This paper brings together several important threads accounting for learning English as a foreign language, that is, language learning experience, material culture as an element of this experience as well as a component of the learning environment, motivation and music. Material culture has recently attracted the attention of researchers interested in foreign/second language learning and multilingualism because it provides a rich context for many multilingual practices. Longplay album covers are an excellent example of artefacts that combine the verbal with the material. Music and songs, pop songs in particular, are an important motivating factor in learning languages.
The aim of this paper is to share with the reader the author and her generation’s encounters with pop music of the 1960s, focusing on language learning experience based on the material aspects of these encounters, that is, longplay record covers. The paper, then, is the author’s personal reflection based on her own experience as well as on the multiple discussions she has had with friends and colleagues whose teenage years spanned the 1960s. Also connections between music and language learning are discussed along with suggestions of activities capitalizing on learners’ interest in music in the teaching process.

While seminal work identified age of onset to L2 as a core predictor of L2 learning in naturalistic environments, recent research has shown that other variables, such as language use, are more important than an early age of onset in predicting L2 attainment in speakers who learn the second language primarily in school. In this study, we investigated whether the acquisition of vocabulary and the development of overall proficiency in English as L2 can be predicted more faithfully by daily language, intended as daily share of L2 use in comparison to L1s, or L2 age of onset. To explore this issue, we analyzed a large public dataset of 650 speakers (de Bruin et al., 2017), in which participants were native in Spanish and/or Basque and spoke English as an additional language. Participants were previously assessed on their vocabulary skills using the LexTALE task and on their overall proficiency using a semi-structured interview. Language skills were then added to a linear regression model where age of onset and daily use of English were treated as predictors. Our results show that, in this dataset, use is a better predictor of language skills (both lexical knowledge and overall proficiency) than age of onset.

The article aims to scrutinize third agers’ in-class willingness to communicate (WTC) in English as well as to determine the relationship among WTC, intrinsic motivation, classroom environment, and teacher immediacy. The instrument adapted to this study was a questionnaire comprising biodata items, the in-class WTC tool (Peng & Woodrow, 2010), intrinsic motivation (Noels, Clément, & Pelletier, 2001), classroom environment (Fraser, Fisher, & McRobbie, 1996), and the teacher immediacy scale (Zhang & Oetzel, 2006). The data revealed that senior learners’ WTC was higher in meaning-focused than in form-focused activities. This finding indicates that the participants paid due attention to communicative interactions in English. Also, they were more eager to be actively involved in dyadic exercises as it might have given them a sense of security and confidence. It is
noteworthy that intrinsic motivation turned out to be the strongest predictor of in-class WTC. The analysis showed that communication in English abroad and in-class was of paramount relevance for the informants. The older adults also underscored the fundamental role of the language instructor. In this respect, the students attached great importance to a non-threatening atmosphere, and the teacher’s personality traits, namely patience, professionalism, and empathy.

One critical problem most educators have possibly experienced is that some students drop out of school probably due to loss of enough motivation. Research indicates student engagement could not only increase motivation but help to sustain it at high levels. This relationship between these two constructs has already been researched quantitatively in language education. However, little research seems to have been done on exploring the ways of increasing student engagement and motivation in relation to each other using a qualitative design. The present study thus aimed at investigating the ways to improve student engagement as well as motivation with a qualitative design. The participants were 30 male, intermediate EFL learners of the Iran Language Institute (ILI) in Gorgan, Iran. These participants, selected through convenience sampling, attended the semi-structured interview sessions voluntarily. The findings of the study led to a model of determinants of student engagement and language learning motivation. These determinants include teacher behavior, teacher personality, and student behavior for student engagement, and teacher, self, and parents for language learning motivation. It is expected the outcomes will be to the benefit of language teachers, language learners, and materials developers.

Research in the academic context has revealed the positive roles of self-efficacy in teaching and learning, showing that a thorough understanding of self-efficacy is essential. In this study, the relationships between the four principal sources and the formation of self-efficacy belief proposed by Bandura (1997) are examined in order to further this understanding. Based on this, several empirical studies have attempted to explore these relationships in various fields, but the relevant research appears to have produced insufficient empirical data in the field of language learning to support the theory. Therefore, this study aims to investigate how these sources affect basic self-efficacy (BSSE) and advanced skill self-efficacy (ASSE) classified according to the difficulty of listening tasks in English. As many as 107 Korean university students participated in the study and mediation analysis was employed to examine the relationships. The results show that all four sources act as mediators of BSSE, and all but physiological and emotional states serve as mediators of ASSE. The findings support Bandura’s hypothesis and the pedagogical implications are discussed.

With the quick transition to online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is vital to take the recent development in language teaching methodology into consideration, especially the pedagogical utility of new models of English for Academic purposes (EAP). Accordingly, the main objective of the present study was to investigate the efficacy of the adjunct model in improving the overall reading comprehension skills of Iranian architecture students in online EAP courses. To this end, from the population of students studying architecture at the Isfahan University of Art, three intact classes, each with 35 sophomore students were selected. While the first class was taught by a language teacher (the Language-driven Group) and the second class received instruction from a content teacher (the Content-driven Group), the third class was taught by applying the adjunct model involving both content and language teachers. At the end of the semester, a reading comprehension test was administrated to all students. The analysis of the data through running a one-way ANOVA and post hoc analysis revealed that the students in the adjunct class outperformed their peers in the other two classes on the reading comprehension test.

Making mistakes is a natural part of learning process requiring correction; accordingly, corrective feedback is indispensable. On this ground, the present study compared the effects of mobile-mediated explicit and implicit corrective feedback on Iranian EFL learners’ use of English prepositions of manner and movement. To this end, the participants including 60 learners were randomly assigned to three groups of 20 individuals on WhatsApp application. These three groups included two experimental and one control groups. The treatment groups
sat for a pre-test, received instruction on the errors under study, and practiced correcting them in response to the corrective feedback condition. Next, participants took immediate post-test and delayed post-test. The statistical analysis revealed that although the control group was more proficient than its experimental counterparts on the pre-test, their performance did not improve on immediate and delayed post-tests. However, both of the experimental groups significantly improved on immediate post-test and retained their gains on the delayed post-test. The pedagogical implication is provided for both teachers and learners.

The present paper concerns the topic of mentoring in the context of pre-service teacher education. Mentoring refers here to assistance or guidance provided by a school-based teacher who agrees to mentor a student teacher during her or his practicum. More specifically, the paper examines if mentoring can be recognized as a form of professional development for mentor teachers. While a great deal of literature has looked at the benefits student teachers gain from mentoring, an ongoing line of research has acknowledged that teachers
in their roles as mentors also can benefit professionally from the experience of mentoring. However, the bulk of this research comes from the Anglo-Saxon context and it cannot be assumed that the experiences of British, American or Australian teachers are shared by teachers in Poland. The aim of the present study then was to identify the ways in which Polish teachers of English who have undertaken the role of a mentor develop professionally through mentoring. The instrument used was a web-based questionnaire. The main findings show that mentor teachers gain professionally primarily through the process of mentoring—being
a mentor enhances their capacity for self-reflection and positively impacts their leadership skills, confidence as a teacher, willingness to self-develop, as well as their enthusiasm and commitment to teaching. On the other hand, mentors do not feel they learn directly from student teachers, although, in general, they recognize cooperation with student teachers as an inspirational and positive experience.

The review

The review