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This cross-sectional study attempts to investigate the impacts of linguistic landscape (LL) tasks on EFL teacher candidates' understanding of English in local and global contexts. To this end, three cohorts of student teachers carried out LL fieldwork, uploaded images of English signage to an LL application, Lingscape, and submitted a mini research paper on the use of Englishes. They also wrote a reflective journal featuring a discussion of their experiences. Qualitative content analysis was utilized to interpret the data for the purpose of illustrating major themes emerging from the data. The findings highlighted a heightened awareness among student teachers towards locating and reflecting on Englishes in everyday contexts, an improved understanding of English as a lingua franca and Global Englishes, and their intentions to adopt Global-Englishes-oriented language teaching practices in the future. The study concludes by discussing the implications of this approach, and calls for a wider inclusion of LL-centred tasks in EFL teacher education curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this series, we explore technology-related themes and topics. The series aims to discuss and demystify what may be new areas for some readers and to consider their relevance for English language teachers. This paper explores the potential applicability of ChatGPT—a generative, text-based artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot—to ELT. It offers insights and guidelines for using ChatGPT to develop receptive and productive skills. First, ChatGPT can help teachers generate input materials for listening and reading practices. Second, with ChatGPT, teachers can create individualized opportunities for students to practice their speaking and writing skills. We also note important caveats for teachers to consider when implementing ChatGPT as an instructional tool. By exploring its potential benefits and limitations, this paper contributes to the growing discourse on technology integration in ELT and offers practical recommendations for creating a productive learning environment using AI-driven language models like ChatGPT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The action-oriented approach (AoA) is a powerful basis to inform teaching, learning, and assessment in the classroom that identifies learners as social agents and focuses on language learning through language use. This paper answers the call for developments that help teachers teach and learners learn in an AoA-informed way. We argue that cognitive discourse functions (CDFs) align with AoA, helping to develop learner thinking by focusing on the learners' use of language. We complement our conceptual discussion referring to the process of developing a self- and peer-assessment tool informed by AoA and CDFs and the initial application of this tool in an advanced academic writing course in a Japanese university with B1 and B2 level students. We discuss how this tool can guide learners' understanding of their writing process and fosters learners' responsibility for deciding how they mobilize their linguistic resources to express particular language functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article responds to Wingate and Hakim's paper, where they criticise English Medium Instruction (EMI) research for not drawing on research and practices from EAP. We concur that this cross-fertilisation of knowledge is beneficial for both fields but emphasise the breadth of the current EMI research agenda, which explores several issues beyond English language and academic preparedness. We also counter their claims of a lack of awareness by highlighting several examples of knowledge exchange, much of which has been driven by EMI scholars working within EAP contexts, and vice versa. Finally, we urge caution in recommendations to uncritically adopt EAP practices from Anglophone university settings into EMI settings, due to the complexities associated with EMI growth and provision, where the challenges raised are not necessarily identical. Overall, we agree with the authors that EAP and EMI have much to gain from each other in their shared endeavours and welcome their calls for future research collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English medium instruction (EMI) is seen as a site for improving students' English language, yet the role of the EMI lecturer in achieving this is contested. Views on what constitutes appropriate training and professional development for EMI lecturers also differ regarding English language skills and EMI-specific methodology. Using Q methodology, this paper explores these issues from a particular perspective, a synthetic viewpoint based on six EMI lecturers with very similar views. Its voice is pro-EMI yet has significant concerns regarding the workload involved, is insecure about its own linguistic performance, fears a loss of subject content depth, and questions the effectiveness of EMI for students learning a subject. The paper highlights the importance of such feelings in relation to perceived language and pedagogy challenges and considers the broader implications for EMI teacher training interventions regarding the practices of disciplinary knowledge-building and the linguistic and communicative resources used to enact them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking notes while listening not only aids comprehension and concentration in the moment but also creates an external storage repository of information for later use. As the number of students taking content courses in their L2 in English medium instruction contexts grows, L2 notetaking abilities are beginning to receive much-needed pedagogic and research attention. Students use their notes for a variety of post-listening activities, one of which is writing assignments. The present paper examines the relationship between notes taken by three L2 English students while listening to an academic English text, and writing tasks based on the notes taken. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the written tasks are presented and discussed in light of note content, providing insights as to how notes are used to generate post-listening writing tasks. Pedagogic implications related to the note-writing task relationship stemming from the findings are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital literacy is high on the educational agenda in many countries as it is seen as an essential attribute of a discerning citizenry and a competitive workforce. A host of frameworks and conceptualizations have been proposed—both from scholars and from transnational organizations—for the curricular implementation of digital literacy in educational institutions. While there seems to be consensus on what digital literacy is, what has received much less attention in scholarly discussions of digital literacy is the ways in which it is also, fundamentally, an ideological practice. This paper considers what it means to say that digital literacy is an ideological practice and what such a recognition means for teaching or developing it in schools, particularly in the ELT classroom. I critique the prevalent focus on skills and outline how we may develop digital literacy as social practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The instructional rationale behind critical pedagogy is to provide students the opportunity to voice their personal stories and opinions, and to reflect and act upon social concerns relevant to their daily lives. Students can then practice being agents of transformation in their own lives, starting in the classroom. This paper is based on the first author's experience of experimenting with critical pedagogy when she was teaching in the UAE. It justifies the suitability of implementing Paulo Freire's problem-posing model with younger EFL learners. Outlining the tenets of critical pedagogy developed by Freire, the authors support the practical nature of the model and its transference to a primary setting. The authors explicate Freire's problem-posing model as five phases, providing a background and case study application for each phase. The intention is to present a practical guide for teachers wishing to implement critical approaches in the EFL classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migrant families often invite grandparents to move to Australia when babies are born. In order to provide support to their families, many of these grandparents have to retire from their own professional careers and migrate to Australia to start new lives. Some speak English as an additional language, with or without formal education, prior to arriving in Australia. Once in Australia, these senior migrants can only access limited government-funded English learning, and they are frequently left to capitalize on informal learning. This paper discusses a case study of two Chinese-heritage senior migrants and the role English plays in their lives, and grandparenting in Australia. We argue that having the English capability for everyday activity within the family is key to their overall well-being, and that drawing directly on their past experiences and learning strengths can enhance their quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher motivation is a key component for increasing teachers' commitment to their professionalism and the quality of their teaching. This paper provides insight into L2 teacher motivation in the context of their sustained engagement with a theatre festival for schools. Drawing on self-determination theory, it investigates how this extracurricular activity enables the teachers to fulfil their individual and professional needs. The findings from eight semi-structured interviews of Slovak ELT teachers suggest the festival offers them a space for satisfaction of their needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness in the long term. The festival enables them to pursue their own intrinsic appreciation of arts and theatre that is then shared with their pupils. Teachers appreciate the co-creative process during the rehearsals, which enhances learners' intrinsic and instrumental value of learning English. They believe the festival fosters their learners' language development in a holistic way, enhancing their emotional and social skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In countries in which opportunities to use a foreign language are mostly limited to the language classroom, teachers and students need to seek occasions to practice it. Luckily for them, virtual worlds provide many ways of practicing the language they study and communicate with many target language speakers. This paper reports a study that investigated changes in motivational dynamics and factors contributing to changes in the levels of motivation as reported by two advanced learners of English. They were asked to use the virtual world Second Life after classes and practice English. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data revealed changes in intensity of motivation and several factors responsible for them. On that basis, some guidelines for increasing motivation in the context of virtual worlds are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growth in the provision of English medium instruction (EMI) has led to a significant increase in publications on EMI. Several publications claim that EMI is a young field that is still at the level of 'infancy' in areas such as language-related student support and teacher education. This raises the question why EMI appears not to draw on research and practices from English for academic purposes (EAP), a discipline with a longer history of enquiry into English-medium education. In this paper, we explore convergences between EMI and EAP in the areas of student support, collaboration between language teachers and subject teachers, and teacher education, and suggest some EAP theories and practices that EMI might usefully draw on. We conclude by stressing the need for cross-fertilization between EMI and EAP scholarship and for a joined research agenda that aims to produce more systematic empirical evidence of the benefits of discipline-specific academic language and literacy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the implementation of a language learning project in a Japanese EFL classroom in which the trigger, or motivational energy for involvement, came from interacting with English-speaking international students. The project provided a context to investigate the trajectory of one group's (three learners) sustained engagement across three tasks that formed the subgoals of the project. Data sources include learner diaries, engagement questionnaires, and transcripts of task conversations, which together were used to describe the level of engagement for each learner at key times throughout the project. The findings indicate that engagement is sustained by certain flow-like conditions during tasks (i.e. control, interest, challenge-skill balance), group cohesion among project members, and a growing focus on the long-term goal of the project. The results highlight project design features that teachers should consider when implementing projects with the purpose of engaging students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proponents of translanguaging are often not aware of the history of code-switching research and the relevance of this research for a range of the claims they make, for example on the issue of the separability of systems. While it is understandable that new paradigms try to emphasize how different they are from others, we cannot see why and how a new approach is different from previous ones unless a fair presentation is given of the position of others and detailed evidence is provided of the claims that are being made. In this rebuttal I show that the translanguaging literature owes a lot to the literature on code-switching, and that the translanguaging practices as found in the instructions to teachers look very similar to examples of code-switching as found in the extensive academic literature. In addition, many of the recommendations for pedagogical practice are not as novel as the proponents of translanguaging would like us to believe: many teachers when they hear about translanguaging say that they have been doing it for years but haven't had a name for it. It is time for the translanguaging papers to now recognize that the translanguaging agenda developed out of the ideas of other excellent researchers in bilingualism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The commonly used categorical system for conditionals (zero, first, second, and third) has been repeatedly demonstrated to be inadequate because it is unable to account for many conditional types attested in actual usage. ELT coursebooks and pedagogic grammars are criticized for ignoring the evidence and persisting with its use, but the reality appears to be that, from the point of view of syllabus designers and materials writers, the usefulness and practicality that the system offers outweighs any concerns related to its accuracy. This paper attempts to resolve this tension by showing how the existing system can be improved rather than simply abandoned. It proposes a revised categorization system that better reflects the reality of conditional usage and takes into account evidence on how learners' knowledge of conditional forms expands and develops as they progress through proficiency levels, but that nonetheless can be practically employed in multi-level teaching materials and courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities in English medium instruction (EMI) settings are generally reticent about the linguistic diversity of their student body. Very often, a monolingual mindset dominates institutional thinking that casts linguistic diversity as obstacle rather than asset for the EMI curriculum. This has given rise to deficit models of English language provision in which language tutors are viewed as offering language support and 'fixing' language problems. It is timely to address these anachronistic views. In this paper, I do so by making the case for the multilingual agenda in EMI higher educational institutions. From a plurilingual perspective, I examine three narratives for developing the multilingual agenda: (1) 'the institution as anglophone and multilingual'; (2) 'students as plurilingual speakers'; and (3) 'EMI curriculum and pedagogy informed by language-as-resource'. I argue that the significance of these narratives lies in treating them as interrelated and demonstrating their salience for enacting wider higher education agendas at the institutional level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the concept of 'Academic Coloniality' in ELT at an Algerian University. Academic Coloniality refers to the practices and beliefs of people involved in ELT that contribute to the production, manifestation, and reproduction of power patterns between the 'native speakers' of English and its learners. Through this, we aim to show how the beliefs and reported practices of seven participants within ELT at an Algerian university contribute to it. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews and analysed using critical discourse analysis. Findings suggest that Academic Coloniality manifests itself in participants' continuous quest to achieve 'native-like' competence and adopt their norms. This resulted from the context, daily interactions, and effects of media. Coupled with gatekeepers' resistance to change, these contribute to the reproduction of Academic Coloniality. In this sense, the concept is a useful tool to conceptualize and contextualize practices and beliefs within ELT that prevent its decolonization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on a study that investigated primary-school English-language teachers' use of digital technologies in their in-person classrooms after a period of online teaching necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. It also explored the perceived effects the period of online teaching had on the teachers' practices. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with sixteen experienced Hong Kong primary-school English-language teachers approximately one year after they returned to in-person teaching. The findings suggest that the period of online teaching has led to a greater utilization of technology for teaching. In addition, they suggest digital technologies are now embedded in teachers' regular teaching practices, with the digital technologies adopted primarily those that enhance existing practices. Common digital technologies include: (1) learning management systems; (2) digital noticeboards; (3) interactive digital worksheets and quizzes; and (4) interactive presentation software. Examples of how teachers use digital technologies, and considerations for their use, are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we report on a mixed-methods study which investigated teachers' attitudes towards and experiences with teaching environmental issues within their ELT classes. Given the rising importance of ecoliteracy and its inclusion as a transversal learning objective for all subjects in many national state curricula, it is critically important to understand how ELT educators can be best supported in addressing simultaneously both linguistic and environmentally related teaching goals. Data were collected via an online international survey (n = 91) and a series of in-depth, semi-structured interviews (n = 5). Analysis of the data reveals the specific strategies ELT teachers employ when integrating environmental issues alongside linguistic issues, what their motivations for doing so are, what resources and materials they use, and what challenges they face. The article offers valuable insights into the factors that facilitate the sustainable and effective teaching of both language and environmental issues in diverse ELT contexts across the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learner motivation is an essential ingredient for successful language learning. This article investigates the motivating and demotivating factors affecting the motivation of fifty-eight EAP learners' L2 learning. Guided by complex dynamic systems theory, with a dual focus on both what factors are important and what role these play in the L2 motivational system, this exploratory study utilized network analysis to map out how motivational factors connect to each other and form a L2 motivation factor network. It was found that motivating and demotivating factors, through the connections they share, exert an influence not only on each other, but on the whole motivational system. Based on the findings, suggestions are provided for classroom teachers for how they might steer learners' motivational systems towards more motivated states, including introducing new factors into the system, enhancing connectivity, and increasing learners' awareness of the complex and dynamic nature of motivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article adopts a sociomaterial perspective on ELT materials and illustrates how a mandatory textbook is used as a springboard to create decolonizing relations in the classroom ecology. Sociomaterial perspectives view learning as not the transmission but the emergence of knowledge from embodied relations, which shifts the focus from the textbook itself to the relations surrounding it. Based on this shift, this article first provides exploratory questions for teachers to understand the classroom ecology. A set of example activities in a beginner-level Japanese EFL class follows, which showcase how a textbook published by a global publisher could be turned into a springboard to attract translingual and multimodal materials and meaning-making resources. Learning emerges through the entangled relationships of the prescribed textbook, materials, resources, students, and teachers. The article concludes with practical implications to enrich the ELT classroom ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a relationship between language and the environment. Languages shape worldviews, inform behaviours, and are not disconnected from local political, sociocultural, and ecological contexts. English has an enduring colonial, imperialist, and assimilationist legacy and can be easily delinked from context, culture, and place. In this article, I argue that an epistemic (un)learning of the Western 'epistemological error' is required to enable equitable validation of all languages and knowledge systems, including those Indigenous and minoritized, in ELT for more sustainable futures. Heritage language pedagogy (HLP), conceptualized differently from mainstream versions, and transepistemic language education in the Canadian context will illustrate how epistemic (un)learning takes place. HLP seeks to relink connections between languages and place-based knowledges. The article demonstrates how HLP and transepistemic language education enables learners and educators to engage in a decolonial and pluriversal sharing of languages, knowledges, and worlds for more equitable and sustainable ELT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing use of digital educational technologies in higher education (HE) means that the nature of communication may be shifting. Assessments of English for academic purposes (EAP) need to be reconceptualized accordingly to reflect the new and complex ways in which language is used in HE. With a view to inform EAP assessments, our study set out to identify key trends related to academic English using a scoping review of the literature. Findings revealed two major trends: (1) a shift towards multimodal communication which has in turn resulted in the emergence of new types of academic assignments, multimodal genres, and the need for students to acquire new skills to operate within this multimodal arena; and (2) the limitations of existing skills-based approaches to assessment and the need to move towards integrated skills assessment. We discuss the implications of these findings for EAP assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes seven coursebooks for young learners (YL) of English language. Topics include an outline of the history of YL coursebooks, four groups of principles of YL coursebook design that include learner factors, teacher factors, contextual factors and design factors, and detailed review of each coursebook series that include levels 1 and 2 of "Kid's Box," levels 1 and 2 of "Oxford Discover" and levels 1 and 2 of "Our World."

This article draws on data from a British Council-funded project which aimed both to compare global early English language learning (EELL) pedagogic practices in 2020 with those in 2010 and to investigate current EELL teaching and learning in primary schools. The project had an explicit focus on classroom language practice, that is, the languages teachers (and learners) use to deliver and learn English content, a key pedagogic concern in the literature. This article first compares survey data on classroom language use in 2010 and 2020 before presenting a more in-depth consideration of the 2020 data from fourteen case studies to give an overview of current classroom language practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although washback has been widely explored by applied linguists and education researchers, little attention has been paid to teacher agency in relation to it. It is critical to understand how language teachers navigate their pedagogy and respond to the broader curricular goals at a time when schools and teachers are being governed using examination and test data as accountability mechanisms. Drawing on data from classroom observations and interviews with two English teachers from a rural Bangladeshi school, this article illustrates how these teachers exercised their agency even under strong political pressure to improve students' test data. The findings indicate that traditional understanding of washback as deterministic may be insufficient to account for the complex ways in which teachers may respond to broader educational goals in the context of washback. The study concludes with theoretical, empirical, and pedagogic implications for washback research and teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking notes while simultaneously listening to academic content in a second language is a daunting task for many students. While doing so, the note-taker is faced with a number of choices, including when, where, and how to take notes. Choices that students make are related to the overall format and system of notes as well as how to record specific pieces of information. The option of translanguaging, or making use of their multilingual resource, in note-taking is often overlooked by students and teachers in English for academic purposes (EAP) settings. The present article reports results of an international survey of EAP students with respect to their translanguaging habits and preferences when taking notes and presents a range of related pedagogic implications with the intent of preparing students for English medium instruction (EMI) in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated students' perceptions towards translanguaging in their English-medium instruction (EMI) experiences to understand how it affects their access to the subject content. The focus is on EMI at a leading, research-intensive university in South Korea, qualitatively explored using data collected from interviews with ten undergraduate students, and analysed using the principles of constructivist grounded theory. The emerging theory indicates that students' experiences of 'monolingually framed' shifts between L1 and L2 systems can be understood using the notion of 'trust' and that trust reinforces binary choices, in particular EMI situations, of using either the L1 or the L2 system. Further discussion indicates that, over time, these patterns of trust may constrain learning. The study suggests that instilling a competence of translanguaging in students will help them overcome these constraints. Pedagogic implications are discussed for ELT practitioners who prepare students for EMI and/or support EMI content instructors in their teaching practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last two decades, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) has become ubiquitous in ELT. In this article, I consider how differences in the way in which the framework is being interpreted by different powerful actors, including governments and for-profit organizations, affect its usability for ELT practitioners, a key segment of its intended audience and thus, at least in theory, key beneficiaries of its spread. I highlight three key paradoxes faced by ELT practitioners working with the framework, relating to whether CEFR is to be seen as a flexible point of reference or a set standard, whether the communicative competence described by CEFR is to be seen in a conventional, universal sense or from a more dynamic contemporary perspective, and whether CEFR is to be seen as associated with prepackaged methods (textbooks) or as a vehicle for the development of local pedagogies. I conclude by calling for deeper awareness of these paradoxes among ELT practitioners to support the productive implementation of CEFR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles within the issue on various topics, including the importance of English medium instruction (EMI)scholarship for English for academic purpose research, and an Anglo-centric approach to EMI practices.

It is assumed by many teachers and materials writers that it is important to teach at all levels the forms and meanings of derivational prefixes and suffixes, as an important aid to learning new words in English. However, corpus evidence suggests that knowledge of the meanings of such components occurring within the most common 5,000 words in English—a rough upper target vocabulary level for intermediate-level (B1) students—does not, in most cases, help learners at this level to understand the words of which they form a part. It is concluded that probably only a relatively small number of prefixes and suffixes are worth teaching in courses for intermediate classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the potential benefits of using mobile instant messaging (MIM) in English language teaching (ELT). topics discussed include reasons for using MIM in ELT, accessible MIM application software, and pedagogic recommendations on how to use MIM. Also mentioned are issues to be considered when integrating MIM in language classes.

For many language learners, listening represents a major source of anguish, with apparent success in the confines of the classroom failing to be mirrored in the ordinary interactions of daily life. One contributing factor may be the continued reliance on listening texts and activities that position the learner as a bystander rather than a participant. In response, the concept of interactive listening has drawn considerable attention in ELT. What has been largely missing, however, is the application of principles drawn from the last twenty years or so of empirical research in fields such as conversation analysis which reveal how interactions actually unfold for listeners. This article identifies five core concepts that may be fundamental to further developing a robust approach to listening in interaction : participation status, meaning as action, projection, participatory listenership, and recipient design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The English as a lingua franca (ELF) and languaging research areas have challenged the norm that the goal of ELT is to teach a standardized language. This article reports on a course following the principles of ELF and languaging where the goal is to support students to use and grow their existing repertoire of resources to do things in English. The course was taught at a Thai university and was organized around each student learning a hobby of their choice. Focusing on strategies for using language, the course provided support for students to learn about their hobby, to interact with others through social media, and to create videos. Students' reflections on their learning show substantial developments in their ability to do things in English and preliminary changes in attitude. The shift from teaching linguistic features to exploring strategies for exploiting existing learning resources provides a new paradigm in ELT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In South Africa, English is used as a language of learning and teaching for most students from Grade 4 onwards. National policies have requirements for all teachers regarding language proficiency in English, and they also require all teachers from Grades R (pre-school) to 6 to be English language teachers. Because most teachers are not English home language speakers, it is necessary to build academic language proficiency across school subjects along the lines of multilingual content and language integrated learning (MCLIL). National policy documents show little awareness of this and constrain teacher education for multilingual contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 led to a transition to 'remote emergency teaching' in higher-education contexts across the globe. The impact of this on English-medium education in multilingual university settings (EMEMUS) contexts is yet to be fully understood, but it is clear that it will be long lasting. This article outlines three online pedagogic activities that were adopted in an English-taught course that transitioned from the classroom to online. Based on a conceptualization of English as a 'glocal language' and motivated by an orientation towards a 'pedagogy of care', the activities were designed to draw on students' rich linguistic repertoires and support community building. The first activity was a language portrait, the second entailed online and offline exploration of the linguistic landscape of the local contexts, and the third activity was the critical analysis, editing, translation, and/or adaptation of Wikipedia pages. All activities can be adapted for the ELT classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This mixed-methods study explores the language-related difficulties and ELT support offered in English-medium programmes at eight universities in China. Data included a student questionnaire (n = 394) measuring the difficulties of 45 academic tasks, organized around the four skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Results revealed students faced the largest difficulties with productive skills, especially writing. To explore structural language support for overcoming such challenges, fieldwork interviews with twenty-six senior faculty at eight universities in four cities in China were conducted. These revealed three main types of institutional support: concurrent language support from English language teachers offered alongside English medium programmes; preparatory programmes taken before students enrolled in English medium courses, which were prevalent in language-specialist universities; and self-access learning and writing centres, which were found at two transnational universities. When structural support was lacking, content teachers reported making grassroots efforts to help students understand content via use of the students' multilingual repertoires in explanations, interactions, and materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction the special section of the publication giving particular focus on critical English language pedagogy is presented.