Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) has been widely promoted as a communicative methodology, yet its implementation in Japanese EFL classrooms has often proven problematic due to exam-oriented curricula, limited input, and entrenched teacher-centered practices. This paper critically examines these challenges and shows how they conflict with the realities of Japanese EFL (Sato, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2024). Drawing on previous critiques and debates, it argues that while tasks can enhance motivation and fluency, they cannot serve as the sole framework for instruction. As a pragmatic alternative, the Revised Presentation–Practice–Production (R-PPP) approach is proposed (Sato, 2009, 2010; Sato et al., 2022). R-PPP retains the structural clarity and explicit focus on form characteristic of PPP while incorporating scaffolded opportunities for meaningful communication. By balancing accuracy and fluency, structure and flexibility, R-PPP offers a context-responsive pathway for Japanese EFL classrooms and other exam-driven EFL environments, providing a practical model for fostering communicative competence without disregarding classroom realities.

This study investigates how gestures influence Japanese EFL learners' moment-to-moment willingness to communicate (WTC), highlighting the role of nonverbal behavior in L2 interaction. Four university students, ranging from low-intermediate to advanced proficiency, participated in interactive speaking tasks with an interlocutor. All utterances produced during the sessions were video-recorded, transcribed, and rated for situational WTC. Stimulated recall interviews were conducted to explore learners' perceptions of WTC fluctuations. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study examined how gesture types produced by both learners and the interlocutor were associated with changes in WTC. The findings show that learners' WTC fluctuated dynamically during interaction and was closely linked to gesture use. Metaphoric and beat gestures often co-occurred with higher WTC, whereas affective displays such as frowning or embarrassed smiling tended to signal lower WTC. Interlocutor gestures, especially nodding and smiling, also contributed to increased WTC by providing interactional support and emotional reassurance. These results suggest that encouraging learners' gesture use and raising teachers' awareness of supportive nonverbal cues may enhance learners' communicative engagement. Although based on a small sample, the study offers broader pedagogical implications for integrating gesture awareness into L2 instruction.

Effective business writing skills are essential for workplace success in today's globalized economy, yet academic training often inadequately prepares students for real-world professional communication demands. This study designed and implemented an integrated pedagogical framework that sequentially combined tasksupported and apprenticeship learning models in a Business English course. Thirty undergraduate English majors at a university in Taiwan participated in an 18-week program featuring a two-phase structure: Phase 1 involved task-supported learning to develop foundational competencies in business writing genres, language use, and formats; Phase 2 featured apprenticeship learning where students applied these skills to authentic workplace projects under industry professional mentorship. A mixedmethods design was employed to collect data from course evaluation surveys, academic performance records, TOEIC scores, reflective journals, and semi-structured interviews with six students. The findings demonstrated that the integrated approach bridged the gap between academic writing instruction and the requirements of professional business communication. Advanced students readily embraced openended writing and valued real-world feedback, while lower-proficiency students participated actively but relied more on templates and required additional support. Both groups rated expert feedback positively, indicating that mentorship was valuable for all proficiency levels. The study discusses pedagogical implications for English for Specific Purposes curriculum design and offers suggestions for future research.

Despite its potential, data-driven learning (DDL) remains underutilized in pre-tertiary education, partly due to the lack of tools that provide ample and level-appropriate example sentences. This classroom-based case study investigates whether generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) can generate suitable example sentences to help elementary-level learners distinguish between the synonyms “gather” and “collect”, and whether the learners can discern their differences through hands-off DDL with the AI-generated example sentences using a pre- and post-test design. Analyses based on the English Vocabulary Profile (EVP) and Coh-Metrix revealed that GenAI can generate sentences that align with the CEFR levels specified in the prompt (i.e., A1-A2). Furthermore, a Bayesian Wilcoxon signed-rank test yielded a Bayes factor (BF₁₀) of 31.564 and an effect size (δ) of -0.68, indicating that the hypothesis that post-test scores are higher than pre-test scores is approximately 32 times more plausible, representing a medium effect size. Although this is a small-scale, classroom-based case study, the findings suggest that GenAI can function as a user-friendly concordancer, offering accessible tools for younger learners and potentially addressing some of the key barriers to implementing DDL in schools.

Recent product-oriented studies have suggested that integrated writing tasks are beneficial for language development. Nevertheless, research examining the manner in which learners process linguistic form during writing remains limited. The present study sought to compare the processing of form during integrated and independent writing tasks. Japanese EFL university students were required to complete both an integrated writing task, which involved summary writing, and an independent writing task, which involved essay writing. The processing of form during writing was analyzed using stimulated recall and eye tracking. In both tasks, the participants were found to primarily process lexis. Additionally, the independent writing task yielded increased grammatical processing. A detailed analysis indicated that integrated writing tasks facilitated the processing of lexis at the elaboration level. The eye-tracking analysis indicated that the participants consulted the reading passage when focusing on lexis in the integrated writing task. Conversely, when confronted with a grammatical issue, they applied their expertise to solve the issue. The analysis of the writing quality revealed only minor differences in lexical variety and pause location frequency. The implications of integrated writing tasks in classroom instruction and the contribution of this study to the field of L2 writing research are discussed in detail.

Task planning has received substantial attention from researchers within task-based language teaching. However, there is some uncertainty regarding the impacts of different classroom organizations in pre-task planning on task performance. Accordingly, this research examines how various planning conditions affect students' L2 oral performance in task-based activities in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency. Sixty intermediate EFL students were divided randomly into three experimental groups and one control group. While the control group performed without planning, experimental groups completed a decision-making task under different planning conditions: individual, pair work, or guided (with content and language guidelines). Findings showed that individual and pair work planning significantly improved fluency compared to guided planning, but not accuracy or complexity. Individual planners achieved the highest complexity levels, followed by pair work and guided planners, whereas guided planning produced better accuracy than both individual and group-based conditions. The findings suggest that variation in classroom structure in pre-task planning is beneficial to different areas of language performance.

This study examined the effect of two EFL instructional approaches, Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) and Presentation, Practice, Production (PPP), on Japanese EFL university students' Willingness to Communicate (WTC) and Conversational Involvement in L2 English. To this end, 64 Japanese university students, enrolled in an English Listening and Speaking course, participated in the study. The 64 participants comprised two separate classes of 32 students, each receiving a different instructional approach: one group was taught using TBLT, while the other followed the PPP model. Assessments of each participant's WTC and involvement in conversations were conducted at the course's beginning and end (after 15 weeks, which consisted of approximately 45 hours of instruction). Each of these assessments involved participating in a dyadic conversation with a classmate (which was transcribed verbatim and analyzed for the number of words uttered and questions posed) and completing a WTC questionnaire. Overall, the results demonstrated that TBLT was significantly more effective than the PPP approach across all measures of conversational involvement, including students' willingness to communicate (WTC) in L2 English, the number of words spoken, and the number of questions posed.

Native-speakerism is a prevalent ideology in ELT based on the notion that "native speakers" of English are its ideal teachers (Holliday, 2006). One type of research that aims to disrupt dominant narratives such as native-speakerism is duoethnography, which explores juxtaposed perspectives through reflexive dialogue (Sawyer & Norris, 2013). This duoethnographic study focuses on how experiences of native-speakerism have shaped the careers of one "native speaker" English teacher and one "non-native" English teacher in Japan. The researchers recorded conversations about their varying experiences of nativespeakerism in the public school and private conversation school systems in Japan and collaboratively analyzed this data using interpretive thematic coding. In this study, we describe how our discussions on the topic of native-speakerism transformed our views on our respective positions in language teaching and encouraged us to examine our standing as professionals. We discovered that while native-speakerism had significantly shaped our teacher identity and beliefs, we had also both used our agency to exploit the ideology in order to make our professional lives easier. Furthermore, despite claiming to oppose the ideology, we eventually came to question the extent to which native-speakerist elements had in fact infiltrated our beliefs and even the construction of the duoethnography itself.

This duoethnographic study explores the Global Englishes (GEs) instructional practices and adjustments of two university-level English teachers in Taiwan and Japan. Despite individual journeys towards GEs awareness, shaped by personal language learning experiences and professional trajectories, both encountered similar challenges in integrating GEs perspectives into their instructional practices due to entrenched preference for native English speakers as ideal language models among students and colleagues, and rigid curricular and institutional constraints. These connected challenges, reflecting broader patterns in ELT contexts, shape the article's analytical focus. Through reflective dialogue and analysis, the study highlights how each teacher faced resistance to GEs-informed instructional efforts and how they responded both explicitly through learning content and implicitly through teaching behaviours. While both reported resistance from students, colleagues, and curricula, subtle behavioural adaptations in teaching were practical in classroom settings and occasionally helped students feel more confident using English. The duoethnographic approach allowed for a dialogic reflection on practice and mutual understanding between the researchers. This work offers insight into how contextual and professional factors can shape what is possible in GEs instructional practice.

The 8th Hong Kong Association for Applied Linguistics (HKAAL) conference, hosted at The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, was a highly successful and well-attended event. With more than 130 presenters and participants from diverse academic backgrounds, the conference fostered vibrant discussions and mean- ingful exchanges on a wide range of topics in applied linguistics and language education. From the wealth of research presented, we carefully selected five empir- ical studies that exemplify the innovative methodologies and significant findings showcased at the conference for this issue. These selected works not only reflect the high academic standards of the event but also contribute valuable insights to the ongoing development of the field.

Since the introduction of English in China, several major varieties (e.g., China English, Chinese English, and Chinglish) have emerged and coexisted for long. Under the influence of World Englishes (WE) and English as a lingua franca (ELF), issues concerning which type of English should be considered representative have aroused heated debate with an undetermined conclusion yet in China's academia. The current study proposes Chinese English as an overarching term, China English as an official variety for ideological publicity, and New Chinglish as emerging folk wisdom among Chinese netizens. It is suggested that instead of the zero-sum mindset of asserting one variety over the other two, China English, Chinese English, and Chinglish can represent a panoramic China, with each performing distinctive functions to enhance international and intranational communication. The current paper also asserts that if appropriately utilized according to specific communicative contexts by specific discourse groups, such as through the integration of these indigenous varieties of English into EAP and ESP classroom practices within the Chinese context, the goals of English education can be better achieved in China.

Despite the widespread availability of commercially produced supplementary materials, many teachers choose to supplement textbooks with their own materials. These teacher-generated materials currently represent an under-researched area within the larger field of materials development. This study explores the motivations of English teachers in the Japanese junior high school context to create and use teacher-generated materials. A review of the literature relevant to materials development and teacher-generated materials is presented, followed by an examination of the methods used for data gathering and analysis. Employing an approach based upon the grounded theory methodology, this study reveals four primary motivations for the choice of teachers to develop teacher-generated materials as a supplement to mandated textbooks. The data analysis and discussion reveals four primary reasons for teachers in this context to create their own materials. These motivations represent both an empirical confirmation of previous theoretical proposals and new findings and contribute towards establishing teacher-generated materials as an area of materials research with significant potential.

In Chinese Universities of the Third Age, systematic inquiry into the well-being of older adults who are English learners in English for Leisure and Specific Purposes programs remains scarce. Using an elicited metaphor analysis, this study explored the well-being of older adult learners in English courses at a University of the Third Age. Participants produced metaphors such as “immersion in nature” and “youth renewal”. These metaphors revealed five core dimensions of well-being in accordance with Seligman's PERMA model: Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment. These results suggest that educators focus on teaching and learning activities that promote enjoyment, purpose, social connection, and progress, and enact policies to support seniors' overall well-being in older adult education.

Though gamification and videos are commonly applied in education, limited research studies university learners' attitudes towards the combination of gamifi- cation and videos within the new context of content and language integrated learning (CLIL) in China. To address this research gap, the present study employs the technology acceptance model (TAM) as a theoretical framework to investigate the perceptions of ten Chinese undergraduate students. Using a mixed-methods study approach, data were collected through questionnaires and follow-up semi-structured individual interviews after participants completed a gamified, video-based CLIL lesson (GVBCLILL) on Moodle. Results revealed that participants generally held positive attitudes toward using GVBCLILL for autonomous learning of content and language. However, concerns were raised about the efficiency of learning subject-specific content through this approach. Additionally, students were reluctant to practice their productive writing using the GVBCLILL. Based on these insights, several improvements that could be made for the GVBCLILL were suggested: shortening the lesson time, diversi- fying learning tasks to enhance student engagement, offering more choices in learning content, and providing sufficient scaffolding and instant feedback on both content and language. In light of these findings, the improved GVBCLILL may be considered as an option for self-regulated learning among learners in similar educational contexts.

The study examines the perceptions of Indian and Iranian students, toward blended language learning (BL), using both quantitative and qualitative data. A total of 213 responses were obtained through convenience sampling, comprising 52.6% Indian and 47.4% Iranian undergraduate students, all of whom had prior experience with blended learning, utilizing a 24-item questionnaire. The data collected were analyzed using IBM SPSS v26. Descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), reliability tests, and t-tests were conducted. The quantitative analysis indicated a generally positive response toward blended learning. The results indicated a significant difference in the general perception of blended learning suggesting that Iranian students may have a more favorable perception of BL compared to their Indian counterparts. However, no significant differences were found in other constructs, including BL Usage, Preferred Learning Environment, Learner Experience, and Personal Factors. The qualitative analysis highlighted the multifaceted nature of BL, revealing both its strengths in fostering an inclusive, cooperative learning environment and the challenges it poses for language teaching and learning. The qualitative insights revealed cultural differences, particularly concerns about maintaining cultural and linguistic heritage among Iranian students and the potential for disengagement due to the lack of face-to-face interaction. Based on the findings, it can be safely concluded that there exist potential differences in how students engage and perceive BL indicating the need for culturally tailored approaches for enhancing the effectiveness of blended learning.

This article explores the underresearched area of single words and collocations in English textbooks for Chinese tertiary students. The present study is based on a corpus of English tertiary textbooks consisting of texts from the three most widely used materials in Chinese universities covering two years of English learning. By examining a range of indexes of single words and collocations, this study reveals interesting findings for EFL learners. Our results show that text- books might not provide enough opportunities for students’ incidental learning of vocabulary. In this case, students’ current level of vocabulary size would have to be enough to achieve acceptable comprehension of the texts. Our analyses showed that the majority of single words and collocations appeared only once in the textbook series. In addition, the results showed that the overlap between the single words and the required vocabulary list issued by the Ministry of Educa- tion in China is relatively modest. Relevant implications are discussed based on the findings.

This paper discusses the evolution of L2 motivation research, beginning with Gardner and Lambert's (1959) socio-educational model and focusing on the influential L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS) proposed by Dörnyei (2005). While the L2MSS has shaped the field, the paper identifies significant gaps, including a lack of pedagogical strategies to bridge learners' current and ideal L2 selves and methodological concerns regarding measurement scales. It further examines the model's limitations in multilingual contexts, where crosslinguistic comparisons and cognitive competition complicate motivation. Finally, this paper explores the affordances of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in supporting self- imagery and reducing anxiety, while noting persistent technical and engagement challenges. It concludes by calling for rigorous theoretical and methodological refinements, expanded research on multilingual motivation, and critical investigation into technology-mediated language learning.

As a branch of English for Specific Purposes (ESP), Medical English plays a crucial role in cultivating globally competent medical professionals. Currently, Medical English education in Chinese universities faces the challenge of reduced course hours and low students' engagement in class, making it difficult to cultivate their language proficiency together with medical knowledge within limited time. To tackle this problem, we implemented action research by using ABC Model, an artificial intelligence (AI)- empowered approach framed by the BOPPPS instructional design and implemented in content and language integrated learning (CLIL) for Medical English teaching. The model aimed to improve students' overall competence of Medical English within 16 periods. After collecting students' performance data during the term and their feedback from a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview at the end of the course, we found that the ABC model contributes to the improvement of students' vocabulary learning and their ability in listening, reading and speaking Medical English. Despite its innovative nature, ABC model needs further revision for AI-empowered standardized evaluation tasks of more productive language output in Medical English teaching.

This study explores the individual writing progress of three Uzbekistani undergraduates within a collaborative context at a South Korean university. Utilizing both qualitative and quantitative methods, the study focused on students' perceptions of their progress and analyzed their writing samples for fluency, syntactic complexity, and accuracy. Key findings indicate that students perceived improvements primarily in idea generation and organizational structure. Quantitative analyses further showed that writing fluency demonstrated the most consistent and substantial growth across the semester, whereas syntactic complexity exhibited only modest and fluctuating development rather than uniform improvement. Accuracy gains were differentiated by proficiency: students with lower initial proficiency showed clearer improvement, while the higher-proficiency participant displayed relatively stable performance. These results highlight the importance of tailoring collaborative pedagogical approaches to accommodate diverse proficiency levels and to recognize that different aspects of writing improvement respond differently to collaborative writing tasks. The study's limitations include a small participant pool and limited sample size, suggesting the need for further research with a larger and more diverse group over an extended period.

Collaborative writing, defined as “writing involving two or more writers working together to produce a joint product” (Anderson, 1995, p. 195), is a common occur- rence across educational and professional contexts. This study attempted to further the research on collaborative writing by focusing on students’ descriptions and perceptions of engaging in group writing in an English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) writing class over the course of an academic semester. Data sources included students’ individual and group writing assignments, questionnaires, interviews, rele- vant entries in students’ e-portfolios, and audio-recordings of students’ group work. The results indicated that most students perceived their collaborative writing experi- ences quite positively. Students’ perceived benefits of collaborative writing were numerous, ranging from opportunities to exchange ideas to development of communi- cation and interpersonal skills. On the other hand, students reported problems with conflicts, the pressure to maintain group harmony, and uncommitted group members.

This study examined the beliefs about effective language teaching held by a group of Chinese College English teachers. The extent to which teachers felt their classroom practices reflected these beliefs was also studied together with an analysis of the factors that, according to the teachers, limited the realization of their beliefs in their teaching. The findings show that while the teachers felt that their teaching reflected their beliefs, there was a significant difference between the value assigned to particular teaching behaviors and practices and the extent to which these were reported to occur in teachers’ work. In explaining the reasons for this mismatch, teachers felt that student factors, institutional factors, and teacher factors were influential.

Motivated teachers affect not only the quality of their own teaching and job satisfaction but also the motivation and learning outcomes of their students and the development of the whole school. While the significance of teacher motivation in pedagogical development is an increasingly important factor in the evaluation of teachers in higher educational institutions, little effort has been made to strengthen their motivation.
The research question guiding this study was “How do teachers of English as a second language (ESL) in a private tertiary college in Hong Kong make sense of their motivational beliefs in developing or adopting different pedagogical strategies?” The study used interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) to investigate the motivational beliefs about the pedagogical development of ESL teachers in higher education. In a qualitative inquiry, this study employed semi- structured interviews to explore the motivational beliefs of four full-time ESL teachers working in the Department of English at the research site.
Three superordinate themes and their respective sub-themes emerged from the data analysis: 1) Students as the Major Driving Force, with sub-themes a) Turning Students’ ESL Needs into Teachers’ Motivation, b) Higher Education Students’ Learning Attitudes and Characteristics, and c) Students’ Satisfaction;; 2) Perceptions of Teachers’ Teaching Abilities, with sub-themes a) Evaluations of Their Teaching, Teachers’ Role Models, and c) Peer Observation; and 3) Perceptions of the Administration, with sub-themes a) Adherence to or Autonomy from Departmental Guidelines, and b) Perceived Effectiveness or Ineffectiveness of College Practices.
The findings in this study are relevant for the motivation of higher educa- tion faculty members by learning about students’ academic needs, personalities, and satisfaction needs, and of teachers’ pedagogical strengths and weaknesses. Higher education administrators can also tailor professional development programs to meet faculty members’ individual needs. Additional research is needed to explore the perspectives of teachers of other subjects or in different types of higher educational institutions who may receive and react to different sources of motivation.

Tai and Li (2020, 2021a, 2021b) combine Multimodal Conversation Analysis (MCA) and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) in a series of studies to look into pedagogical translanguaging practices. This study intends to contribute to translanguaging research by replicating this method in a different context, i.e., English classrooms at Chinese secondary schools. The data were collected through classroom observation and semi-structured interviews and were then analyzed by combining MCA and IPA. Representative extracts of translanguaging for instruction were presented and analyzed. It is found that the teacher achieves multiple pedagogical goals through translanguaging practices, including language point emphasis, comprehension reinforcement, and phonetic distinction. Comparisons are also made between the findings of this study and that of Tai and Li (2020, 2021a, 2021b). This paper concludes that the combination of MCA and IPA can be an effective approach to exploring the complexities of the translanguaging process. The conflict that the teacher encountered between monolingual ideology and multilingual reality is also analyzed.

The editors proposed the theme of this special issue, incidental vocabulary learning in practice, to address the long overdue bridging of research and practice within this active area. In recent years, vocabulary learning has received an increasing amount of attention (e.g., Webb, 2020), and the editors took this increased interest as a starting point for exploring what support might be appropriate for incidental vocabulary learning in practice within and beyond the classroom. In order to be able to make suggestions on directions for the most appropriate kind of support for incidental vocabulary learning, it is essential to explore how language learners, particularly in the Asian foreign language context, can be supported for better outcomes. Learning English as a foreign language (EFL) does not have to be difficult. It should be enjoyable. Vocabulary learning requires continual exercise to strengthen learners’ innovative thinking, cognitive processes, communicative proficiency, and ability to infer meaning from context. Thus, we aimed for this special issue to inspire English teachers to consider whether what they do in the classroom prepares learners for meaningful engagement in activities outside the classroom requiring meaning-focused English use. It is essential to find ways to disseminate good practice and, perhaps most importantly, to integrate innovative approaches across curricula, institutions, and contexts to broadly influence vocabulary learning. These concerns prompted this special issue, which aimed to introduce the conceptual and methodological shifts in research to fully explore and understand the challenges of vocabulary instruction and inform effective, enjoyable, and sustainable incidental vocabulary learning.

In response to the recent surge of interest in incidental vocabulary learning, this article synthesizes ideas about such learning in practice. I specifically derive seven critical issues from studies on the topic. I also examine vocabulary learning through incidental means based on various input sources while considering frequency, context, motivation, and strategies and tasks to foster deeper mental processing and better retention. Findings can inform pedagogically sound guidelines for effective vocabulary instruction. Actionable suggestions are provided to enhance incidental vocabulary learning, given an understanding of relevant issues.