Teacher emotions are vitally important for the classroom environment and students’ language attainment; however, studies concerning foreign language teaching anxiety remain scarce. This study examined foreign language teaching anxiety through administering questionnaires to 235 in-service teachers to investigate the impacts of educational stages and teaching experience on foreign language teaching anxiety. The statistical results show that secondary school teachers exhibit significantly higher levels of foreign language teaching anxiety than their primary counterparts, especially in ‘lack of student interest’ and ‘fear of negative evaluation’. Novice teachers are significantly more anxious than experienced teachers in the dimension of ‘teaching inexperience’, whereas no other differences are shown in other aspects. No interaction effects are observed between the two variables. Pedagogical implications for understanding foreign language teaching anxiety in different educational and experiential stages and corresponding anxiety-reducing strategies are discussed. © The Author(s) 2025.

Collaborative digital multimodal composing (CDMC) has recently gained traction in the advent of technology-enhanced language learning, yet scant attention was paid to the influence of semiotic resources on the interaction patterns between learners. The present study attempted to fill the research gap by examining the interactions between English as a Second Language (ESL) learners in an online English for Academic Purpose (EAP) course. Using a multiple case-study design, three pairs of undergraduates completed a collaborative multimodal writing and video-making task for presentation using ZOOM. Influence of semiotic resources can be unveiled through manipulating the mode of presentation. Data of this study includes the verbal exchanges and non-verbal on-screen interactions between the participants while they are working on the tasks. Their interaction patterns were analyzed through conversation analysis and two aspects of collaborations, namely equality and mutuality, were also examined. Their interaction patterns were found to be strikingly different across both tasks, and languaging mainly serves the function of verbalization of content-related issues, such as searching for information and assembling various multimodal elements, with only rare instances of either grammar-based or lexis-based language-related episodes (LRE). Another striking finding is that pairs who are working collaboratively with balanced division and mutual contribution are less susceptible to our manipulation, as compared to those who are demonstrating a dominant-dominant or expert-novice working pattern. Implications of these findings on fostering peer collaborations during CDMC are discussed.

Despite the growing interest in researching digital multimodal composing (DMC) in recent years, there were few attempts of tapping how assessments on DMC can best be devised to maximize students’ learning opportunities. To narrow this gap, this study proposed a set of product- and process-oriented classroom assessment rubrics that function as self-and peer-assessment tools for students when collaborating with each other to create DMC in online EAP contexts. During a four-week intervention with a veteran EAP educator, the rubric was tried out in her EAP classes as students worked in pairs to complete a DMC task. Its effectiveness was then evaluated based on the quality of student writings as well as their discussion, which was measured in terms of equality and mutuality. The product-oriented assessment rubrics was found to result in marked improvement in layout, navigation and rhetoric, whilst the process-oriented classroom assessment rubrics also enhanced both the equality and the mutuality of the collaborative process, as the dyads were inclined to establish a collaborative relationship during the task. These findings underscore the importance of using assessment rubrics as a formative assessment activity to help students harness the genre of DMC from different perspectives.

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have consistently showed poor performances in reading comprehension. Extending from previous studies that presented pure-text, this study aims to test the performances of graphic novel reading. We tested 24 Chinese children who have been diagnosed as DLD and 24 typical readers matched with age and nonverbal IQ. These children were asked to complete a battery of tests assessing graphic novel reading comprehension and related visual-cognitive skills. The results of group comparison indicated that children with DLD performed similarly to the typical readers in graphic novel comprehension. Moreover, significant links between comic convention understanding and both passage and graphic novel reading were found in both groups. Our results imply the benefits of using graphic novel to facilitate reading to learn in children with DLD. (129 words).

This article reports a case study of an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher in Hong Kong who conducted lessons via Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study focused on the factors influencing her technology integration in synchronous online teaching mode. Using data from classroom recordings, stimulated-recall and semi-structured interviews, this study uncovered how Zoom functioned as a substitute for face-to-face lessons. The findings revealed that although there were fewer interactions between the teacher and her students, teaching in synchronous online mode provided the teacher with opportunities to utilize certain online features to augment methods of checking student understanding. The study identified the teacher’s pedagogical beliefs, the context and professional development as factors that influenced the level of technology integration in her Zoom classes. The study concludes that embracing process-oriented pedagogies may be necessary for a higher level of technology integration among ESL teachers who have adequate professional development opportunities and school support.

Purpose: Language learning is often conceptualized as a cognitive, psycholinguistic or pedagogical process confined to formal classroom contexts. Scant attention is paid to the autonomy of young learners in out-of-class situations. Methodology: Using an emic approach, this study attempts to fill the research gap by analyzing the visual and verbal narratives of 60 eighth graders in Hong Kong. A comprehensive coding scheme was developed to gauge their degree of autonomy and its intricate relationships with their out-of-class language learning experiences. Findings: Compared to their less autonomous counterparts, the highly autonomous learners are found to engage in more informal and solitary activities, set concrete goals that appeal to them and employ meta-cognitive strategies to facilitate their language learning. Originality: From a methodological standpoint, multi-modal narratives appear to be effective in tapping students' beliefs and experiences, as this allows the unobstructed flow of their own voices.

Collaborative writing skills are crucial to primary students, yet the abrupt shift to synchronous online teaching has perplexed many English teachers in my school, as they struggled to find effective ways to teach writing in online settings. Using various platforms and video-conferencing tools, I investigated whether a novel e-process approach can boost students’ writing quality and foster their collaboration skills during two rounds of multi-modal collaborative writing. Writing quality is determined through assigning a composite score in content, grammar and organization aspects, whilst collaboration skill is measured in terms of equality and mutuality during students’ interactions. Teachers’ opinions on the above are also solicited. The analysis revealed that students were generally eager to produce writings with ample ideas and few mistakes. The better-able students were more competent in maintaining elaborated verbal exchanges, though some appeared to dominate the discussion, whilst the less-able ones apparently lacked the language to interact with peers. Teachers’ observations also confirmed the analysis of writings and video recordings. The findings provided initial evidence to suggest that the novel pedagogy is effective in boosting students’ writing quality, yet explicit guidance on the collaborative process is indispensable. This study is limited in its low generalizability to younger cohorts. 

Multimodal collaborative writing has become increasingly prevalent in the advent of technology-enhanced language learning, yet scant attention was paid to the verbal and on-screen interactions between learners during the construction process. This study narrowed the research gap and investigated three pairs of EFL learners’ interactions when completing a multimodal collaborative writing task in an English for Academic Purpose (EAP) course at a university in Hong Kong. Using a multiple case-study approach, we examined the dynamics of peer interactions through their interaction patterns, utilization of semiotic and multimodal resources and functions of languaging. Our analyses showed that the three pairs enacted strikingly distinct patterns of interaction, with the more collaborative partners demonstrating a variety of prompting and feedback skills to facilitate their discussion. Surprisingly, the pairs had strong tendencies to attend to the texts rather than multimodal elements during the writing process. Another striking finding is that even non-collaborative partners occasionally engaged in various forms of private speech to keep track of the writing process. Implications of these findings on fostering peer collaborations during multimodal CW are discussed. © 2022 Elsevier Inc.

Short Descriptions

To advance the pedagogy of DMC, this study proposes a set of product- and process-oriented classroom assessment rubrics that function as self-and peer-assessment tools for students when collaborating with each other to create multimodal texts in EAP contexts. Driven by the importance of reader-writer interactions in academic writings, the study first revised Jiang et al’s (2022) genre-based model for assessing DMC with reference to the importance of stance and engagement in academic discourse (Hyland, 2005) to assess the product of students’ collaboratively constructed multimodal academic blog posts. Storch’s (2002) notion of equality and mutuality were utilized to assess students’ collaborative process when engaging in DMC activities with peers. Then, the theory-driven assessment rubrics were tested and modified through classroom research during the process of guiding students to write academic blogs in an EAP course. The study aligns with the ongoing discussions related to the assessment of DMC and derives implications for appropriate classroom assessment mechanisms for DMC.

Despite the plethora of studies on digital multimodal composing (DMC) in recent years, there were few attempts of tapping how assessments on DMC can best be conducted to maximize students’ learning.  To narrow this gap, this study proposed a set of product- and process-oriented classroom assessment rubrics that function as self-and peer-assessment tools for students when collaborating with each other to create DMC in online EAP context.  During a four-week intervention with a veteran EAP educator, the rubric was tried out in her EAP classes as students worked in pairs to complete a DMC task. Its effectiveness was then evaluated based on the quality of student writings as well as their discussion, which was measured in terms of equality and mutuality. The product-oriented classroom assessment rubrics was found to result in marked improvement in layout, navigation and rhetoric, whilst the process-oriented classroom assessment rubrics also enhanced both the equality and the mutuality the collaborative process, as the dyads leant towards establishing a collaborative relationship during the task.   These findings underscore the importance of using assessment rubrics as a formative assessment activity to help students harness the genre of DMC from different perspectives.

Short Descriptions

The COVID pandemic has resulted in prolonged periods of primary school suspension and there is an abrupt shift to synchronous online teaching. Teachers should be equipped with the skills to seek for effective to sustain learning and teaching online. Writing skills are especially important for KS2 students, yet hardest to teach in online settings. Design: Use Google apps such as Google doc and Google slides to undergo the pre-writing, drafting, revision and editing. The final writing product is published in Book Creator, Seesaw or Glogster. Students discuss the writing on ZOOM’s breakout rooms under the scrutiny of their teachers. Data will be collected from 4 P6 classes in a primary school in Hong Kong.

Collaborative writing skills are crucial to KS2 students. However, the abrupt shift to synchronous online teaching has perplexed many English teachers in my school, as they struggled to find effective ways to teach writing in online settings.  Using various platforms and video-conferencing tools, I investigated whether a novel e-process approach can boost students’ writing quality and foster their collaboration skills during two rounds of multi-modal collaborative writing.  Writing quality is determined through content analysis and counting grammar mistakes, whilst collaboration skills is measured in terms of equality and mutuality during students’ interactions. Teachers’ opinions on the above are also solicited. The analysis revealed that students were generally eager to produce writings with ample ideas and few mistakes.  The better-able students were more competent in maintaining elaborated verbal exchanges, though some appeared to dominate the discussion, whilst the less-able ones apparently lacked the language to interact with peers. Teachers’ observations also confirmed the analysis of writings and video recordings.  The findings provided initial evidences to suggest that the novel pedagogy is effective in motivating students to engage in the writing task, yet explicit guidance on the collaborative process is indispensable.  This study is limited in its low generalizability to younger cohorts. 

Peer feedback has received scholarly attention for decades due to its intricate linkage with several schools of thought, such as Vygotsky's socio-cognitive theory, process writing or social constructionism . Recently, a new mode of feedback computer-mediated peer feedback saw its quick emergence thanks to rapid advancement of technology. Existing studies mainly placed the emphasis in asynchronous contexts such as text-based chatrooms, whether the effectiveness can be extended to synchronous online contexts with video-conferencing technology remains unknown. The influence of cultural factors and individual factors also merit attention. This study attempts to narrow the research gap and explores these issues by studying the real-time video recordings during synchronous online peer feedback sessions of EAP writing courses. We studied the interaction patterns of 20 pairs of undergraduates during unsupervised ZOOM breakout room sessions, and the quality of their final writing products were also examined. The results showed that students were generally willing to provide extended feedback to their peers, and they relied on multi-modal means, such as on-screen annotations to aid their explanations. However, the number of initiative turns and feedback did not appear to relate to the quality of writings. Yet, the ethnicity of the students played a role in mediating this process, as students from Asia were generally more willing to make revisions based on their partner's suggestions. Implications of these findings on EAP writing pedagogy were discussed. 

Short Descriptions

This study explores how peer feedback is manifested in synchronous online settings and its impact on students' final products. The influence of mediating factors such as cultural beliefs would also be taken into consideration. The interaction data from ZOOM's breakout room will be transcribed and analyzed, and correlated with students' writing products.

Short Descriptions

Multimodal collaborative writing has become increasingly prevalent in the advent of technology-enhanced language learning, yet scant attention was paid to the verbal and on-screen interactions between learners during the construction process. This study narrows the research gap and investigates three pairs of EFL learners’ interactions when completing a multimodal collaborative writing task in an English for Academic Purpose (EAP) course. Using a multiple case-study approach, I intend to examine the dynamics of peer interactions through their interaction patterns, utilization of semiotic and multimodal resources and functions of languaging.

Multimodal collaborative writing has become increasingly prevalent in the advent of technology-enhanced language learning, yet scant attention was paid to the verbal and on-screen interactions between learners during the construction process. This study narrowed the research gap and investigated three pairs of EFL learners’ interactions when completing a multimodal collaborative writing task in an English for Academic Purpose (EAP) course at a university in Hong Kong. Using a multiple case-study approach, we examined the dynamics of peer interactions through their interaction patterns, utilization of semiotic and multimodal resources and functions of languaging. Our analyses showed that the three pairs enacted strikingly distinct patterns of interaction, with the more collaborative partners demonstrating a variety of prompting and feedback skills to facilitate their discussion. Surprisingly, all of them had strong tendency to attend to the texts rather than multimodal elements during the writing process. Another striking finding is that even non-collaborative partners occasionally engaged in various forms of private speech to keep track of the writing process.  Implications of these findings on fostering peer collaborations during multimodal CW are discussed.  

The benefits of using digital storytelling are well documented in the literature. Whether and how these advantages can be extended to digital story-writing, especially for young learners, remains underexplored. Recent advancement in technology has the potential of streamlining the stages of planning and revising in a process approach to second language writing. The present study examined how English teachers in two Hong Kong primary schools adopted a process approach to teach digital story-writing. They planned eight writing lessons for 10 Primary 3–4 classes. Students were taught to use Google Slides to write their stories on iPads and complete a recording in small groups, which were then published on an online platform. Findings from focus-group interviews, lesson observations and student writings revealed that students were highly engaged in the lessons, and their writings also had fewer grammatical mistakes. However, they rarely engaged in meaningful dialogues during group work, whilst some teachers also expressed concerns about time constraints and their own readiness to use digital story-writing, which may hinder successful implementation of this innovative approach in classroom settings. Implications of how digital story-writing can be effectively deployed on young learners are discussed. © The Author(s) 2021.

Recent years have witnessed a rapidly growing trend of incorporating synchronous online teaching tools into language teaching, yet the interaction patterns that unfold in online environment and its effectiveness on young learners remain underexplored. The present study narrows this research gap through closely examining the multi-modal exchanges between a veteran primary teacher and his EFL Grade 6 students during synchronous online English lessons, using a video-conferencing tool called ZOOM. 80 recordings from whole-class and small-group sessions over a four-month span were obtained and the various modes of synchronous computer-mediated communication that the teacher employed as well as spoken discourses were analyzed. The findings indicated that the teacher successfully utilized the affordances provided by ZOOM to elicit a large number of non-verbal responses and expanded verbal responses from students. The better-able students also demonstrated remarkable interactional skills during small-group sessions, as seen from their increased use of prompting and repair speech acts. Students’ reticence emerged as an alarming concern, though it was alleviated by extending the wait-time. Overall, this study offers a prototype for primary teachers to base upon during synchronous online lessons, whilst also highlights the need for re-conceptualizing the constituents of classroom interactional competence (CIC). © 2021 Elsevier Ltd