community‐based theater program for adult ELLs that incorporated translation—we explore how this approach fosters linguistic agency, affirms learner identity, and deepens cross‐cultural understanding for both educators and students. We aim to offer a conceptual and practice‐centered discussion of how arts‐based pedagogical translation disrupts deficit perspectives of language learners and opens translanguaging spaces. We conclude by discussing implications for teacher education, TESOL practitioners, and literacy educators interested in integrating arts‐based pedagogical translation as a translanguaging practice into their work.
ABSTRACT We argue for centering teachers as designers rather than technicians or planners of learning outcomes, proposing design as a way of naming the work of discernment through which teachers intentionally shape conditions, environments, and experiences in response to learners, purposes, and situations. Framing language teachers as designers is especially important in the present moment, as learning increasingly unfolds across diverse temporal, spatial, and relational arrangements that extend beyond bounded classroom spaces. We contrast these framings to show how teaching understood as instructional delivery or as design directs attention toward different aspects of teachers' judgment, responsibility, and relational work.
ABSTRACT This study examines how two pre‐service English teachers in Türkiye navigate the racialized (whiteness‐Europeanness‐indexed) and marketized legitimacy regimes of the private English language teaching sector. Drawing on a language teacher identity lens and a political economy account of accent commodification, we analyze the contrasting narratives of Yelda and Mizgin, undergraduate ELT students who sought part‐time employment while preparing for more secure public‐sector careers. Data come from two narrative‐oriented, semi‐structured interviews and are analyzed using an analysis‐of‐narratives approach focusing on identity positioning, recognition, and meaning‐making in critical incidents. Findings show that private‐sector hiring functions as a gatekeeping site in which teacher legitimacy is interactionally produced through embodied language ideologies that link accent, appearance, and presumed nativeness. Yelda is recruited on the condition of performing a market‐recognizable native persona, a process we conceptualize as native rebranding, while Mizgin is denied employment despite asserting intelligibility because he is not native‐like. The study highlights how teacher education can both reproduce and contest these hierarchies, and it foregrounds native rebranding as identity labor shaped by racial capitalism in ELT markets.
ABSTRACT Socio‐emotional learning is essential for young multilingual learners, as it supports identity development, a sense of belonging, and language learning. This article describes how an elementary English as a Second Language teacher embedded flexible, context‐specific socio‐emotional learning opportunities within a picture book read‐aloud, discussion, multimodal activities, and writing with her multilingual learners.
ABSTRACT The rise of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), particularly OpenAI's ChatGPT, has sparked global debate in education regarding authorship, ethics, and knowledge production. While much research highlights AI's affordances and risks, less attention has been paid to how early‐career multilingual teacher educators navigate this terrain. This collaborative autoethnography explores how two novice multilingual educators, working in transnational contexts, experience professional vulnerability and identity (re)formation at the intersection of AI, emotion, and institutional expectations. Drawing on a new materialist stance, we trace how our orientations to AI are entangled with emotions, accountability, and language norms. Using reflection logs, identity maps, and collaborative dialogues, we illustrate complementary trajectories of resistance, adaptation, and ethical negotiation. This study contributes to research on multilingual teacher educator development by foregrounding emotional reflexivity, techno‐ethical tensions, and identity assemblage in the age of AI.
ABSTRACT This article presents findings from a workshop in an anti‐racist teacher education course. Drawing from raciolinguistic ideologies, anti‐Black linguistic racism, and Extraordinary Pedagogies rooted in anti‐bigotry praxes, the workshop engaged white teacher candidates (TCs) to interrogate standard academic English as a racialized norm that marginalizes Black multilingual learners (BMLs). Through a sequence of intentionally structured learning activities, TCs critically examined the links between language ideologies and broader systems of racist ideologies. Collaborative thematic analysis of learning artifacts and classroom interactions reveals TCs' language attitudes shaped by native‐speakerist ideologies and an emerging awareness of raciolinguistic tendencies. The discussion shows that the synergy between Extraordinary Pedagogies and other anti‐racist pedagogical frameworks positions TCs to assume agentive roles and adopt an inquiry stance in working with BMLs. The conclusion calls for justice‐oriented pedagogies for TCs of interdisciplinary backgrounds to disrupt biased language ideologies and construct an understanding of linguistic and social justice.
ABSTRACT This study examines a reconceptualized approach to grammar addressing fundamental gaps in multilingual teacher preparation. Traditional rule‐based training has historically prepared teachers to give prescriptive responses that shut down student inquiry rather than to reason about grammatical patterns in context. Drawing on functionalist conceptions of language, in particular, Larsen‐Freeman and Celce‐Murcia's Grammar Dimensions framework of form, meaning, and use (henceforth FMU) (2016), we designed a 13‐week MTESOL subject repositioning FMU as potential transformative knowledge for specialist grammar teachers. The subject integrated theoretical development with practical application through authentic text analysis and systematic engagement with professional grammar resources. Focus group data from seven multilingual participants reveal three patterns of transformation: epistemic shifts from rule‐based to pattern‐focused understanding, professional repositioning toward confident reason‐giving, and emerging approaches to AI as an investigative tool rather than an authoritative replacement. Contrary to Meyer and Land's Threshold Concept theory predictions, participants embraced FMU readily rather than finding it challenging, suggesting it represents essential foundational knowledge and processes absent from traditional programs. The study illustrates how sustained FMU instruction can support multilingual teachers in developing a shared analytical vocabulary for grammatical reasoning, a form of pedagogical expertise that neither native‐speaker intuition nor AI currently supplies.
ABSTRACT This position paper addresses a critical methodological gap in research on racial and ethnic representation in English Language Teaching (ELT) materials. Despite decades of criticism regarding diversity in textbooks, researchers have largely relied on qualitative assessments without establishing quantitative frameworks for measuring representation. This absence of measurable benchmarks has led to inconsistent expectations, ambiguous claims, and limited practical guidance for publishers and educators. Through analysis of existing literature, this paper demonstrates how the lack of quantitative definitions undermines both the analytical rigor of representation research and the practical application of its findings. The paper proposes three quantitative frameworks for assessing representation: publisher‐country demographics (reflecting the demographic composition of the publishing country), global demographics (mirroring world population statistics), and target market demographics (tailored to the demographics of primary user markets). Each approach offers distinct advantages and limitations, with dramatically different implications for what constitutes “appropriate representation.” These frameworks would yield substantially different outcomes, highlighting why explicit quantitative standards are essential. The paper argues that adopting transparent, measurable criteria would benefit multiple stakeholders by providing researchers with clearer parameters for empirical studies, offering publishers concrete guidelines for inclusive material development, and equipping educators with informed evaluation tools. Rather than prescribing a single correct approach, this work advocates for methodological transparency and precision to move the field beyond circular critique toward measurable improvement in representation practices.
This study uses a sequential exploratory mixed-methods design to examine the impact of a year-long teacher professional development (PD) program on literacy instruction for multilingual learners classified as English language learners (ELLs) in the United States. Addressing the challenge of scripted curricula that often fail to meet the linguistic needs of ELLs, this study examines how sustained PD and coaching can empower teachers to transform scripted lessons into inclusive, language-rich instruction. The PD consisted of coursework and instructional coaching for some of our treatment teachers, focusing on enhancing teachers' skills in an English language development framework centered on oral language, vocabulary usage, and immersive writing. Participants for this study included eight Grade 2 teachers who were part of the larger cohort of elementary school teachers participating in the PD program (treatment teachers), and four Grade 2 teachers who were not part of the PD training (comparison teachers). Three of the treatment teachers also received instructional coaching. Quantitative results showed that treatment teachers devoted significantly more time to essential literacy components and achieved higher rubric scores in vocabulary and oral language development. Qualitative analysis revealed increased attention to oral language and vocabulary instruction among treatment teachers, who implemented ELL-specific literacy strategies more frequently, consistently, and effectively. These findings suggest that the synergy of systematic coursework and iterative coaching is essential for advancing best practices in linguistically diverse educational contexts worldwide.
TESOL educators have access to diverse didactic resources, including popular music and songwriting, which can be especially effective tools for writing instruction. This conceptual article explores the use of sones-the song verses of son jarocho, a folkloric regional music genre from southeastern Mexico-as a medium for poetic (re)writing, reflection, and social critique in the TESOL classroom. The improvisational tradition of son jarocho allows language-minoritized students to creatively reinterpret the genre by emphasizing individual experience and dynamic expression. We focus on the Chicane/x band, Las Cafeteras, and their (re)interpretation of the centuries-old son (son jarocho song), "Se & ntilde;or Presidente/Mr. President" as a catalyst for son jarocho-based writing practices. We highlight this Mexican musical tradition as a resource for teachers to foster creativity and criticality in TESOL classrooms. Co-authored with Las Cafeteras lead singer-songwriter, Denise Carlos, this article theorizes son jarocho as a powerful tool for cultivating creativity and critical literacy while envisioning more equitable futures for immigrants and racialized multilingual communities.
The inclusion of English-language learners (ELLs) and twice-exceptional students (ELLs with learning disabilities) in U.S. classrooms is a challenge for teachers, who are generally unprepared for applying appropriate methodologies and lack additional classroom support. Indeed, globally, there is a need for training in and systematic application of evidence-based practices to enable teachers to attend to all of the students in their classroom, with their wide variety of needs. This article proposes a selection of strategies and methods that stem from High-Leverage Practices and Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol, two frameworks that are widely recognized as best practices, in order to respond to a case study of a hypothetical young student, an ELL with suspected learning disabilities, and her teacher, who should attend to her needs as well as those of her classmates. Several specific techniques are described, some also supported by the application of the Universal Design for Learning, in order to make recommendations for pre-service teacher training as well as continued professional development of in-service teachers.
With the growing population of multilingual learners designated as English learners in the United States, many districts have been grappling with how to build capacity to serve these students effectively. One model that an increasing number of schools and districts are turning towards is co-teaching in content and language integrated classes. Using Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological levels and Wenger's (1998) communities of practice, researchers examined how and to what extent capacity was built to serve secondary multilingual learners designated as English learners in a U.S. school district with a well-established co-teaching program. Findings illuminate both opportunities and challenges in three major ways: shared but unequal responsibility, common practices but divergent programs, and coordinated but constrained collaborative work. Implications for future research and practitioners are included.
