Our study investigated the role of creativity in second language (L2) speech production using a picture narrative and an open-ended argumentative task administered to 60 Japanese-speaking learners of English. Following recent findings in the field of psychology, the participants' creativity was assessed in terms of cognitive dimensions (divergent…

Learner engagement is crucial for ensuring the quality of learning experiences, and yet the study of 'task engagement' has received relatively little empirical attention in the language education domain. This article reports on a study exploring the factors contributing to learners' engagement and disengagement during task performance in an…

This study explores the affective aspects -- willingness to communicate (WTC) and International Posture (IP) -- and speaking skills after using technological tools. Online synchronous meeting tool, Zoom, and the asynchronous tool, Padlet, were used as online learning platforms. Data were collected using an 8-item questionnaire on the WTC and a…

Shadowing, a practice of repeating what one hears as simultaneously and accurately as possible, has been researched in the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) field for years. The research findings have shown that shadowing contributes to English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' bottom-up listening skills, which leads to…

Higher education requires a different approach to teaching and learning since modern-day students no longer have the same learning needs as they had in the past. Project-based learning (PBL) is an active and dynamic approach to language teaching that makes it possible for the language students to gain transferable and applicable knowledge, skills,…

In Japanese secondary schools, speaking assessment in English classrooms is designed, conducted, and scored by teachers. Although the assessment is intended to be used for summative and formative purposes, it is not regularly or adequately practiced. This paper reports the problems (i.e., lack of continuous speaking assessment, limited speaking…

This edited book documents practices of learning-oriented language assessment through practitioner research and research syntheses. Learning-oriented language assessment refers to language assessment strategies that capitalise on learner differences and their relationships with the learning environments. In other words, learners are placed at the…