English Language Teaching, Issue: Vol.19, No.5

Enhancing Critical Reading through Anaphoric Resolution: Evidence from Tertiary ESL Classrooms in India

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 23:20:43 +0000

Critical reading has consistently been documented in the literature as a central competency in post-secondary education, with university instructors expecting students to demonstrate higher-order reading skills—such as analysing, evaluating, synthesising, and identifying authorial bias—upon entry into tertiary contexts. Despite widespread agreement among faculty and institutions regarding the importance of critical reading for academic success, many students struggle to engage with texts at a critical level. The present study investigates the use of anaphoric resolution as a pedagogical strategy to enhance university students’ critical engagement with academic texts in India. Adopting a mixed-methods design, the study employed a pre- and post-test to measure quantitative gains, followed by semi-structured interviews to capture qualitative insights into learners’ experiences. The findings indicate that explicit instruction in anaphoric resolution contributed positively to the development of students’ critical reading abilities. The qualitative responses indicate that learners’ awareness of anaphoric resolution as a strategy for understanding complex expository texts was particularly beneficial. The study highlights the relevance of using anaphoric resolution as a pedagogical tool to support learners’ critical engagement with texts.

TPACK, Informed Multimodal Distance Instruction for EFL Learning: An Action Research Study in Remote Elementary Schools in Taiwan

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 03:14:17 +0000

In alignment with Taiwan’s “Bilingual 2030” policy, this action research study investigates the efficacy of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK)-informed multimodal distance instruction in remote, predominantly indigenous elementary schools. While distance education offers a pathway to narrow the urban–rural achievement gap, geographical isolation and the digital divide present significant pedagogical barriers. This study employed a quantitative-dominant practitioner inquiry involving 85 elementary students (N=85) across two instructional cycles, prioritizing longitudinal performance data and gamified learning analytics to evaluate instructional efficacy. Cycle 1 utilized synchronous visual-textual, while Cycle 2 transitioned to asynchronous multimodal tasks to mitigate “digital latency” and reduce Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA). Data were aggregated from three quantitative streams: standardized academic assessments, gamified “Fast-Test” performance analytics, and rubric-based scoring of student digital artifacts. The findings reveal a “diverging trend” in learner performance: while traditional vocabulary and reading comprehension scores experienced a decline due to the increased linguistic complexity of the curriculum, the gamified multimodal intervention yielded a notable gain of 4.70 points. These results suggest that multimodal scaffolding—integrating visual, phonological, and gamified elements—creates a “performance floor” that sustains learner engagement and resilience despite escalating academic challenges. This study concludes that the success of remote EFL instruction is contingent upon the teacher’s ability to fluidly pivot between instructional modes within the TPACK framework. The research offers a foundational model for promoting equitable EFL distance education in under-resourced and linguistically diverse contexts.

Gender Differences in Oral Communication Strategies among Fiji Second Language Learners

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 03:30:24 +0000

The study explored the impact of gender on the use of oral communication strategies (OCS) among 60 first-year university English as a Second Language (ESL) students in Fiji. The OCSI (Oral Communication Strategy Inventory) was administered following an in-class oral presentation. Semi-structured interviews were then conducted with a subgroup of the participants (n = 10) to discuss why they had selected the strategies. Findings suggest that fluency, accuracy, and non-verbal strategies were the most used by students to meet academic expectations. Significant gender differences were found in four categories: female students used social-affective strategies and negotiation for meaning more frequently than male students, and male students dropped messages more frequently than did females. These differences appeared to be related to two types of anxiety-management orientations indicated by the qualitative data in the study: female students managed a sense of distress through message clarity and the speaker-audience relationship, whereas males saw face-saving as exiting the message as a strategy against public errors. These results may have a bearing on ESL instruction in the South Pacific, as they suggest that oral communication programmes need to factor in gender. For example, teachers can prompt male students to develop more robust negotiation strategies rather than withdrawing, and all students can transition from translator-based processing to a direct thinking process in the target language.

An Evaluation of Ethiopian University’s Undergraduate English Language Curriculum in Preparing Professionals to Launch Entrepreneurship and Market Their Competence

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 10:54:54 +0000

The major objective of this research was to evaluate the ability of a university undergraduate English language curriculum to prepare trainees to launch entrepreneurship and professionally serve effectively in organizations where they would be employed upon the completion of their studies. The study used a descriptive survey design, which allowed the researcher to qualitatively evaluate the curriculum currently in use against the contextually established criteria. The research instruments used to collect the data were document analysis and semistructured interviews. Accordingly, the results from both tools unequivocally revealed that the curriculum, by and large, consists of relevant and timely content that enriches the English language competence of graduates. Furthermore, it encourages the most frequent application of the learner-centered approach. However, detailed analyses of the data indicated that the curriculum developing team produced the curriculum without assessing and analyzing the needs of the learners and other stakeholders. Almost all courses, except “Business Communications” and “Translation”, have not included content that helps graduates launch entrepreneurship. To help graduates create their jobs as professionals in the ELT industry, courses such as Internship, Modern Methodologies to Teaching the English Language, Supplementary English Language Learning Materials Development, English for Tourism, English for Emigrants, and skills that enable them to write business/research proposals, short stories in English, mini dictionaries that translate from English to different local vernaculars and vice versa, promotion/advertisement texts, brochures, leaflets, and curriculum vitae should have been included. Thus, the researcher recommends that the English curriculum currently in use in all Ethiopian universities be revised or rewritten by giving due attention to the aforementioned courses and skills.

Constructing the “STAR” Classroom for Higher Vocational English

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 07:42:43 +0000

Teaching competitions have become an important mechanism for improving the quality of vocational education and supporting teachers’ professional development. Drawing on national curriculum standards for higher vocational English as well as sustained teaching practice, this study proposes a systematic framework for constructing the “STAR” classroom, which integrates Situation-based, Task-driven, Assessment-motivated, and Result-oriented principles. Centered on student learning, the STAR classroom is aligned with the principles of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) and the Production-Oriented Approach (POA), thereby forming an integrated instructional model that supports meaningful learning and holistic student development. To enhance its practical relevance, a classroom implementation example is included to illustrate how the four components operate in an authentic teaching context. The study contributes a practice-oriented pedagogical framework for higher vocational English teaching under the background of educational transformation.

Reviewer acknowledgements for English Language Teaching, Vol. 19, No. 5, 2026

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 08:15:18 +0000

Reviewer acknowledgements for English Language Teaching, Vol. 19, No. 5, 2026