This article presents a qualitative case study that characterizes the language assessment literacy (LAL) of five Colombian English-language teachers to inform the design of a context-sensitive LAL course. We analyzed data from questionnaires, interviews, and institutional documents. Findings revealed that teachers’ assessment practices were partially influenced by the communicative approach. On the other hand, teachers’ challenges in assessment include assessing irrelevant criteria and the impact of administrative factors (e.g., national policies), which cause misalignments in assessment. This study emphasizes the need for an LAL course that addresses the design of communicative assessment tasks and methods and that aligns language assessment practices with institutional requirements.
Efforts to ensure quality English language teacher education often impose external criteria that emphasize predetermined language proficiency and pedagogical skills. Inspired by the capabilities approach, this paper describes teacher capabilities valued by English language teacher educators in Ecuador. I analyze focus group interviews with 37 teacher educators from 18 universities about their language use practices and instructional goals, providing insights into how educators may think about content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, teacher identity and cognition, and their importance relative to or together with English proficiency. Drawing on insights from Ecuador, I encourage programs in varied global contexts to critically explore how and by whom the desirable outcomes of English language teacher education are defined and valued in everyday practice.
This exploratory study investigated peer feedforward as a strategy to enhance academic writing coherence and cohesion among preservice EFL teachers. Employing a corpus content analysis of a three-week scaffolded process involving cycles of self-reflection and peer feedforward on academic writing tasks, findings revealed that implementing scaffolded peer reviews during the writing process, before task submission, improved the quality of participants’ text coherence and cohesion, metacognitive awareness, and critical self-assessment skills, as revealed by peer comments. Results suggest that integrating peer feedforward may help participants address the dual demands of mastering and teaching academic writing while they develop as reflective, autonomous, and collaborative writers.
This article reports a mixed-methods action research study that explored the impact of multimodal pedagogies on 20 students’ conceptions of culture and intercultural relationships throughout an English course. Data were gathered through questionnaires, students’ multimodal productions, and interviews. Findings indicate that, after the intervention, students moved from stereotypical, monolithic conceptions of culture to a dynamic, multidimensional, and complex view of it. Learners recognized how culture operates in their everyday lives and the role of negotiation/mediation in intercultural interactions. This experience suggests that multimodal pedagogies promote intercultural and critical views in language teaching/learning.
Longitudinal research contributes to the understanding of teachers’ beliefs and practices, but few such studies have examined teacher development during a time of crisis. This gap is particularly significant in pronunciation pedagogy, where research on teachers’ adaptive strategies remains limited. Building on a six-year study, this paper explores the development of second language teachers’ practices and cognitions (knowledge, beliefs, perceptions) regarding English pronunciation pedagogy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings demonstrate a complete initial cessation of pronunciation instruction, but its later reemergence as a priority once lockdown conditions relaxed. These findings further highlight the dynamic nature of teacher cognition in response to crises, and the need for gritty teachers and an enhanced focus on hybrid learning in second language teacher education programs.
