Previous studies on teacher agency have largely overlooked its manifestation in professional practices and its connection to professional identity construction, specifically how they are at play during crises. A narrative inquiry was conducted to address this gap and understand teacher agency as manifested in a female teacher’s English as a foreign language (EFL) instruction and how it played roles in constructing her professional identity during the times of crisis, i.e., the COVID-19 pandemic. Employing the design allowed for the construction of stories about her, which was made possible by doing a narrative analysis of data gathered through observations of remote instruction, reflective journals, in-depth interviews, and the examinations of relevant instructional documents. The stories portray the interplay of inquisitive, deliberative, responsive, moral, and recognitive agency in her day-to-day pedagogical practices. A new facet was recognized and thus incorporated into the stories, i.e., numinous agency, which means having and displaying a deep spiritual connection, on which the teacher participant based most of her pedagogical decisions and professional identity work. Evidence of her numinous agency is her “nothing lasts forever” stance toward the pandemic and seeing it as momentum for cultivating her professional capital to serve her students better. The stories suggest that teacher education programs and professional learning incorporate topics on professional identity construction, teacher agency, and its facets, including numinous agency. We invite future researchers to investigate whether numinous agency also manifests in teachers’ pedagogical practices and identity construction work in different educational and cultural contexts.
Recent sociolinguistic research increasingly engages with K-Pop’s semiotic complexity, yet the intersection of fan identity and public space remains underexplored. This study examines how fans, as active participants in the K-Pop “fanscape” (Kim, 2017), construct both personal and place identities through geosemiotic elements (Scollon & Scollon, 2003) in fan-organized cafés in Bangkok. Drawing on ethnographic data, the results show that fans use linguistic elements both to mediate identity and to organize interaction. The interactions work with spatial arrangements to construct a sense of collective identity. The interdiscursive blending of artistic and commercial signs which transforms the fanscape into a hybrid space of both consumption and production reinforces the identity construction. The study contributes to a broader understanding of how identity and place are co-constructed through semiotic practices in contemporary K-Pop fan culture.
This mixed-methods study aimed to assess the impact of topic interest on writing quality and writing quantity, as well as explore the perceptions of EFL learners toward topic interest in the writing process. Thirty-one secondary education EFL learners were asked to complete argumentative writing tasks under two topic interest conditions, namely, high topic interest and low topic interest. This was followed by semi-structured interviews conducted with six participants. Writing quality was assessed by means of an analytic rubric evaluating content, organization, language use, lexicon, and writing mechanics, while writing quantity was measured through the number of words written in the writing tasks. Results revealed that topic interest had an impact on overall rubric scores, the content component, and the number of words produced. Perceptions of learners toward their levels of interest in the topics for the writing tasks highlighted individual and situational components of topic interest, as well as the effect of prior knowledge in their writing. The results contribute to research emphasizing the integration of interesting topics in EFL classrooms to foster motivation, enhance learning outcomes, and support the development of EFL writing skills.
This autoethnographic study traces the development of a PhD candidate from a novice to a more competent qualitative interviewer, with a specific focus on research interviewing. Drawing on 11 pilot interviews, reflective journals, and supervisory feedback, it uses a critical incident approach to examine how interviewing skills, emotions, and reflexivity co-evolved. The study proposes a two-step, three-stage framework for understanding novice development, centered on grounding and integration across interview style, study design, and micro-techniques. The findings show that interviewer learning is nonlinear and cyclical, with an emotional trajectory that moves from anxiety toward agency. Effective interviewing depends on deep listening and rapport building, and reflexive adaptation improves interactional decisions and data quality. The study contributes to qualitative methodology by reinforcing the researcher-as-instrument perspective, demonstrating how critical incident autoethnography can illuminate interviewer development, and offering training implications for doctoral education. These implications include scaffolded rehearsal, guided reflection, supervised practice, and structured emotional support. Overall, the study provides a learner-centered roadmap for doctoral training and qualitative interviewing pedagogy.
This study examines the challenges faced by non-English major law students in learning Legal English, with a particular focus on how these obstacles affect their academic performance. Conducted at the College of Shariah and Law, Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University (IAU), the research explores the difficulties encountered by students who are required to study Legal English despite limited proficiency in the English language. The study investigates the impact of these challenges on students’ understanding of legal concepts and their overall academic achievement. Using a mixed-methods approach, the research integrates both qualitative and quantitative data, gathered through surveys, interviews, and student performance records. Data analysis involved coding qualitative responses from interviews to identify recurring themes and patterns, while quantitative data were analyzed using statistical methods to determine correlations between language proficiency and academic performance. The findings reveal that insufficient exposure to legal terminology significantly hinders students’ comprehension of legal texts and impedes their performance in assessments. In response to these findings, the study highlights the importance of providing more comprehensible input, such as simplified explanations, glossaries, and context-rich examples, to bridge the gap between legal terminology and students’ current language proficiency. Furthermore, the study underscores the crucial role of instructional strategies and classroom practices in shaping students’ learning outcomes. The study concludes with recommendations for enhancing teaching methodologies and materials, emphasizing the need for targeted support to bridge the gap between legal education and English language proficiency.
The ancient town of Si Thep in Phetchabun, Thailand, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2023, boosting tourism and raising the demand for effective English communication in the area. This study’s objectives are to analyze keywords and their collocational patterns in a specialized corpus of news coverage on Si Thep (hereafter: the ST corpus), comprising 30,311 words, gathered from 76 English language news articles, published between April 2015 and February 2024. The results reveal three grammatical categories of keywords: nouns (N = 81), adjectives (N = 12), and verbs (N = 7). The keywords in the ST corpus are integrated into 172 types of lexical collocations, grammatically classified as Adjective + Noun (43.60%), Noun + Noun (37.79%), Noun + Verb (7.56%), Noun + of Noun (6.40%), Verb + Noun (4.07%), and Verb + Adverb (0.58%). Notably, the keywords “local”, “cultural”, “ancient”, “UNESCO”, and “Dvaravati” are associated with the highest number of collocates in the ST corpus. Various pairs of keywords and collocates also represent nine topics of the ancient town of Si Thep, as reported in the news, e.g., Si Thep Overwhelmed by Overtourism, Si Thep Threatened by Oil Drilling. This study may offer alternatives for teaching collocations of specialized vocabulary and developing instructional materials, reflective of authentic language use, as well as methodological guidelines for English teachers in other locations designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Designing and developing instructional interventions for English language teaching (ELT) has been a central focus of second language (L2) research, particularly concerning the development of speaking skills. This study aims to identify the essential components required for the design and development phases of instructional interventions, which was achieved through an integrative literature review of previous research on teaching speaking. Given the extensive empirical research on this topic, only literature published between 2020 and May 2024 was considered. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework was adopted by the current study. The thematic analysis of the 21 selected studies identified six key components necessary for designing and developing teaching speaking interventions, with the module serving as the primary form of intervention. These components include “performance assessment,” “intervention timeframe,” “materials selection,” “lesson arrangements,” “language proficiency,” and “learning objectives.” Results also demonstrate that instructional interventions can enhance L2 learners’ speaking proficiency. This study provides suggestions for the design and development of L2 speaking interventions, such as teaching modules, to ensure curricular sustainability.
Despite a plethora of research interest in teaching reading over the past few years, scant attention has been paid to exploring undergraduate students’ experiences of reading multimodal texts in the EFL landscape. This study seeks to fill this gap by capturing undergraduate students’ experiences of enacting the role of reader-viewers as text navigators, designers, interrogators, and interpreters of multimodal texts in an EFL academic reading course where the first author served as the instructor. Five undergraduate students (two females, aged 19–20 years) were recruited as participants in this study. Data were derived from the students’ narrative frames, a story template consisting of incomplete sentences and a blank space to capture their experiences of reading multimodal texts. The data were qualitatively analyzed using content analyses. The findings demonstrated that the use of a narrative frame enabled the students to reflect on and explore their experiences of enacting the reader-viewer in multimodal texts. Drawing on the findings, this study suggests that undergraduate students expand their reading practice by enacting the reader-viewer role in multimodal texts, thereby enabling them to develop multimodal reading competence.
Although Kurz (1993) laid the theoretical foundation for narrative criticism, his analysis of the Gospel of Luke remains at the macro-narrative level, focusing on literary techniques across the Gospel as a whole. By contrast, this present study investigates conflict-driven narrative situations, examining scenarios in which Jesus’ storytelling is used in response to accusations, complaints, and criticism. The data consist of nineteen biblical narratives from the Gospel of Luke in English translation in which Jesus responds to expressive speech acts. The conceptual framework on narrative criticism, grounded in structuralist narratology, reveals multilayered communicative intentions, and, consequently, offers comprehensive interpretations of why Jesus, as the speaker of the parables, responds to expressive speech acts. The results show that most conflict-driven storytelling conveys moral instruction through the illocutionary force of directives aimed at inviting the hearer, the immediate audience, to commit to future actions. Evident in most parables with incomplete story elements, Jesus’ responses present narrative gaps that invite not only the immediate audience but also the actual reader to interpret moral lessons from the scriptural text. Intertextuality, which provides narrative echoes to Old Testament stories, appears infrequently when Jesus addresses accusations, complaints, and criticism. In response to these face-threatening acts, parables characterized by narrative gaps without intertextuality are frequently employed.
This study examines the enhancement of Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) among 187 second year Thai undergraduates at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce. The 15week intervention was implemented through a blended learning approach in Korean listening and speaking classes. Nine weekly instructional units were designed based on Byram (1997)’s ICC framework, integrating eight components across linguistic and cultural aspects. Data were collected through expert validation, formative assessments, pre and post tests, and student satisfaction surveys, and analyzed using descriptive statistics and content analysis. Quantitative findings revealed improvement across all language competences, with discourse competence showing the strongest gains, followed by linguistic competence, while sociolinguistic competence progressed more gradually. Qualitative data further indicated that learners demonstrated consistent development in the five cultural aspects: attitudes, knowledge, discovery skills, interpreting/relating skills, and critical cultural awareness. Students reported high satisfaction with the integration of language and culture, recognizing its effectiveness in linking communication practice with intercultural understanding. However, they expressed only moderate satisfaction with the blended learning format, suggesting the need for refinement, particularly in instructional design and technological support.
Reflective practice (RP) is widely recognized as a cornerstone of teachers’ professional development. It allows educators to critically examine their actions, beliefs, and professional identities, enabling them to adapt to evolving educational initiatives and enhance their teaching competencies. In the field of English as a foreign language (EFL) education, RP is essential for effective teaching and learning. Therefore, fostering EFL teachers’ RP capacity is crucial for educational reforms worldwide. This systematic review aims to identify effective strategies for enhancing RP among EFL teachers. Analyzing 42 peer-reviewed articles published between 2020 and 2024 and indexed in Scopus and SSCI journals, this study adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines for criteria identification, data selection, and analysis procedures. The results revealed three prominent strategies highlighted in the existing literature: (1) establishing collaborative RP communities, (2) integrating technology into RP, and (3) embedding RP within teacher education programs. Additionally, the findings suggest that RP is a powerful tool for EFL teachers’ professional development. This paper aims to provide valuable insights for EFL educators and policymakers on how to facilitate effective reflection within professional networks.
Saint-Exupéry’s Le petit prince is a literary classic that has been read worldwide, across generations, and languages. Different translations in the same language are widely available, providing numerous aspects to be explored. Its German translations are of particular interest because of the active movement of retranslating this work. This research thus has two main objectives: 1) to provide an overview of key similarities and differences of various German translations in terms of vocabulary, grammar, and structure; and 2) to identify important characteristics of German through different translations with reflections from comparisons among the translations themselves and between them and the original text. A self-compiled parallel corpus of the original French text and six German versions was examined qualitatively using a traditional linguistic framework. In terms of lexical variations, key words were mostly translated with the same German equivalents; however, variation between two and three synonyms is common. Regarding the grammatical categories, variations are found in numbers, tenses, moods, voices, and pronouns. In terms of syntactic structure, three important features can be identified: the variation between full verbs and constructions with a nominal or a prepositional phrase, the variation of phrase types, and word order variation. Important characteristics of German were also reflected in the length difference, variation of addition and omission, and topicalization. All these aspects contribute to the variation across translations, which goes partially back to German’s richness in forms and structures rather than the concept of retranslation motivated by the shifts in readership. The research findings may be useful for teaching German as a foreign language.
Despite the growing internationalization of Thai higher education, little research has explored the gap between the English language skills and intercultural communicative competence (ICC) that non-academic staff perceive as essential and their actual self-assessed abilities, thereby identifying specific areas in need of development. This study employed a mixed-methods approach to investigate the perceived importance and existing proficiency in English skills and ICC among Thai non-academic staff at a public university in Bangkok. Quantitative data from 46 questionnaire responses revealed that all four English skills—listening, speaking, reading, and writing—were considered highly important, yet proficiency levels, especially in writing and speaking, were rated low. Similarly, participants recognized attitudes, knowledge, skills, and awareness as key ICC components, but self-assessed competence was notably lower. Qualitative insights from five interviews further highlighted communication barriers, training needs, and the desire for culturally responsive workplace environments. The findings underscore the need for targeted professional development integrating language training with intercultural awareness to better equip staff for globalized academic settings.
The rapid internationalization of higher education underscores the need for an empowered workforce capable of meeting its emerging demands. Yet, professional development initiatives in most universities often overlook the vital role of professional staff who form the critical human infrastructure of global engagement. To address this gap, this case study examines an 8-week online English training, framed as a Virtual Internationalization at Home (IaH) initiative for a cohort of professional staff at a public university in the Philippines. Taught by a US-based instructor through blended online modalities, the training focused on enhancing the staff’s email communication skills and providing them with low stake international exposure. Data from post-program survey revealed participants’ high satisfaction on all key dimensions of the program, including content relevance, instruction, accessibility, engagement, and learning outcomes. They also expressed strong acceptance of the international instructor and reported feeling comfortable expressing themselves and seeking clarification in class. Consistent with these positive perceptions, pre- and post-test analyses showed statistically significant self-reported learning gains. These findings suggest that this Virtual IaH model may serve as an equitable and effective mechanism for developing global competencies among professional staff, particularly when travel or physical mobility is constrained due to limited institutional resources and travel funding. However, these promising outcomes should be interpreted in light of the study’s limitations, including its reliance on self-reported data, single-institution scope, and participant attrition, underscoring the need for stronger institutional support structures.
This study examined how China secondary English teachers perceive the teaching of Zhongkao English writing and how their perceptions can inform the design of an exam-aligned writing module. Thirty Grade 9 English teachers completed an open-ended online questionnaire. Items were adapted from established teacher surveys and refined through expert review. Responses were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Teachers described recurring challenges: limited vocabulary and grammar control, weak text organisation, difficulties connecting background knowledge to the task, high anxiety and poor time management in timed essays, and feedback pressures in large mixed-ability classes. They also reported misalignment between textbook tasks and Zhongkao essay demands, tensions with private tutoring materials and missed opportunities to build on students’ digital writing experiences. Teachers agreed that existing textbooks and exercise books are too general and called for a dedicated Zhongkao writing module that is exam-specific, updated and workable within heavy workloads. From their responses, five design principles emerged: explicit training in task analysis and time management; integrated work on grammar, vocabulary, genre and organisation within exam-like tasks; scaffolded and levelled activities; embedded assessment support through rubrics, annotated sample scripts and error-coding systems; and flexible delivery that combines intensive lessons with short writing practice. The findings suggest that exam alignment, teacher workload, fairness and links to students’ digital lives are central to how teachers define “need” in this high-stakes context. Future research should include novice teachers, triangulate teacher reports with classroom and learner data, and test prototype modules across different regions and school types.
Existing English for Specific Purposes (ESP) materials for business communication often rely on standardized, decontextualized models that fail to reflect the linguistic diversity and pragmatic demands of real workplace email exchanges. To address this gap, the present study designed and evaluated ESP teaching materials for business email writing that integrate genre-based pedagogy, English as a Lingua Franca (ELF)-aware principles, and data-driven learning (DDL). The materials incorporated authentic business emails from ELF professionals and scaffolded writing tasks that guided learners from genre awareness to independent corpus-informed production. The study involved 30 Thai undergraduate EFL students (CEFR A2–B1) enrolled in an English for Business Email Writing course over 11 sessions. Quantitative data from pre- and post-writing tests were analyzed using paired-sample t-tests, revealing statistically significant improvement across four email genres (p < .01) with large effect sizes (Cohen’s d = 1.72–2.80). Qualitative reflections from semi-structured interviews further illuminated how authentic input, guided DDL practice, and teacher and peer mediation fostered learners’ confidence, genre control, and intercultural sensitivity. The study contributes a replicable model for developing authentic, needs-responsive ESP materials, offering practical implications for educators and materials designers seeking to prepare learners for multilingual workplace communication.
This study aims to investigate the rhetorical structure of the Literature Review (LR) section and the newly observed Theoretical Framework (TF) section in thesis defense presentation slides (TDPS) written by Chinese English-majored master’s students. A further purpose is to examine whether these two adjacent sections share the same communicative functions. In the corpus of 20 TDPSs, eight LR sections, and eight TF sections were discovered and collected as data for the present study. Through move analysis using Chen and Kuo’s (2012) framework, four moves and seven steps were identified in the LR sections, whereas for the TF sections, four moves and three steps were found. Moreover, our findings confirmed that these two sections share similar communicative purposes, namely, to establish the territory of one’s research and to indicate the niche, both of which reveal how the niche is occupied. Nevertheless, the variations in terms of the status of certain moves and steps identified lead to a conclusion that these two sections place the emphasis on different communicative functions. Based on the findings, pedagogical implications for the production of the TDPS genre are provided.
Many Japanese students enter university with lingering anxiety from their English learning experiences in high school, which often hinders their performance in university English courses. This paper presents a case study investigating the causes of language anxiety and exploring strategies to help first-year Japanese university students engage more positively with English learning and reduce their anxiety. Nine first-year students with English-related anxiety volunteered to participate in a one-month project aimed at restarting their English learning and enhancing their study strategies and self-study habits. This project began with focus group interviews to explore their perspectives on English and their learning-related anxiety. Participants then engaged in self-study over the one-month period, using new learning strategies provided by the author. Most participants scored higher than the class average on English review tests administered during the project. Post-project follow-up interviews revealed improvements in participants’ study habits and attitudes toward learning English. However, one participant, whose implicit beliefs about language learning differed from those of the others, showed little change. These findings suggest that early intervention programs supporting first-year students in their transition from high school to university can play a crucial role in encouraging a fresh start and fostering effective learning strategies. Given the small sample size, this exploratory study provides preliminary insights to inform future research.
This study examines the challenges faced by tribal students in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHTs) of Bangladesh in achieving proficiency in Communicative English Language Learning (henceforth, CELL). In Bangladesh, English as a Foreign Language (EFL) is predominantly taught as an academic subject, which limits its practical application in real-life communication. This challenge is particularly pronounced among tribal students in the CHTs, where linguistic diversity, geographical remoteness, limited educational resources, and economic struggles create barriers to language acquisition. This mixed-methods study examines the challenges faced by higher secondary tribal students in the Khagrachari district regarding the four core language skills within the context of CELL, using research instruments such as questionnaires, focus group interviews, and classroom observations. Thirty tribal students participated in surveys, complemented by two focus group interviews for deeper insights. The findings reveal persistent listening, speaking, reading, and writing struggles attributed to limited English exposure, cultural differences, and inadequate instructional materials. Rural students encounter even more significant difficulties due to restricted resources and fewer opportunities for English engagement outside the classroom. Grounded in Vygotsky’s social constructivism (1978), which emphasizes social and cultural interactions in learning, the study highlights the need for interactive and collaborative CELL approaches to address these challenges. To mitigate these challenges, the study suggests implementing culturally responsive teaching methods, enhancing access to diverse and contextually relevant learning materials, and incorporating structured communicative activities such as role-plays, group discussions, and practical exercises. These interventions aim to improve the English proficiency of tribal students, facilitating their academic achievement and social integration in an increasingly competitive linguistic landscape.
