Journal of Research in Applied Linguistics
Volume:14 Issue: 2, Summer-Autumn 2023

This journal issue captures a unique time, a time between the lingering aftermath of a global pandemic and the increasing power and presence of artificial intelligence. It does of course however focus specifically on language learning but against an ever-changing geo-political background, a background in which language and technology are now some of the most powerful but unacknowledged factors. These all profoundly affect the mechanics of teaching and learning on the one hand and the social, political, and economic structures of our societies on the other, and of course the relationships between them.

This paper aims to identify different characteristics of content and language integrated learning (CLIL) teacher language and how AI and, more particularly, ChatGPT can support the language needed for use in CLIL teaching. The paper examines and analyses key writings in CLIL in order to identify the components of CLIL teacher language.  The specification of the components of this language allows for specific language needs to be identified and has implications for the implementation of CLIL in terms of teacher training, teaching materials and other forms of teacher support. Subsequently, the authors propose how these types of CLIL teacher language can be supported through the use of AI.

There is currently considerable interest in every aspect of decolonisation in education. There is for example much interest in the curriculum and some interest in educational technology but little interest as yet in these in their role in language learning. The paper grows out of projects and friendships in Palestine and looks at the very special case of Palestinians using digital technologies to learn English. This paper makes the case that colonialization is present in most aspects of using digital technology to learn language, but especially so for the Palestinian learners of English. Decolonisation can grow out of scrutiny, awareness and criticality but must recognise the influence of culture and in the case of Palestine, of the impact of trauma, occupation and displacement. The need of Palestinians, politically, economically and educationally, to engage globally does however make decolonisation problematic.

Rural depopulation and the state of education in rural areas are characterized to provide a contextualization for the role of second language teachers there. Subsequently, results are presented from a needs analysis of the Spanish provinces that have suffered the greatest demographic decline and associated problems over the last half-century. Based on these results, a series of training macrostrategies are proposed as part of the AGORA (Technological and methodological innovation for lAnguage teaching and GeneratiOn of synergies in Rural Areas) research project. Such an approach will provide tailored training that meets the needs of rural teachers and, at the same time, enable them to support the students they have. Results of these strategies will facilitate the transfer of knowledge to society and are envisaged to inspire other researchers and educational authorities, given the transversality and scalability that can be expected from the outputs of the project.

This research paper explores the integration of digital technologies in language teacher development, focusing on computer-mediated collaborative learning (CMCL) and peer assessment in digital environments. The research was carried out at the National University of Distance Education (UNED) in Spain, in a TEFL course, with 518 student-teachers. The research methodology included both quantitative and qualitative techniques, and the results indicated positive satisfaction levels, especially in these dimensions: clear goals and objectives, appropriate assessment, and appropriate workload, with both learning in digital environments and the quality of teaching particularly highlighted. Additionally, statistically significant differences in the final grades were observed between the MS Teams users and the ones not following CMCL. Finally, the influence of digital learning was demonstrated across a large portion of the other variables according to the students’ perception of it.

This case study draws from the imperative to integrate technology under international quality standards in preservice English language teacher education in Spain. To meet this requirement, the study intended to explore preservice EFL teachers’ actual needs regarding initial teacher training on technology in Spain. With this objective in mind, we developed a questionnaire based on the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) framework (Mishra & Koehler, 2006) for blending content, pedagogy, and technologies along 3 main dimensions. Against our initial expectations, technological content skills were self-reported as high. Nevertheless, we identified a need for further training in pedagogical skills and pedagogical content skills as much as for specific EFL teaching tools and applications to support the teaching and learning activities.

This study is set in EFL teacher training during the COVID -19 pandemic. The goal of this research study was to examine students’ perceptions of the development of their oral abilities by means of weekly Flip video recordings. An action research design was carried out for EFL teacher-training students from a Chilean university. Synchronous English language sessions focusing on oral production were aided by asynchronous practice on the Flip platform. Content analysis was conducted to examine the students’ perceptions of the use of Flip to facilitate the development of speaking skills. Co-occurring categories were identified, and related networks were produced to identify relevant nodes. Findings revealed favorable perceptions in both the linguistic and socioaffective aspects of learners’ oral performance resulting from the weekly recordings. It was concluded that the use of Flip promoted the students' oral production by heightened positive socioaffective perceptions over the course of one academic semester during the time of COVID-19.

This study aimed to examine the relationship between EFL teachers' technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK) and ecological agency in responding to the differentiated learning policy in Indonesian high schools. A quantitative research design was employed, using a survey of EFL teachers in Indonesian high schools. A questionnaire gauging EFL teachers' TPK, ecological agency, and differentiated instruction practice was distributed online to 83 teacher participants. Results showed that the teachers possessed high levels of TPK, ecological agency, and differentiated learning implementation. Furthermore, TPK and ecological agency were strongly correlated with differentiated learning implementation, with teachers' ecological agency having a more significant impact on promoting differentiated instruction. Findings suggest that EFL teachers in Indonesia need to continue improving their professional development to enhance the quality of the implementation of differentiated learning in EFL teaching and learning.

The current study investigated the effect of EFL teachers’ dialogic interactions on their online professional development (OPD). For this purpose, a group of 3 experienced and 5 novice teachers participated in the study. After the analysis of the teachers’ written reflective narratives and interviews, the most significant themes of the teachers’ OPD were found and categorized. Results showed that dialogic interaction navigated the teachers’ OPD, but in different directions. Whereas the novice teachers exhibited a tendency toward more behaviorally oriented trajectories of development, the experienced teachers were more attitudinally and cognitively invested in the OPD process. This study invites teacher education programs and teacher educators to capitalize on dialogic interaction as a resource to promote teachers’ OPD and to support the personalized and professional needs of teachers at different developmental stages.

A decade of research into MOOCs (massive online open courses) for language learning (LMOOCs) shows that they seem to have consolidated their position as a subfield of computer-assisted language learning (CALL). Since the appearance of LMOOCs in 2013, 3 key systematic reviews have been carried out; these confirm that research into student profiles is a recurring trend, with the focus on avoiding dropout rates by creating personalized learning pathways. One of the challenges for teachers and LMOOC developers is that they are not cognizant of their students or their study habits. If we could learn how students organize their study in LMOOCs, a taxonomy could be established according to their profiles. This would enable teachers and LMOOC developers to improve their course design and so create personalized learning pathways, making the courses better suited to students’ specific learning preferences. In this study, we use techniques of learning analytics (LA) to explore the temporal patterns of LMOOC participants in order to understand the way they manage and invest their time during their online courses. As a result of this study, we propose a new taxonomy of LMOOC participant profiles based on temporal patterns—one which would provide teachers with a tool to support them when personalizing the design and development of LMOOCs and which would, therefore, help them adapt their courses to the specific learning preferences of each profile.

In the last few decades, the focus of research in the field of language education has concentrated on learners, with studies carried out on how to lower their affective filter in order to develop their language skills (Reinders & Wattana, 2014), motivation (Meşe & Sevilen, 2021), flipped classrooms (Chen Hsieh, Wu, & Marek, 2017) and even their impressions on the layout of courses. However, whereas all these issues are of the utmost importance, the major contribution that teachers have in that learning process, and the necessary development of their skills in order to implement those new ideas in the classroom, have been left to one side. This study aims to present the findings of an online teacher training course based on didactic audiovisual translation (DAT) that has been carried out by the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED) in Spain. The initial and final questionnaires administered to the preservice teachers who participated in the course revealed their positive attitudes towards DAT as a rich resource for developing integrated linguistic and ICT skills.

This study focuses on online teaching methodologies within the field of languages for specific purposes (LSP) and attempts to identify suitable tools that can be implemented in an online course for LSP teacher education and professional development. Firstly, it defines terms that are relevant to online teaching/learning and discusses the main types of online learning according to their delivery mode. Then, it explores the current provision of online training programmes for preservice and in-service LSP teachers within the European Higher Education Area with a view to gaining a further understanding of the learning gaps and institutional requirements that would need to be covered in a future online course. The next section poses the research questions, explains the methodology that has been applied, and describes the instruments that have been developed. The main results and findings are presented in the third section, and the conclusions that follow suggest the existence of robust online learning methodologies and activities for implementation in online courses aimed at LSP teacher education and training.

Technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) is a set of knowledge domains that can help maximize teachers’ successful technology use in education. Recent directions in educational technology research have moved towards investigating teachers’ TPACK in content-specific applications. This study initially intended to compare and contrast English as a foreign language (EFL) preservice teachers’ (PSTs’) TPACK perceptions in the contexts of Iran and Oman. It also sought to examine if there was a gender gap in EFL PSTs’ TPACK perceptions in these contexts. A quantitative comparative research design was used to collect the data via online questionnaires from EFL PSTs in Iran and Oman. Results showed that EFL PSTs generally had high perceptions of their TPACK; however, the Iranian EFL PSTs’ TPACK perceptions were significantly higher than those of the Omani EFL PSTs in all subdomains of TPACK. The study also reported that there were no significant differences between genders in Oman, Iran, and collectively all the participants regardless of their nationality. Findings provide practical pedagogical implications for future EFL PSTs, EFL PST educators, EFL curriculum reformers, and policymakers in considering context-sensitive decisions such as needs-customized courses and activities with preevaluation of tools and abilities entailed.