The study aims to analyze the different approaches to ELT in the new normal for both private and public Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) as the basis for teaching pedagogy in terms of the trend in teaching, syllabus utilization, materials, and resources, activities in learning, and competency learning. The study comprised thirty-nine (39) respondents only which employs the descriptive quantitative research design and random sampling. Results show that trend in teaching context based and content instruction on the English language as the medium of teaching and instruction in English Language Teaching (ELT) focuses on the language cooperative approach in teaching approaches that suits to the learning capacity of students. It emphasizes on the complex and competency based learning and outcome of the process of learning as to skills, application, knowledge, and attitude of the learners, materials and resources, show that different centered on the instruction of the English language approach to learning, the activity is focused on the task based-learning and the process of usage in the important skills of the ELT, and competency process of learning show to provide students in the competency of ELT and language learning inside the classroom and direction in the specific task in the English competency of learning. Findings show that there is a significant correlation between the different approaches to ELT in the new normal for both private and public Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) as the basis for teaching pedagogy among the respondents.

This paper reports the findings of an investigation into English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ self-efficacy and their classroom management in the context of the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. The paper also aims to find out what makes teachers different in terms of skills in classroom management. The study was designed as a descriptive mixed-methods one, using a questionnaire, focus group interviews, and classroom observations to collect data. Forty-six EFL teachers from three high schools responded to the questionnaire. Twelve got involved in the semi-structured interviews, and six as classroom observed teachers. Two group interviews were conducted with the participation of three vice-principals and three heads of English teams. The results indicated a significant interaction between EFL teachers’ self-efficacy and their classroom management skills. Teachers who own a higher level of self-efficacy showed to manage their classes in a more confident and purposive manner than those with a lower level of self-efficacy. Three main reasons differentiating teachers’ skills in classroom management, including pre-service teacher education, previous attending continuing professional development events, and teacher’s learning autonomy were detected. Case-based teaching, organizational learning, and lesson study are recommended in pre-service teacher education and in-service teacher professional development activities to enhance teachers’ self-efficacy and their classroom management.

Listening skill plays an important role in studying a foreign language, especially English. However, students face a lot of difficulties in English listening. The research was carried out to find the problems that the sophomores encounter in English listening. The participants of this research were seventy-five English majored sophomores of English classes, course 14 at Tay Do University. Questionnaire and paper interview were delivered to collect problems. This was a quantitative and qualitative research. The results of the study showed that vocabulary, pronunciation, background knowledge and psychological factors were the major listening comprehension difficulties. Basing on these difficulties, English learners can find out suitable learning ways to improve their listening skill. The results of this study may also be useful for those who are interested in this field.

This study aimed to look into the impact of continuous self-assessment on the self-efficacy beliefs of undergraduates studying English as a foreign language (EFL). To find out if there is a change in students’ beliefs about their language proficiency perception, the research was undertaken with 102 participants at the school of foreign languages of a private university. It was designed as quasi-experimental research utilizing qualitative and quantitative research methods to collect data through a self-efficacy scale, self-assessment questionnaire, and self-reflection checklists. The control and experimental groups were administered a self-efficacy scale at the beginning and the end of the term. Throughout the term, the participants in the experimental group assessed themselves weekly through self-reflection checklists and a self-assessment questionnaire. Based on the overall results, it was found that when the students had an opportunity to identify their strengths and weaknesses during a skill-based task through self-assessment questionnaires, they had a better sense of mastery related to that task. This inevitably led to an increase in their self-efficacy beliefs in terms of four skills, namely reading, writing, listening, and speaking as well as grammar.

Self-esteem can be simply defined as how a person views and appreciates him or herself as an individual. This is closely related to the idea of self-concept, which is an individual’s perception of who they are emotionally, physically, spiritually, and socially, as well as with regard to various other facets. Self-esteem is an important aspect of a language learner. It deals with how a learner views him or herself, whether a learner views him or herself as a successful or failing language learner. This study revealed how Procedural Writing class students in a private university perceived themselves. The study was conducted in an English Education Study Program of a private university in Central Java, Indonesia. It questioned whether these students had high or low self-esteem. The research only focused on one question: Do Procedural Writing class students with high self-esteem have good language learning achievement? The data was mainly collected from 14 students; 13 were Indonesian, and one was Korean. The findings revealed that students with good achievements do not always have high self-esteem. Many factors affected their self-esteem. Their characters, learning environment, and past experiences were a few of the other factors. In contrast, students considered as low achievers could have high self-confidence and self-esteem.

The course design has been paid attention to by both teachers and administrators. However, for a long time, some problems, such as the fragmented course design, and the repeated teaching contents, have existed in the college English curriculum for non- English majors from undergraduates, graduates and Ph. D students in the mainland China. Based on the ESP “learning-centred” approach, this study intends to construct an integrated curriculum system to help solve these problems through three main features of the integrated curriculum system: systematicness, hierarchy and openness. To investigate the feasibility of the course system, the combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods were used through questionnaire, text analysis and interview. The results show that, 1. This curriculum system can avoid the repetition of the course content. The fragmented curriculum design and the needs from the nation, society and students can be met through the systematicness, hierarchy and openness. 2. This system can facilitate teachers’ teaching reform and research interest because they have more choices to adapt the materials from students’ disciplines besides textbooks. This curriculum system is hoped to provide a possible way to meet the nation, society and students’ needs in the Chinese tertiary context.

A number of researchers in language education have investigated the effects of language learning emotions. Burnout, a negative affective factor, is deemed a shared phenomenon among language learners. In the context of teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) in China, Chinese EFL learners, especially senior high school students, seem to be vulnerable to English learning burnout (ELB). ELB is a three-dimensional concept derived from job burnout in psychology and academic burnout in general education. It possesses three principal components: Exhaustion, Cynicism, and Reduced Efficacy. The present study aims to explore ELB levels, gender dissimilarities, and English learning performance differences in ELB among Chinese senior high school students. We administered the Maslach Burnout Inventory-EFL Student Survey to a sample of 377 Chinese senior high school students, analyzing the collected data through descriptive statistics, an independent sample t-test, and one-way ANOVA using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 26.0. Our significant findings are as follows: 1) Chinese senior high school students had low overall and dimensional ELB levels; 2) there was no significant gender difference in students’ ELB levels; and 3) the students’ English learning performance levels significantly differentiated their ELB levels. Some theoretical and practical implications are provided.

This study focused on investigating English as a foreign language (EFL) gifted high school students’ challenges in classes when the integration of reading and writing was used. 103 grade 11 students from three gifted high schools in Mekong Delta were invited to participate in this study. The study adopted a descriptive, mixed method research design which employed the questionnaire and semi-structured interviews to collect data. The questionnaire, together with semi-structured interviews was used to collect data about EFL gifted high school students’ challenges of integration of reading and writing on their writing skills. The results of the study proved that students faced difficulties in integrating reading into writing lessons at a medium level, in relation to materials and integration tasks. However, the participants faced the greatest challenge in terms of personal backgrounds.

The objective of this study with first- and second-year undergraduate Thai English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students (N = 813) was to explore the relationships among English writing performance, writing self-efficacy, and writing anxiety. The students wrote an opinion-essay by hand and completed writing self-efficacy and anxiety questionnaires. Their texts were evaluated by EFL instructors using an analytic rubric. Pearson correlations indicated that there was a positive correlation between writing performance and self-efficacy and a negative correlation between writing performance and anxiety. There was also a negative correlation between self-efficacy and anxiety. Implications are recommended for further pedagogic research that take learners’ variables into an account when examining writing performance.

Textbooks are of utmost importance in an academic setting. They cannot achieve their goals and objectives until they address the particular needs of students. The current study aims to assess the grammar textbook used at Najran University's Preparatory Year Program. The study's objectives are to examine the textbook's material in light of the course objectives and to pinpoint the factors that contribute to discrepancies between course objectives and learning outcomes. Additionally, it offers solutions to close the gaps between the course objectives and learning objectives. Twenty PYP teachers were chosen to participate in the study. To collect information from the participants, a quantitative questionnaire with 10 statements based on the course objectives was used. The teachers were also the subject of a qualitative interview to get their advice and insights. The analysis backs the current textbook because of its advantages, which the teachers who participated in the questionnaire said they liked. However, there is always room to update the textbook and improve particular sections or courses to better suit the needs of students. This specific section replacement can address those precise goals that the questionnaire's respondents did not rate very high.

Implementing an English curriculum, especially one from outside Indonesia, is risky. Some schools produce positive outcomes, while others produce the opposite. This study aims to evaluate the difficulties of learning English from writing abilities using the Cambridge Curriculum in Indonesia. This study employed a qualitative approach that included interviews with students, school administrators, English instructors, and curriculum coordinators (n = 7) and documentation and observation, which served as data validation instruments. The results of the study indicate that, of the four language skills: reading, writing, speaking, and listening, the scores for reading and writing skills were not as predicted. The maximum score for Cambridge English was 6, and of the two skills measured, notably writing, the score was 3. This conclusion highlights the need to prepare English teacher credentials per Cambridge standards. This research has consequences for the design of learning English, which can help students improve their writing skills to meet Cambridge's maximum grade criteria.

This study investigates the benefits of formulating research teams within the context of Vietnam, focusing particularly on researchers specializing in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching and learning, French as a Foreign Language (FFL) teaching and learning, and Language and Linguistics. Through semi-structured interviews with 12 researchers of varied experiences, Grounded Theory and thematic analysis were utilized to unravel key benefits. The findings reveal that team-based  research offers advantages including enhanced knowledge sharing, skills diversification, improved decision-making, expanded research scope, access to greater resources, increased accountability, opportunities for leadership and teamwork skills, and more. The study underlines the immense potential of collaborative research in the Vietnamese context. The conclusions drawn emphasize the necessity for institutions to encourage and facilitate team-based research practices, offering important insights for policy formulation. While providing nuanced understanding of the Vietnamese research context, the study acknowledges limitations, including its narrow disciplinary focus and reliance on participant interviews. Recommendations for future research include exploring challenges within research teams, conducting cross-cultural and interdisciplinary studies, examining the impact of technology and leadership styles on team dynamics, and exploring the role of institutional support.

This study deals with the English language teachers’ perceived beliefs on how to improve English language students’ learning skills. English language teachers’ level of competencies on how to improve language skills of their students is the main focus of this study. Therefore, the domain, “Improving Language Skills,” defined by the Ministry of National Education (MoNE) in Türkiye in the field of “Subject Specific Competencies for Teaching Profession” has been used. This specific domain includes seven competency performances and 63 related performance indicators at three levels: A1, A2, and A3. This study, first, aims to develop a new “English Language Teacher Competency Scale” under the light of MoNE descriptors; second, it aims to observe the English teachers’ competency levels following the suggested performance indicators. The participants of the study were 100 English language teachers, teaching at public and private primary schools in Türkiye. Accordingly, the teachers responded to the mentioned scale, including other variables; such as gender, professional experience, educational background, and the type of schools they worked in. The findings indicated that there was no significant difference between the teachers’ competency beliefs about their professional experience, gender, and educational background; however, there was a significant difference in terms of the type of schools the teachers worked in. Also, this study revealed feasibility of developing the “English Language Teacher Competency Scale,”, and made the scale available to use for evaluating English Language Teaching teachers’ competency levels on how to “Improve Language Skills” in class.

This study used a qualitative method to explore a teacher’s use of motivational strategies in an English for specific purposes (ESP) course and students’ perceptions. An English teacher in a business English class and her 32 students were recruited. The class was observed three times: at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of the course. Two semi-structured interviews with the teacher were conducted: one before classroom observation, and the other after observation. Interviews with the students were conducted after each classroom observation. The teacher used seven motivational strategies to create a supportive and relaxed classroom atmosphere, and five strategies to facilitate students’ language learning. Most students’ perceptions of the teacher’s use of motivational strategies were positive. However, the students perceived a gap between their expectations for the course and their experiences. Finally, the article concludes by offering insights into the implications and constraints related to pedagogy.

This study delves into understanding the determinants of grit in English learning among Vietnamese students, highlighting both external and internal factors. Utilizing qualitative interviews, the research engaged with a cohort of 15 students, aiming to unearth the intricate interplay of influences that bolster their commitment and persistence in English studies. External factors emerged prominently, with teacher influence playing a significant role. Teachers’ motivational techniques, personalized feedback, and the establishment of a nurturing learning environment were underscored as pivotal in shaping students’ determination. On the internal facet, personal goals and aspirations, self-efficacy, intrinsic curiosity for the language, adaptive learning strategies, peer comparisons, and reflective self-assessment were identified as central elements. Insights from Constructivism and Socio-Cultural Theory were instrumental in interpreting the findings, revealing how individual experiences intersect with broader societal and cultural narratives. The study uncovered that while personal motivations and aspirations drive the students, they are simultaneously influenced by societal values, especially in the Vietnamese context, where education is deeply revered. This research contributes to the growing body of knowledge on grit in educational settings, shedding light on the unique cultural and individual determinants in the context of Vietnamese students learning English.

Skinner’s behaviorist theory delineates how a child acquires L1; notwithstanding, what sets the present study apart from Skinner’s findings can be culled-out from the research context itself. This paper validates the principles behind behaviorist theory as proposed by Skinner (1985) taking into account applied linguistics context. Careful scrutiny of data reveals that the explored theory also plays a vital role in the gradual L2 acquisition through meaningful linguistic attempts (e.g., There are persons cutting trees without replanting; His friends Marilyn and Alicia clean the classroom) and reading activities by fostering affirmative learning atmosphere to induce positive language attitude towards L2 acquisition and functionality. Negligible errors in the process of L2 acquisition are attributed to linguistic variability, interlanguage, and inflectional morphology component. This study is advantageous to EFL learners and teachers globally for it highlights some linguistic implications indispensable to interpret the learning rate, lexical range, comprehensible input (CI), and language cognition of L2 students specifically in early language education. EFL educators may be able to provide meaningful linguistic activities by considering the essential tenets of this academic piece as well as the multiculturalism factor to L2 acquisition.

This qualitative study delved into the strategies employed by English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in Vietnamese higher education institutions (HEIs) to enhance their empathy in pedagogical practices. Rooted in the Mekong Delta context, the research aimed to shed light on the intricate interplay between cultural nuances and empathetic teaching. Through semi-structured interviews with 10 EFL educators from two institutions, the study uncovered several dominant themes. Key findings highlighted the significant emphasis teachers placed on understanding the socio-cultural backdrop of their students to foster empathy. Strategies such as the incorporation of students’ personal narratives, empathetic listening, personalized feedback, and fostering empathetic group dynamics emerged as pivotal in building connections and facilitating effective language instruction. Grounding the findings in the Socio-cultural Theory and the Affective Filter Hypothesis provided theoretical underpinnings that emphasized the role of social interactions and emotional support in cognitive development and language acquisition, respectively. The study underscores the critical role of empathy in EFL teaching, providing valuable insights for educators, policymakers, and future research in similar socio-cultural contexts.

Active learning has been a curriculum mandate in the Indonesian education system since the 1980s. Nonetheless, practical gaps existed, as evidenced by the dominance of teacher-centered instruction in public schools. The field needs research depicting how active learning works and enhances learning. Thus, we conducted a qualitative case study focusing on one method within active learning pedagogies: cooperative learning. Specifically, we examined how one of its techniques, i.e., Jigsaw, operated and optimized English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' reading comprehension. We involved one EFL teacher and her students in eighth grade. Data were gathered through classroom observations, in-depth interviews, and analysis of instructional documents. Our data analysis revealed some missed steps in the teacher participants' lesson plans, specifically in the main learning activities sections that had the Jigsaw procedures. However, these activities were enacted in the actual classroom use. The teacher participant also modified her lessons to make Jigsaw more effective. Additionally, she tackled challenges that occurred during the process, especially in dealing with low levels of reading comprehension, unmotivated students, and limited time. For effective use of Jigsaw and considerations when making adjustments in classroom practice, we recommend that teachers understand cooperative learning principles and how they manifest in the procedures of the selected technique(s).

Mindset theories have been applied to study motivation in various domains, with researchers talking about different mindsets in diverse academic domains. The domain specificity of mindsets has led second language researchers to suggest distinct mindsets concerning language ability and learning outcomes. While there is no lack of research on the application of mindset theories, a systematic synthesis of the literature on mindset theories focusing on the language education domain has remained relatively unexplored. The literature in this study was identified by conducting keyword searches in Scopus and EBSCOhost research databases using a combination of the following terms: “mindset theories”, “English as a foreign language”, “English as a second language”, and “teacher training”. The search results were limited to research articles published in English-medium refereed journals from 2013 to 2023. We scrutinized the titles and abstracts of 128 articles in the initial round of screening and did a second round of close reading for relevance to the synthesis focus. This chapter synthesizes 40 research papers on the application of mindset theories in the domain of language teaching and learning, including 1) studies on language skills such as writing, 2) studies related to language teachers’ role and teacher training, and 3) theoretical and practical applications of mindset theories. The conclusions drawn will be used to recommend future directions in research and practice. The chapter will contribute to the field of mindset theories in language education in terms of research and practice for educators and researchers.

In the realm of language skills, speaking holds a pivotal position, making it imperative for classroom instruction to place a strong emphasis on its development. Teaching English speaking skills to Nepali EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students poses a unique set of challenges owing to English's non-native status in Nepal. To tackle these challenges and enhance the speaking abilities of Nepali students, English teachers in Nepal must adopt innovative strategies due to the limited daily use of English in their environment. This classroom action research endeavors to enhance the English speaking proficiency of EFL students in Nepal through the implementation of various communicative activities. These activities include role play, impromptu speaking exercises, language games such as "who is telling the truth", video tapping, and discussions. The interventions were applied to a group of 60 undergraduate students at a university who were learning English as a foreign language. The data gathered from participant classroom observations and unstructured interviews underwent thematic analysis, resulting in the identification of six distinct themes. The results demonstrated a noteworthy improvement in students' English speaking skills, attributing this progress to the implementation of communicative activities. The findings underscore the effectiveness of communicative activities as interventions for enhancing the English speaking abilities of university-level EFL undergraduates. In light of these results, it is recommended that both students and teachers remain cognizant of the contextual and appropriate use of communicative activities as a means to further improve English speaking skills among EFL students.