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In the present study, two sets of scripts from primary school students were collected, one written in English and the other in their native Chinese on the same topic. The Chinese scripts were translated into English by Google Translate (GT) and compared with the scripts written in English. Sentences in the two sets of passages that were clearly parallel in meaning were then extracted and compared for accuracy, vocabulary, substance, and length. Findings revealed that in some cases the GT versions (i.e., those originally written in the native tongue) displayed language that was significantly better that what the students produced when writing in English. Patterns of improvement are analyzed and discussed.

Although the importance of critical thinking (CT) has been stressed in English language education, little attention has been paid to language teachers' perceptions and experiences regarding CT during the pre-service stage of their careers. Drawing on data from a focus group and follow-up email interviews with pre-service language teachers, this study shows that the participants had a limited understanding of CT, and lacked preparation and support in their programmes regarding how to implement CT-oriented teaching practices. The findings also revealed a range of individual and contextual challenges faced by the participants when they tried to integrate CT into their language teaching. The study concludes with recommendations on how to cultivate a critical mindset among language teachers while developing CT-oriented pedagogies.

The content of research methods courses in tertiary education, as revealed by popular textbooks, tends to focus largely on procedural aspects of research investigations. Although following proper procedures is essential for reaching valid and reliable outcomes, there is another attribute of good quality research that is often missing from research methods courses and textbooks: appropriate decision making and the avoidance of cognitive biases, such as confirmation bias and base rate neglect. In this essay, some of the more common cognitive biases are highlighted with examples from everyday life in order to illustrate how these biases can influence decision-making processes when reading about or conducting research investigations.

In certain contexts, processes of perception, action and skill development and those related to aesthetic experiences can have mutual influence upon each other. Concepts from the domains of ecological psychology and aesthetics may therefore be distinct but entangled. These entanglements are explored here through observations from an experiment in which musicians' behaviours and experiences were recorded while they interacted with a computer music controller instrument operating different modes of sound synthesis. Processes of action-perception exploration and enacting the instrument's various affordances had an impact upon the musicians' aesthetic judgements about the instrument, and their imagining its virtual potential for application in music cultural practices. Conversely, musicians' prior experience in different aesthetic cultures constrained the affordances of the instrument that were discovered and taken up by them. These insights are used to expand upon the different ways that perceptual-motor and social aesthetic processes can constrain and shape each other. Ongoing and further directions for both theoretical and empirical research are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1997, "Language Teaching Research" (LTR) has published hundreds of research articles, most of which have reported on empirical studies whose broad purpose was to increase understanding on how second or foreign language teaching can be improved. These articles, as a collective whole, can be viewed as an artifact of the research issues and topics that interested LTR scholars in the time period around the beginning of the 21st century. Moreover, because of the journal's special focus on research, a survey of the first 20 years of LTR's articles holds the potential to monitor the field at large over that time period. Via a survey that examines the main focuses of each of the 359 articles under categories as 'Instructional effects', 'Teacher cognition' and 'Learner behavior', this study serves as an extant inventory of research interests over the first 20 years of the journal's existence.

This article reports on a survey of 241 Master of Arts programs in TESOL (MATESOL) in 16 countries serving as a snapshot of second language teacher education in 2014. After an initial screening by a set of criteria, these programs were first identified, and their course offerings, among other criteria, such as entrance and capstone requirements, were categorized. In total, 3,877 courses across 15 knowledge fields were coded with frequency counts taken. Our analysis revealed that the most frequently appearing course offerings tended to focus on teaching methods. However, large differences appeared among the programs with regard to the offering of courses in various knowledge fields. Differences also appeared between US and non-US programs, particularly with regard to practicum requirements. Several other patterns and themes emerged from the data including the extensive coverage of social and cultural aspects of language learning in elective courses, and the lack of focus on specific English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts in course offerings, among others.

A much under-researched issue in higher education is the extent to which English-medium university courses help students improve their English proficiency in an ESL context. Adopting a longitudinal, mixed methods design in which quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed, the current study tracked English language improvement, or lack thereof, among 33 students over a 12-month segment of a Bachelor of Education degree (B.Ed.) program. The results revealed that on average, student scores showed very slight improvement both overall and across each of the four skill areas, although there was considerable variation among the students in the amount of improvement or lack of improvement made. Analysis of the interview data identified a combination of factors that might influence students' English language development in the B.Ed. program. Important implications of the results for pedagogical practices that facilitate ESL teacher trainees' English language proficiency development are discussed. Although this study took place in Hong Kong, it has value in other contexts where second or foreign language learners study disciplinary content through the target language.

Transitioning from school to university is a major development for learners, often accompanied by difficulties. When overseas students arrive at university for the first time these challenges are multiplied. It is suggested, however, that these difficulties can be mitigated to a certain extent via the use of online social networks. The present study, using data generated by a group of 350 first-year students from mainland China (called QQ), explores how an online instant messaging service helped the students adapt to life in a Hong Kong university. Findings reveal that (a) first-year mainland students experienced specific problems at distinct stages; (b) the QQ provided informational, instrumental and emotional support for the students; (c) the QQ was self-emergent and had a clear annual cycle. It is argued that self-initiated peer support among students plays a vital role in higher education, especially at crucial periods such as school-to-university and cross-border transitions.

Although research in the field of language teaching and learning has appeared to enhance classroom pedagogy, I argue here that these advances have had a relatively small impact on actual foreign language learning. Unlike in most school subjects, the recipients of language pedagogy, i.e. the students, arrive in the classroom with several predetermined advantages or impediments that have a mitigating influence on the effectiveness of teaching practices, and these are not generally considered in sufficient detail by language teaching research (LTR). Recently, however, new findings arriving from research in biological science, using equipment and techniques that penetrate the brain, are providing remarkable insights on how languages are learnt. This success from the laboratory is contrasted with the limited improvements resulting from traditional LTR based in the social sciences. Thus, I contend that research into how languages are best taught requires a more interdisciplinary approach that includes methods and instruments from the biological sciences.