Pub Date : 2025-02-28DOI: 10.1177/13621688251317786
Jalil Fathi, Masoud Rahimi, Timothy Teo
Considering the contribution of intelligent personal assistant (IPA) platforms to English as a foreign language (EFL) speaking courses and the insufficiency of research in this regard, the current study applied a sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach to explore the impact of Google Assistant, an IPA platform, on EFL learners’ International English Language Testing System (IELTS) speaking test marks and their fluency, comprehensibility, and accentedness. Two intact classes at a language institute were chosen and randomly assigned to an IPA class with 20 EFL learners and a non-IPA class with 23 EFL learners. The IPA learners interactively and individually communicated with Google Assistant by giving commands/requests/questions, and the non-IPA learners communicated the same commands/requests/questions with their peers interactively. The IELTS speaking skill test, the fluency, comprehensibility, and accentedness scales, and an individual semi-structured interview were used to collect the necessary quantitative and qualitative data. One-way between groups analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), applied to analyse the quantitative data, revealed that the IPA and non-IPA speaking instruction developed the EFL learners’ IELTS speaking test marks, fluency, and comprehensibility, and reduced their accentedness. The former (i.e. the IPA instruction) outperformed the latter (i.e. the non-IPA instruction) in developing IELTS speaking test marks and comprehensibility, and reducing accentedness. Thematic analysis, applied to analyse the qualitative data, uncovered several themes and categories that indicated the IPA learners’ positive attitudes and perceptions towards the use of Google Assistant for interactive, one-to-one speaking activities. The findings suggested effective techniques for integrating IPAs into EFL speaking courses to enhance IELTS speaking test marks, fluency, and comprehensibility, and reduce accentedness in EFL learners.
{"title":"Applying intelligent personal assistants to develop fluency and comprehensibility, and reduce accentedness in EFL learners: an empirical study of Google Assistant","authors":"Jalil Fathi, Masoud Rahimi, Timothy Teo","doi":"10.1177/13621688251317786","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13621688251317786","url":null,"abstract":"Considering the contribution of intelligent personal assistant (IPA) platforms to English as a foreign language (EFL) speaking courses and the insufficiency of research in this regard, the current study applied a sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach to explore the impact of Google Assistant, an IPA platform, on EFL learners’ International English Language Testing System (IELTS) speaking test marks and their fluency, comprehensibility, and accentedness. Two intact classes at a language institute were chosen and randomly assigned to an IPA class with 20 EFL learners and a non-IPA class with 23 EFL learners. The IPA learners interactively and individually communicated with Google Assistant by giving commands/requests/questions, and the non-IPA learners communicated the same commands/requests/questions with their peers interactively. The IELTS speaking skill test, the fluency, comprehensibility, and accentedness scales, and an individual semi-structured interview were used to collect the necessary quantitative and qualitative data. One-way between groups analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), applied to analyse the quantitative data, revealed that the IPA and non-IPA speaking instruction developed the EFL learners’ IELTS speaking test marks, fluency, and comprehensibility, and reduced their accentedness. The former (i.e. the IPA instruction) outperformed the latter (i.e. the non-IPA instruction) in developing IELTS speaking test marks and comprehensibility, and reducing accentedness. Thematic analysis, applied to analyse the qualitative data, uncovered several themes and categories that indicated the IPA learners’ positive attitudes and perceptions towards the use of Google Assistant for interactive, one-to-one speaking activities. The findings suggested effective techniques for integrating IPAs into EFL speaking courses to enhance IELTS speaking test marks, fluency, and comprehensibility, and reduce accentedness in EFL learners.","PeriodicalId":47852,"journal":{"name":"Language Teaching Research","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143528295","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-25DOI: 10.1177/13621688251313745
Gulbahar H. Beckett, Jeanne Beck, Febriana Lestari, Junghun Yang, Hwee Jean Lim
This article presents and discusses findings of project-based (language) learning and teaching (PBLT) research published in English between 2002 and 2024. The purpose of our qualitative research synthesis (QRS) is to identify the macro and micro contexts, research foci, theoretical and methodological orientations, technology use as well as benefits, challenges, and regional understanding of PBLT in East and Southeast Asia as reported in the studies analysed for this QRS. Our goals for conducting the QRS study are to offer generalizable findings of 21 years of PBLT research to guide future PBLT research and to inform PBLT pedagogy in East and Southeast Asia. The findings of our QRS contribute to the advancement of the emerging qualitative research synthesis in the TESOL field in general and of PBLT research and practice in particular.
{"title":"Qualitative research synthesis of project-based (language) learning and teaching in East and Southeast Asia: 2002–24","authors":"Gulbahar H. Beckett, Jeanne Beck, Febriana Lestari, Junghun Yang, Hwee Jean Lim","doi":"10.1177/13621688251313745","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13621688251313745","url":null,"abstract":"This article presents and discusses findings of project-based (language) learning and teaching (PBLT) research published in English between 2002 and 2024. The purpose of our qualitative research synthesis (QRS) is to identify the macro and micro contexts, research foci, theoretical and methodological orientations, technology use as well as benefits, challenges, and regional understanding of PBLT in East and Southeast Asia as reported in the studies analysed for this QRS. Our goals for conducting the QRS study are to offer generalizable findings of 21 years of PBLT research to guide future PBLT research and to inform PBLT pedagogy in East and Southeast Asia. The findings of our QRS contribute to the advancement of the emerging qualitative research synthesis in the TESOL field in general and of PBLT research and practice in particular.","PeriodicalId":47852,"journal":{"name":"Language Teaching Research","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143528376","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-20DOI: 10.1177/13621688251317247
Joshua Matthews, Leonardo Veliz, Ruwan Gunawardane, David Partridge
Theorizing teacher identity is an important component of effective language teacher education. The current study maps the professional identities of 20 practicing teachers of English as an additional language (EAL) from two distinct contexts: Sri Lanka ( n = 10) and Australia ( n = 10). Data tapping each participant’s professional identity was elicited with semi-structured interviews structured around three domains: personal experience, professional context and external political environment. From the resultant teacher discourse, thematic analysis was applied to identify nine themes that teachers from both contexts perceived as being influential in the development of their professional identities, with two of these themes being perceived by some teachers as being of limited or no influence. These themes are defined and elucidated with quotes. Key differences in the way themes were manifested among the Sri Lankan and Australian teachers are also described. Findings provide a reference for language teachers’ critical reflection on their professional identities, especially those at the beginning of their careers.
{"title":"Mapping professional identities of teachers of English as an additional language from Sri Lanka and Australia: Identifying commonalities across contexts","authors":"Joshua Matthews, Leonardo Veliz, Ruwan Gunawardane, David Partridge","doi":"10.1177/13621688251317247","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13621688251317247","url":null,"abstract":"Theorizing teacher identity is an important component of effective language teacher education. The current study maps the professional identities of 20 practicing teachers of English as an additional language (EAL) from two distinct contexts: Sri Lanka ( n = 10) and Australia ( n = 10). Data tapping each participant’s professional identity was elicited with semi-structured interviews structured around three domains: personal experience, professional context and external political environment. From the resultant teacher discourse, thematic analysis was applied to identify nine themes that teachers from both contexts perceived as being influential in the development of their professional identities, with two of these themes being perceived by some teachers as being of limited or no influence. These themes are defined and elucidated with quotes. Key differences in the way themes were manifested among the Sri Lankan and Australian teachers are also described. Findings provide a reference for language teachers’ critical reflection on their professional identities, especially those at the beginning of their careers.","PeriodicalId":47852,"journal":{"name":"Language Teaching Research","volume":"38 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143462464","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-20DOI: 10.1177/13621688251318105
Dale Brown, Tim Stoeckel
It is often assumed that the most frequent English words are known by post-beginner second language learners. Yet the sheer frequency of these words and the important roles they play in discourse mean that confirmation of whether they are indeed known would be valuable for understanding second language vocabulary development and reading comprehension. This article reports on a study in which university learners with Japanese as their first language (L1) ( N = 200) were tested on their written receptive knowledge of 63 senses/functions of the first 44 words in the New JACET8000 word list. The study found that for 13 senses/functions item facility was < 0.9. That is, some gaps in receptive knowledge were uncovered which qualitative item analysis suggested may stem from relative frequency of exposure, instructional experiences, knowledge of one sense/function blocking the acquisition of another, as well as abstractness and lack of a direct L1 equivalent. Nevertheless, overall receptive knowledge of the tested senses/functions of these ultra-frequent words was extremely good. Hence, although miscomprehension may arise from occasional gaps in knowledge of these words, the assumption that ultra-frequent words are receptively known by post-beginner second language (L2) learners does seem reasonable.
{"title":"Post-beginner L2-learner knowledge of ultra-frequent English words","authors":"Dale Brown, Tim Stoeckel","doi":"10.1177/13621688251318105","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13621688251318105","url":null,"abstract":"It is often assumed that the most frequent English words are known by post-beginner second language learners. Yet the sheer frequency of these words and the important roles they play in discourse mean that confirmation of whether they are indeed known would be valuable for understanding second language vocabulary development and reading comprehension. This article reports on a study in which university learners with Japanese as their first language (L1) ( N = 200) were tested on their written receptive knowledge of 63 senses/functions of the first 44 words in the New JACET8000 word list. The study found that for 13 senses/functions item facility was < 0.9. That is, some gaps in receptive knowledge were uncovered which qualitative item analysis suggested may stem from relative frequency of exposure, instructional experiences, knowledge of one sense/function blocking the acquisition of another, as well as abstractness and lack of a direct L1 equivalent. Nevertheless, overall receptive knowledge of the tested senses/functions of these ultra-frequent words was extremely good. Hence, although miscomprehension may arise from occasional gaps in knowledge of these words, the assumption that ultra-frequent words are receptively known by post-beginner second language (L2) learners does seem reasonable.","PeriodicalId":47852,"journal":{"name":"Language Teaching Research","volume":"52 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143462471","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-17DOI: 10.1177/13621688251317902
Joanna Rokita-Jaśkow, Katarzyna Nosidlak, Agata Wolanin, Werona Król-Gierat
This article aims to explore second language (L2) teachers’ attitudes to working with multilingual refugee learners in the context of a sudden shift towards an increasingly multilingual environment caused by the influx of Ukrainian refugee children in 2022 to Polish schools. The teachers have been prepared to teach predominantly monolingual classes and have not obtained any training to meet the needs of migrant and multilingual learners; thus, they had to rely on their personal resources facing this suddenly increasingly multilingual and multicultural environment. A cross-sectional survey study was designed to identify how attitudes of teachers of English and Polish as a foreign language ( n = 70) developed towards teaching multilingual refugee learners and to what extent these correlated with teacher Openness to Experience, Intercultural Sensitivity and teachers’ plurilingualism. The quantitative analysis reveals mixed attitudes overall, despite generally positive attitudes to working with Ukrainian refugee learners, and correlating positively with Openness to Experience and plurilingualism, but not Intercultural Sensitivity. These might derive from the complexity of the teaching experience, which goes beyond mere language teaching, and for which the teachers have not received sufficient preparation.
{"title":"Language teachers’ attitudes to working with multilingual refugee learners: Do teacher Openness to Experience, Intercultural Sensitivity and plurilingualism matter?","authors":"Joanna Rokita-Jaśkow, Katarzyna Nosidlak, Agata Wolanin, Werona Król-Gierat","doi":"10.1177/13621688251317902","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13621688251317902","url":null,"abstract":"This article aims to explore second language (L2) teachers’ attitudes to working with multilingual refugee learners in the context of a sudden shift towards an increasingly multilingual environment caused by the influx of Ukrainian refugee children in 2022 to Polish schools. The teachers have been prepared to teach predominantly monolingual classes and have not obtained any training to meet the needs of migrant and multilingual learners; thus, they had to rely on their personal resources facing this suddenly increasingly multilingual and multicultural environment. A cross-sectional survey study was designed to identify how attitudes of teachers of English and Polish as a foreign language ( n = 70) developed towards teaching multilingual refugee learners and to what extent these correlated with teacher Openness to Experience, Intercultural Sensitivity and teachers’ plurilingualism. The quantitative analysis reveals mixed attitudes overall, despite generally positive attitudes to working with Ukrainian refugee learners, and correlating positively with Openness to Experience and plurilingualism, but not Intercultural Sensitivity. These might derive from the complexity of the teaching experience, which goes beyond mere language teaching, and for which the teachers have not received sufficient preparation.","PeriodicalId":47852,"journal":{"name":"Language Teaching Research","volume":"60 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143435238","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-08DOI: 10.1177/13621688241312502
Sinem Sonsaat-Hegelheimer, John Levis
For language learners, intonation is widely considered to be important in communicating meaning in context, but intonation is also considered by teachers to be difficult to teach, and some have even argued that it may be unteachable. This exploratory study examines whether explicit teaching of three final intonation contours (falling, rising, falling–rising) led to improved perception and production. Thirty-one Turkish learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) participated in a three-week training session on the perception and production of the three contours at the end of a course on English pronunciation. Results from a pre-test/post-test design showed that perception of all three intonation contours improved after instruction, whereas for the production only the falling–rising and rising contours showed improvement. Results also showed that providing contextual information did not affect production but was helpful in perception. This study suggests intonation can improve when it is explicitly taught to L2 learners, like other aspects of pronunciation.
{"title":"Is intonation learnable in the classroom? Evidence from Turkish learners of English","authors":"Sinem Sonsaat-Hegelheimer, John Levis","doi":"10.1177/13621688241312502","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13621688241312502","url":null,"abstract":"For language learners, intonation is widely considered to be important in communicating meaning in context, but intonation is also considered by teachers to be difficult to teach, and some have even argued that it may be unteachable. This exploratory study examines whether explicit teaching of three final intonation contours (falling, rising, falling–rising) led to improved perception and production. Thirty-one Turkish learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) participated in a three-week training session on the perception and production of the three contours at the end of a course on English pronunciation. Results from a pre-test/post-test design showed that perception of all three intonation contours improved after instruction, whereas for the production only the falling–rising and rising contours showed improvement. Results also showed that providing contextual information did not affect production but was helpful in perception. This study suggests intonation can improve when it is explicitly taught to L2 learners, like other aspects of pronunciation.","PeriodicalId":47852,"journal":{"name":"Language Teaching Research","volume":"78 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143367359","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-06DOI: 10.1177/13621688251314484
Sedigheh Karimpour, Peter I. De Costa, Mohammadali Ranjbar, Mostafa Nazari
Although recent research on both agency and social justice has paid attention to the role of these constructs in teachers’ professionalism, the scope of research on how language teachers’ agency and social justice intersect is limited. Drawing on an ecological perspective that captured teachers’ temporal and spatial perceptions, and how structural forces shape teacher agency, we explored agency and social justice among Iranian English language teachers. Data were collected from open-ended questionnaires, narrative frames, and semi-structured interviews. The analysis of the data revealed that teachers used their personal histories and experiences, present sense-making processes, and future-oriented perspectives as agentive tools to promote social justice in their educational practices. The findings also showed that teachers used the affordances of their educational setting as a tool for fostering students’ criticality and activism. The study concludes with a discussion of implications for teacher educators in how to build on agency in teacher education courses to develop understandings of social justice.
{"title":"An ecological exploration of the intersection between English language teachers’ agency and social justice instruction","authors":"Sedigheh Karimpour, Peter I. De Costa, Mohammadali Ranjbar, Mostafa Nazari","doi":"10.1177/13621688251314484","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13621688251314484","url":null,"abstract":"Although recent research on both agency and social justice has paid attention to the role of these constructs in teachers’ professionalism, the scope of research on how language teachers’ agency and social justice intersect is limited. Drawing on an ecological perspective that captured teachers’ temporal and spatial perceptions, and how structural forces shape teacher agency, we explored agency and social justice among Iranian English language teachers. Data were collected from open-ended questionnaires, narrative frames, and semi-structured interviews. The analysis of the data revealed that teachers used their personal histories and experiences, present sense-making processes, and future-oriented perspectives as agentive tools to promote social justice in their educational practices. The findings also showed that teachers used the affordances of their educational setting as a tool for fostering students’ criticality and activism. The study concludes with a discussion of implications for teacher educators in how to build on agency in teacher education courses to develop understandings of social justice.","PeriodicalId":47852,"journal":{"name":"Language Teaching Research","volume":"62 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143258422","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-05DOI: 10.1177/13621688251313984
Deni Beslagic
This article reports the findings of a multiple-case study on four teachers of German as a third language (GL3) at a Swedish lower secondary school (year 7). To gain a better understanding of third language (L3) teachers’ pedagogical perceptions and practices about grammar teaching to young beginners, teacher emotions are used as a theoretical frame. The data consist of individual interviews, lesson observations and immediate post-observational oral reflections that are analysed qualitatively using thematic content analysis with narrative features. The study points out the links between emotions and contextual factors inside and outside the classroom – such as time, workload, colleagues’ teaching practices as well as the motivation and attitudes of the students – and shows how these interrelatedly have an impact on teachers’ thinking, beliefs and instructional decision-making. Also, three narratives about teaching grammar are laid out, where the teachers themselves are passionate but at the same time display apprehensive emotions in the fear of their students not liking it as much. The findings indicate that teacher emotions about grammar – such as the tension between passion and apprehension – exert important influence on L3 teachers’ grammar teaching practices and beliefs. Based on this, it is suggested that bridges are needed between grammar teaching in first language (L1) and L3, since the pedagogical content knowledge and the positive teacher emotions about grammar in teachers of GL3 might be powerful assets that colleagues of other language subjects could also benefit from.
{"title":"Lacking bridges and apprehensive tensions: The impact of emotions and contextual factors on German L3 teachers’ perceptions and grammar teaching practices","authors":"Deni Beslagic","doi":"10.1177/13621688251313984","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13621688251313984","url":null,"abstract":"This article reports the findings of a multiple-case study on four teachers of German as a third language (GL3) at a Swedish lower secondary school (year 7). To gain a better understanding of third language (L3) teachers’ pedagogical perceptions and practices about grammar teaching to young beginners, teacher emotions are used as a theoretical frame. The data consist of individual interviews, lesson observations and immediate post-observational oral reflections that are analysed qualitatively using thematic content analysis with narrative features. The study points out the links between emotions and contextual factors inside and outside the classroom – such as time, workload, colleagues’ teaching practices as well as the motivation and attitudes of the students – and shows how these interrelatedly have an impact on teachers’ thinking, beliefs and instructional decision-making. Also, three narratives about teaching grammar are laid out, where the teachers themselves are passionate but at the same time display apprehensive emotions in the fear of their students not liking it as much. The findings indicate that teacher emotions about grammar – such as the tension between passion and apprehension – exert important influence on L3 teachers’ grammar teaching practices and beliefs. Based on this, it is suggested that bridges are needed between grammar teaching in first language (L1) and L3, since the pedagogical content knowledge and the positive teacher emotions about grammar in teachers of GL3 might be powerful assets that colleagues of other language subjects could also benefit from.","PeriodicalId":47852,"journal":{"name":"Language Teaching Research","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2025-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143192487","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-01-31DOI: 10.1177/13621688251313653
Qing Huang
This article describes how a new, discourse-focused course on English for nursing purposes (ENP) was developed from scratch to fill a critical needs gap: competence in what this article calls ‘nurse–patient communicative engagement’. A needs analysis conducted for this study revealed a gap between how experienced nurses and nursing students viewed engagement. This is a key concept that the present study amalgamated from various research sources. The present study newly defines the concept as the strategic communication moves used by experienced nurses to actively elicit patients’ concerns, proactively ensure their full understanding of what is said and done, and continually establish empathy and rapport. Engagement is currently not the focus of ENP courses globally, which instead focus on general language proficiency and rote learning of surface-level features (e.g. medical vocabulary, pronunciation of terms). What nursing students actually need, and ENP courses currently neglect, is training in dialogic communication strategies that promote engagement. A brand-new ENP course was created to scaffold students in acquiring these interactional strategies using custom-written, analytically rich learning materials based on authentic nurse–patient interactions. The new course was piloted and taught in parallel alongside an existing ENP course at the same institution. Through this control versus experimental group design, and using pre-, post-, and delayed post-test instruments, the new course was statistically and qualitatively evaluated. The new course proved successful in producing nursing students who demonstrated significantly improved perceptions and practices of engagement: they felt more positive and confident about engaging with patients, and could frequently and appropriately deploy a wide range of relevant strategies. ENP practitioners worldwide will benefit from examining this new course design, to pivot syllabuses away from piecemeal, surface-level features towards the teaching of the core discourse skill of nurse–patient engagement, a communicative practice that research shows facilitates better health outcomes for patients.
{"title":"A major change for ESP for nursing: Pivoting towards discourse through a new course design with communicative engagement as a focal concept","authors":"Qing Huang","doi":"10.1177/13621688251313653","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13621688251313653","url":null,"abstract":"This article describes how a new, discourse-focused course on English for nursing purposes (ENP) was developed from scratch to fill a critical needs gap: competence in what this article calls ‘nurse–patient communicative engagement’. A needs analysis conducted for this study revealed a gap between how experienced nurses and nursing students viewed engagement. This is a key concept that the present study amalgamated from various research sources. The present study newly defines the concept as the strategic communication moves used by experienced nurses to actively elicit patients’ concerns, proactively ensure their full understanding of what is said and done, and continually establish empathy and rapport. Engagement is currently not the focus of ENP courses globally, which instead focus on general language proficiency and rote learning of surface-level features (e.g. medical vocabulary, pronunciation of terms). What nursing students actually need, and ENP courses currently neglect, is training in dialogic communication strategies that promote engagement. A brand-new ENP course was created to scaffold students in acquiring these interactional strategies using custom-written, analytically rich learning materials based on authentic nurse–patient interactions. The new course was piloted and taught in parallel alongside an existing ENP course at the same institution. Through this control versus experimental group design, and using pre-, post-, and delayed post-test instruments, the new course was statistically and qualitatively evaluated. The new course proved successful in producing nursing students who demonstrated significantly improved perceptions and practices of engagement: they felt more positive and confident about engaging with patients, and could frequently and appropriately deploy a wide range of relevant strategies. ENP practitioners worldwide will benefit from examining this new course design, to pivot syllabuses away from piecemeal, surface-level features towards the teaching of the core discourse skill of nurse–patient engagement, a communicative practice that research shows facilitates better health outcomes for patients.","PeriodicalId":47852,"journal":{"name":"Language Teaching Research","volume":"37 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2025-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143072354","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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