TESOL Education Research Articles

The Effects of Looping on Undergraduate Students’ TESOL Knowledge Acquisition and EFL Teaching Career Preparation: A Qualitative Case Study

Looping is an educational policy in which a teacher teaches the whole or part of the same class in consecutive years. It is advocated as one of the most useful 21st century instructional strategies. Research has reported that looping results in greater success in students’ learning of some school subjects, including mathematics, sciences, languages, and social sciences, while it is also claimed to be instrumental in fostering students’ appropriate behavior. However, studies on looping in higher education are scarce. Our study aimed to understand the effects of looping of a TESOL teacher educator on pre-service EFL teachers’ academic achievements in TESOL education and their career preparation for EFL teaching. We designed a case study to understand the looped students’ real-life experiences. The qualitative data were collected from three sources: documents, semi-structured interviews, and field notes (observation) for data and method triangulation. The data were analyzed using Williams and Moser’s (2019) qualitative data coding and following phenomenological reduction, bracketing (Dornan et al., 2005), and essences (Ganeson & Ehrich, 2009). The findings showed that the looping of a proficient, experienced, and effective TESOL lecturer results in the success of undergraduate students’ acquisition of TESOL skills, and in developing their readiness for career start in EFL teaching.

Western-trained Vietnamese teachers’ EFL writing instruction: A collaborative autoethnography of tensions, emotion, and agency from an activity theoretical perspective

In response to the need for more attention to teachers of writing (Lee, 2024), this collaborative autoethnography (CAE) aims to explore the lived experiences of Western-trained teachers teaching EFL writing in the tertiary-level educational context of Vietnam. Drawing upon the concepts of systemic tensions, emotion, and agency from an activity theoretical perspective, we report on tensions we encountered between our Western-based TESOL education and our local activity of teaching EFL writing as well as on how we emotionally and agentively responded to these tensions to allow for practices compatible with the local context. Our CAE unveiled a host of intricate tensions between multiple components of our activity systems. These tensions triggered our emotional responses, which in turn spurred us to exercise our pedagogical and relational agency to reconstruct our pedagogical cognition and implement adaptive pedagogies. Notably, the dynamic interplay between our tensions, emotion, agency constituted critical experiences which fostered the emergence of participatory pedagogical content knowledge of writing, and in turn, of situated possibilities for learning and teaching EFL writing. The study provides implications for Western-based TESOL teacher education and relevant stakeholders regarding how to better support teachers like us in our transition from learning in the West to teaching in the East.

Raising awareness among the TESOL community about the professional identity tensions of women EFL teachers in Africa

Abstract This collaborative autoethnographic study explores how three female university English teachers in critical friendship navigated professional identity tensions related to the ideological biases of male faculty members implying that women do not belong in academia because of their gender and the responsibilities it entails in an African context. In a reflective collaborative autoethnography, the women raised awareness among TESOL practitioners, researchers, and educators of their professional identity tensions, which ranged from frustration to isolation. They also shared critical reflections on how they invested in their careers to navigate their professional identity tensions in a male-dominated higher-education environment.

Rain Class’s influence on students’ comprehensive learning of English as the aiding method of TESOL blended learning

In nowadays Chinese universities, teachers and research staff have been exploring better methods for educating and carrying out TESOL education. Due to this occasion, lots of teaching methods have been derived, including mixed teaching, which combines both online and offline learning processes, to help the students better learn English conveniently and easily to review the knowledge that they had learned. This paper mainly focuses on the app called Rain Class, which has been extensively used by many Chinese college students majoring in English and has many distinct functions which could benefit both teachers and students. Therefore, this study focuses on the benefits that this app brings to TESOL blended learning and seeks students’ comprehensive understanding of their knowledge. By examining its benefits and possible limitations, this paper provides a thorough reference for future studies in technology-facilitated language learning, especially in the area of using mobile apps in higher education English classes.

“My Book Ideas were Spinning in my Head”: Arts‐Rich Bookmaking Experiences to Create and Sustain Multilingual Children's Meaning Making Flows and Authorial Voices

AbstractImportant theoretical developments in TESOL education challenge the monolingual mindset, instead valuing and leveraging students' complex linguistic repertoires alongside their funds of knowledge and identity through translanguaging practices to foster literacy development. Through a case study of an arts‐rich book making experience facilitated by community organization, Kids' Own Publishing, this article uses assemblage thinking to examine how children's semiotic, knowledge, and identity resources interact to support them to create and sustain meaning making flow and to express distinctive authorial voices. Employing a critical content analysis guided by assemblage thinking, we highlight the literacy skills demonstrated in five students' published eight‐page books and show how the interaction of children's meaning‐making resources is best understood through an “assemblage” lens, a process which is under‐researched. Through this lens, we examine the facilitative role of the arts‐rich experience in furnishing vibrant activities, artifacts, and an inspiring physical space that shaped how the children's meaning‐making resources came together as flows. We consider implications for literacy learning, including the need to create conditions for all children's meaning making resources to be drawn upon in text creation in an approach that values what all students, whether they identify as monolingual or multilingual, bring to their learning.

Technology Enhanced Learning: Applying Padlet, VoiceThread and Microsoft Teams in online university courses

The use of technology in language teaching and learning has been rising in popularity with rapid developments in technology as well as increased need due to the recent coronavirus pandemic. Moreover, the sheer number of technologies available and the choices with how to implement them can be quite daunting for educators.
 In this article, three technologies implemented in Master of TESOL university online courses are presented and explored with regards to their enhancement of learning: Padlet, VoiceThread (video recordings) and Microsoft Teams (chat forum). Firstly, the applications of these technologies were mapped to the TPACK framework (Mishra & Koehler, 2006) along with educator observations on their implementation. Secondly, data from surveys and interviews provided students’ perspectives on the use of technology and the benefits and challenges they experienced. Thematic analysis of this data revealed six themes: Engagement and interactivity, Peer learning, Flexibility, Record of work, Usability, and Challenges.
 The findings of the study demonstrate how technologies can enhance learning through increased motivation and participation, shared learning and self-directed learning. The goal of this article is to inform TESOL educators on the potential of these technologies and inspire them to explore options for integrating technologies in their own classrooms and contexts.

“I have meaningful work:” Crafting teaching and advocacy at an ESL after‐school program

AbstractWhile the importance of advocacy in TESOL has received greater attention in recent scholarship, less research has explored how English language teachers make meaning for their work as educators and advocates by acting within and beyond their official roles and responsibilities. This article explores how teachers in an after‐school program supported refugee and immigrant students and their families. The researchers ask the following question: How do teachers craft their roles as educators and advocates for refugee and immigrant youth in an English as a second language (ESL) after‐school program? They analyzed data through a job crafting lens (Haneda & Sherman, 2018; Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001) to make visible how teachers at the after‐school program defined themselves as educators and advocates, and how the program hindered or empowered their efforts to act on these definitions. Findings share how four different teachers crafted opportunities, connections, leadership, and resources as they imagined and enacted their work with and for refugee and immigrant students and their families. Based on study findings, we suggest implications for TESOL educators in classrooms and community spaces, and recommend future directions for job crafting research on teaching and teacher advocacy.

Contributors

Contributors

Affordances of an international campus for intercultural learning: Views from MA students and faculty in two US-based teacher education programs

This paper reports on a qualitative study which is part of a larger project on the affordances of an international campus for intercultural (IC) learning. The research examined two MA programs at a US postgraduate institution, TESOL and International Education Management, and two groups of participants, 9 students and 8 faculty members. The participants discussed intercultural interaction and learning opportunities outside coursework in semi-structured interviews. A thematic content analysis showed heavy workload as an obstacle to more meaningful on-campus interaction, the lack of the points of entry to host-country student groups for incoming (international) students, and challenges for off-campus encounters. The findings pointed to a disconnect between faculty and student perceptions: although faculty believed that students should avail themselves of IC opportunities, they did not actively encourage engagement in on-campus activities. The paper discusses the IC learning assumptions attached to a highly international program profile in comparison to the support in place, arguing that active on- and off-campus activities, coursework, and teacher guidance should work in unison to allow for IC learning.

The Application of TESOL Education in Chinese International High School English Teaching

In the research of TESOL education, the five hypotheses about second language acquisition put forward by Dr. Krashen, an American linguist, are of extremely important research significance and exploration value. Some researchers have given different views on the input hypothesis theory among these five hypotheses. Therefore, this paper will specifically analyze the impact of TESOL education under Krashen’s input hypothesis on high school English teaching, and its shortcomings, thus giving teaching advice on how to apply the current high school English curriculum.

TEACHERS’ NARRATIVES FROM INITIAL VIRTUAL CLASSROOMS AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN DEVELOPING BANGLADESH

In the face of sudden migration to online teaching due to Covid-19 pandemic, education is going under trying times globally, especially in the low resource contexts of the Global South. Little is, however, known about how this forced migration to and coping with emergency remote teaching (ERT) are happening in the low resource context of developing Bangladesh, particularly in the Higher Education (HE). This paper, therefore, aims to understand how virtual classrooms look like in the Higher Education context in Bangladesh through TESOL teachers’ narratives from initial virtual classrooms imparting ERT. Employing narrative inquiry, four teachers from four different public and private universities in Bangladesh share their experiences of doing, undergoing and reflecting as they try to adopt, adapt and strive in imparting ERT and carrying out education in HE. Insights from these initial teacher narratives may inform higher education pedagogies, teacher development in distance education environments in Bangladesh and similar contexts in the Global South. As the paper addresses HE teachers’ initial orientation to ERT without exclusively dealing with TESOL education, it has multidisciplinary approach to migration to and coping with ERT in HE in general.

The impact of an explicit grammar knowledge course on the development of grammatical awareness in UK native speakers’ pre-service TESOL education

This paper contributes to conversations which examine the effectiveness of grammar knowledge courses in native speaker (NS) UK pre-service TESOL education. A three-year longitudinal study was undertaken at a UK university. It explored 10 UK NS participants’ ability to demonstrate grammatical awareness during their TESOL practicum after studying a 48-contact hour explicit grammar knowledge course before procedural TESOL education began. Quantitative and qualitative, deductive, and inductive thematic coding were undertaken using the participants’ reflective teaching summaries and interview transcripts to identify examples of established grammar awareness themes. Findings indicated that the participants considered the process of gaining grammar knowledge challenging but essential for TESOL. Grammatical awareness was demonstrated through metalinguistic knowledge, metalanguage, noticing and language teaching beliefs during the practicum.

Equipping all teachers to teach disciplinary language: Toward a developmental continuum in teacher education

AbstractEquipping all teachers to teach multilingual learners disciplinary language— content‐specific ways of knowing through language— is an unresolved teacher education challenge. This challenge is particularly acute for teacher educators who serve general education teachers, because these teachers typically lack the specialized language preparation or multilingual skills of TESOL or bilingual educators. Accordingly, this brief article presents an emerging framework that conceptualizes how teachers can learn to teach disciplinary language, drawing from scholarship on teacher learning, pedagogical language knowledge, and language of history. Then, it illustrates how one history teacher learned to teach disciplinary language over a 9‐year period from preservice preparation and novice years to a later role as a mentor teacher. This illustrative example supports prior research suggesting three teacher learning prerequisites are essential to improve instruction for MLs: consistent focus on disciplinary literacy, inquiry into practice, and school‐university collaboration. The article concludes by proposing a developmental continuum in equipping teachers to teach disciplinary language through preservice, novice, and mastery phases with differentiated supports and opportunities. This article seeks to contribute a descriptive framework that teacher educators and researchers can pilot, study, and adapt to advance efforts to equip all teachers to teach multilingual learners disciplinary language.

Intersectionality for TESOL Education: Connecting Theory and Justice Pedagogy

Intersectionality for TESOL Education: Connecting Theory and Justice Pedagogy

WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework, 2020 Edition: Key Shifts and Emerging Tensions

AbstractIn December 2020, the WIDA Consortium released the WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework, 2020 Edition. In the coming years, the 2020 Edition will be implemented across 36 states, the District of Columbia, and four territories and agencies in the US. The 2020 Edition also arrives at a time when the field of TESOL is grappling with multiple theoretical perspectives on how to provide an equitable education to the nation’s fast‐growing population of multilingual learners. As the WIDA Standards and their updates over multiple editions reflect evolving conceptions of language, language development, and the integration of language and content learning, the 2020 Edition offers an opportunity to take stock of where the field has been, how it has shifted, and what challenges might lie ahead. The purpose of this article is to inform TESOL educators, including researchers, practitioners, and policymakers, of the 2020 Edition and its differences from its immediate predecessor (2012 Edition). We begin by providing a brief overview of the U.S. K‐12 policy context. Next, we describe key conceptual shifts embodied by the 2020 Edition. Finally, we highlight emerging tensions that TESOL educators are likely to grapple with as the standards get implemented in K‐12 classrooms with multilingual learners. Although this article is situated in the U.S. policy context, its relevance extends to the international community of TESOL educators, as the shifts and tensions inherent in the standards resonate with broader shifts and tensions in the TESOL literature.

Integrating social justice-oriented content into English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instruction: A case study

This study examines the integration of social justice-oriented content into English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instruction at a four-year university on the East coast of the United States. In the context of an Academic Writing course taught to emergent bilingual (EB) students, this article identifies the challenges and prospects of utilizing material that addresses past and present racial inequities in the United States— particularly when it comes to equipping EBs with essential background knowledge to engage in meaningful dialogues and critical writing about social issues that are entrenched in white supremacist and settler colonialist histories. It makes suggestions for TESOL educators who seek to adopt more equitable and inclusive teaching practices by leaning into rather than away from challenging classroom conversations with EB students and embracing the intersecting challenges and opportunities for new learning that may arise.

A Disability Critical Race Theory Solidarity Approach to Transform Pedagogy and Classroom Culture in TESOL

AbstractUntil very recently, ability and whiteness as relational systems have been uninterrogated by TESOL research, policy, practice, and teacher education. Consequently, monolingual teachers often use students’ proximity to whiteness and nondisabled status as a metric for ascertaining their ability or belonging in certain language learning spaces. Similarly, English language teachers’ uncritical and unsupported engagement with policy and professional learning around race and whiteness contributes to the unwarranted subjection of multilingual students to the special education referral process. In this contribution, we aim to analyze the nuances of ableism and racism in the field of TESOL, and offer TESOL educators practical examples to dismantle it. Drawing from the critical intersectional framework of DisCrit, this contribution presents two DisCrit solidarity‐oriented practical examples for the language classroom: cultural reciprocity and translanguaging. We argue that these support TESOL educators in understanding the relationship between whiteness and ability, as well as valuing the importance of multilingualism in school settings.

The Role of Motivation in Incidental Vocabulary Learning through Academic Videos

Recent studies suggest incidental vocabulary learning (IVL) through audio-visual input to be effective for ESL vocabulary development. However, no research has been conducted on IVL gains from academic videos, an accessible, cost- and time-efficient educational tool. Furthermore, as studies suggest that students tend to have high motivation when videos are used during teaching, it is suggested that IVL gains could vary according to student motivation levels. Therefore, this research intends to address the gap of potential IVL gains for ESL learners through academic videos and its possible relationship with motivation. A total of 56 ESL pre-university students in an English-medium university in Malaysia participated in this study. IVL gains were measured through a modified Vocabulary Size Test including a target words test before and after watching the 10-minute academic video. Students’ motivation level was measured using a video motivation questionnaire. The results indicated a significant IVL gain with 0.78 (3.9%) of the target words learned on an average. However, no correlation was found between student motivation level and IVL gains. Therefore, results from this study may give an insight on how TESOL educators can integrate academic videos into innovative, formal and informal teaching practices to develop the vocabulary of ESL students through IVL.

TESOL educators can contribute to the fight‐back against racial discrimination and hatred: A personal view from Britain

TESOL educators can contribute to the fight‐back against racial discrimination and hatred: A personal view from Britain

Negotiating Identity tensions in multilingual learning in China: a situated perspective on language learning motivation and multilingual identity

ABSTRACT In accordance with the multilingual turn in SLA (May, S. 2014. Introducing the ‘multilingual turn’. In The Multilingual Turn: Implications for SLA, TESOL and Bilingual Education, ed. S. May, 1–6. New York, NY: Routledge), researchers are now directing more attention to the motivational dynamics associated with learning multiple languages, including the interrelationships between motivation and learners’ sense of self. In contrast to research focused on language learners’ psychological relationship to languages from the perspective of self-systems, this research instead takes a more identity-focused perspective that looks at motivation in light of learners’ orientations towards ideological discourses associated with languages. It draws on longitudinal qualitative interviews and supplementary data from five Chinese university students in Shanghai who are majoring in Japanese while continuing to study English. The analysis highlights that the learners experienced a number of important identity-tensions as they attempted to reconcile ideological discourses on language with their own multi-layered identity positions and perspectives towards language learning. The discussion details the ways that learners mobilise their interpretive resources to evaluate instrumental and humanistic orientations towards language within macro-, meso- and micro- contexts and make agentive decisions that shape their motivational trajectories and multilingual identities.