Navigating issues of inequity in ELT: An interview with Associate Professor Nathanael Rudolph

Nathanael Rudolph is an associate professor of sociolinguistics and language education at Kindai University in Higashiosaka, Japan. His research interests include translingual practice, critical approaches to language teacher and learner identity, and (in)equity in (and beyond) language education.

Venezuela in times of social, economic and political strife within TESOL affiliate grassroots advocacy initiatives: Implications for other contexts

Settling in a new region may imply a plethora of challenges for Students with Interrupted Formal Education (SIFE) and for any migrant or immigrant, no matter their background. Such challenges are as diverse as the individuals and their nationalities. Some SIFE have common experiences as immigrants relocating to a new country of residence, regardless of the status of migration. The range of constraints and situations that impact students’ access to formal education and/or its continuity in host countries is broad and deserves our attention as teachers and researchers. In this sense, the analysis of interviews conducted with SIFE from different universities and host countries has led to the consideration of particular difficult situations such as the reasons that pushed them to interrupt their studies and how it has impacted them personally, their access to employment, language, and home country return expectations. Taking into account the value of SIFE ́s own testimony obtained by means of interviews, this article addresses some of the diverse challenges they face in their host countries to raise awareness of the similarities and differences of their experiences, to promote socio-political advocacy for their needs, and to offer ELT educators ways in which they can respond to these special learners’ needs. It also in part can inform socio-political advocacy for SIFE who remain in their home countries of origin, as they often confront similar challenges as the local, regional or national context has been altered so much that they may also be in a context without adequate support.

Students’ attitudes toward flipped classroom model: Focusing on Iranian advanced EFL learners

Flipped classroom is an engaging, student-centered approach that has been built to enhance the quality of the classroom time. Generally speaking, this approach, whose implementations are performed mostly in physical sciences, has also recently attracted the attention of educators and scholars in various disciplines. Flipped classroom technology is an advancement that helps learners to enhance engagement, increase motivation and develop their communicative abilities. The current study aimed to examine Iranian advanced EFL learners’ attitudes toward using flipped classroom model. To fulfil this objective, 80 advanced EFL learners answered an attitude questionnaire after 10 sessions instructed in a flipped classroom. After collection the data and analyzing them, the results indicated that the learners’ attitude toward using flipped classroom was significantly positive. Eventually, the researchers concluded with some suggestions for educators to adopt the flipped classroom technology to create better learning environments for their students and to reach better learning consequences.

Supporting Ecuadorian teachers in their classroom research: Reflections on becoming a research mentor

Classroom-based research has flourished in the past 15 years, often introduced institutionally, as part of teachers’ Continuous Professional Development. Supporting teachers in their classroom research requires facilitation and scaffolding. Therefore, teacher trainers are often assigned the tasks of research-mentoring. However, this activity requires special skills and sustained mentoring of the mentors themselves. Mentoring, as an activity, has a rich literature, but mentoring teachers, and more specifically, mentoring language teachers researching their classrooms has not been widely documented as yet. The present self-study constitutes a reflective account of an experienced teacher trainer’s journey into mentoring. By simultaneously taking part in an online mentoring course as well as putting the newly gained knowledge into practice, the author was able to mentor 11 English language teachers and 5 English major students that came together to carry out tasks related to mentoring action research projects and / or accomplish their own classroom research as required by the Ecuadorian state university where they teach or study. The self-study draws on the first three months of the year-long program, and presents the process of growing into the mentoring role by using the author’s reflective journal, email exchanges with her lead-mentor, posts on the online EVO Mentoring course and feedback from participants. The author concludes that mentoring teacher-researchers is a two-way activity that benefits both the mentor and the mentee, but the value of mentoring should be acknowledged institutionally, and its practice extended.

Exploring a language learning history: The journey of self-discovery from the perspectives of individual differences

Exploring a language learning history can help researchers, teachers, and students to reveal and understand various individual difference factors which positively or negatively influence language learning activities and strategy use. In this paper, I examined my English language learning history and delved into challenges and factors to overcome them and activate my autonomy. Based on the analysis of my learning history, three main themes were indicated: a) motivational shifts and goal-setting theory, b) learning beliefs and goal setting, and c) the relationship between learning strategy use and teachers’ influence. Furthermore, my learning history also illustrated that I tended to change all these features through both successful and unsuccessful experiences. Among them, goal-setting seems to be the most significant factor for me to study the target language. With clear learning objectives, I overcame many challenges and sustained high motivation by utilising various types of learning strategies and having positive learner beliefs. Accordingly, noticeable relationships among motivation, learner belief, and learning strategy use were revealed through my learning history log.

What’s in a flash?: Teaching reading and writing (and beyond) through flash fiction

Literature teaching (and the teaching of reading, in general) is challenged by many rivals with which it competes for the attention and interest of the younger generation called the ‘digital natives.’ This article introduces flash fiction as one possible way to regain the interest of the young to journey and explore the interesting world of literature. Flash fiction as bite-sized stories may be a less intimidating yet challenging (because it requires rich language) venue for learners to develop their creative reading and writing skills.This article begins with a concise discussion on the problem of reading among young people nowadays, and then proceeds with an introduction of flash fiction as a literary genre. Most importantly, the paper discusses the place of flash fiction in the academe and offers practical knowledge on the use of the said literary genre in the teaching of reading and writing.

The place of silence in second language acquisition

The article examines the role of silence in learners’ language development by discussing current theories in second language acquisition and by connecting them to the silence phenomenon. A number of important constructs in SLA are brought up as they have potential to be associated with the silent mode of learning, namely the silent period, input, output, communicative competence, among others. The discussion also highlights a few theoretical gaps in SLA discourse that are related to silence.

Access to books and English reading: A virtuous circle

The hypothesis explored in this paper is whether a “virtuous circle” can be established to promote English language development: providing access to interesting and comprehensible reading material, which in turn will increase reading English books, which in turn will promote English competence and in turn more reading of English books. Specifically, we seek to determine if those with more access to English books at home and through visits to bookstores show more interest in reading, and in turn are more supportive of having an English library at their school. Analysis of responses of sixth graders at four schools in Korea revealed little access to English reading material, but supported the virtuous circle hypothesis, suggesting that the path to high English competence may be easier to establish than we have imagined.

Malaysian English language teachers’ satisfaction level of their professional development

Professional development is an integral aspect of a teacher’s professional life. Effective professional development activities enable teachers, among others, to update and enhance their pedagogical knowledge and skills, and allow teachers to be creative and critical in their teaching approach. But the question is, to what extent the professional development activities and programmes satisfy the teachers’ needs? This nationwide study aims to determine and identify the level of the Malaysian English language teachers’ level of satisfaction of their professional development – whether English language teachers are satisfied with the professional development experiences and opportunities that are provided by the Ministry of Education and the respective State Education Departments. Schools were randomly chosen and the questionnaires were mailed to the headmasters and principals of the schools to be distributed to all English teachers. A total of 2586 (1038 secondary teachers and 1548 primary teachers) questionnaires were received from teachers all over Malaysia. This paper will highlight and discuss the main findings, and provide some critical implications and suggestions in terms of teacher education and planning and implementation of future professional development activities.

Global citizenship education and English as a lingua franca

Currently, how English is being used as a lingua franca (ELF) has caused linguistic and cultural norms to be revisited in relation to language use. The issue of global citizenship has emerged when English is used as the main medium of instruction in higher education; as achieving global citizenship is a main goal of international universities, the ELF paradigm has assisted in the realization of this goal because English is used in a fluid and dynamic perspective. This paper uses interview data (N=6), which was collected from Chinese students from the Chaoshan area who obtained their master’s degrees abroad, to analyze how these students developed their senses of global citizenship. Although their ELF experiences play an important role in understanding global citizenship, many did not receive a formal education regarding global citizenship at home or abroad. This paper concludes by emphasizing how the ELF paradigm can aid higher education institutions raise people’s awareness of global citizenship.