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Numerous research studies have investigated grammatical errors in writing committed by EFL students across the globe. There is still a dearth of research that focused on high achieving students in the context of EFL learning in Indonesia. The aim of this study was to find out the dominant errors made by the student of kelas akselerasi (or ‘class for high achieving’ students in the Indonesian school system) and to account for the causes of their errors. The data were taken from the students’ essays in one of the well-known high schools in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. The Error Analysis procedures were used to analyze the grammatical errors in their essays. The errors were classified into omission, addition, misformation, and misordering categories, which are based on the surface strategy taxonomy. The findings showed that the most dominant errors committed by the students were of the omission type (61.04%), followed by misformation (18.78%), addition (16.85%), and misordering (3.31%). The causes of these errors were mostly due to intralanguage factors rather than interlingual factors. It was concluded that the students in this class, although identified as high achieving students, still faced problems in using the correct grammar in their writing.

The present study analyzed the distribution of interactional markers—as a subcategory of metadiscourse—applied in TEFL textbooks written by authors with different first languages. We used Wordsmith software as our instrument and were able to scrutinize a pool of textual data in voluminous books. The findings revealed that all of the books under scrutiny were dotted with these devices, but their distribution were not the same. Variations in using these markers among writers with the same language were less noticeable. It was concluded that writers in the same language learn the same linguistic-cultural conventions, and they roughly use the same range of interactional markers. The slight differences observed could be explained on the assumption that each writer has their own idiosyncratic writing style.

Potentially Exploitable Pedagogical Activities (PEPAs) help teachers problematize teaching and learning puzzles. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of PEPAs in EFL teachers' professional identity development. A PEPA program was run in which two EFL teachers participated. The program took around a year to familiarize the teachers with the theoretical and practical aspects of PEPAs. The teachers tried to do PEPAs to understand puzzles in their classes. During the program, interactionally oriented narratives authored by the two EFL teachers were collected. The narratives were analyzed based on the Teachers' Professional Identity Scale developed by Karaolis and Philippou (2019), including five indicators: self-efficacy, professional commitment, task orientation, work motivation, and future perspective. The findings showed the development in the five indicators after the two EFL teachers participated in the PEPA program, indicating that PEPAs had a positive and constructive role in developing EFL teachers' professional identity. It can be concluded that PEPAs help the teachers develop their syllabuses based on practice-as-research. Through using PEPAs, EFL teachers are involved in a never-ending research process to understand and solve their teaching puzzles.

The purpose of this study was to examine the impacts of emotional intelligence (EI) and cultural quotient (CQ) on participants’ pragmatic competence (PC). A sample of 70 (N=70) graduate and postgraduate TEFL students, selected through convenient sampling, completed two questionnaires: (1) EI developed by Bar-On (1997), and (2) CQ developed by Ang et al. (2007). Each participant’s viva session was recorded and was then used to assess their pragmatic competence through a PC checklist. The study showed positive relationships between the participants’ EI and CQ and their PC. It was found that EI and CQ predict TEFL students’ PC. The adaptability and intrapersonal components of EI, and the cognitive and metacognitive components of CQ, were found to be the best predictors of PC. It was concluded that a high level of EI will guarantee foreign language learners’ excellence in learning and their efficient use of pragmatically-suitable forms in real situations.

The present study aimed to investigate the rhetorical structure of written personal narratives in English and Persian. Three types of discourse communities (native Persian speakers, native English speakers, and Iranian EFL learners) were asked to write their personal narratives. The collected narratives were analyzed to elicit their rhetorical structures and especially their moves and steps. The Biber, Upton and Connor (2007) model was used as the theoretical framework for the analysis. The findings showed that the written narratives across the three groups included the same rhetorical moves which comprised (1) introducing the story, (2) sequencing the order of events, (3) resolution, and (4) ending the story. The apparent differences in rhetorical steps were the outcome of social, cultural, and religious factors. It was concluded that EFL learners need explicit instruction to master native English rhetorical moves and steps.

Uncovering the factors contributing to language teachers’ effectiveness is essential in improving learners’ achievement and the quality of educational systems, specifically in EFL contexts where the amount of input is much less than ESL contexts. There has been no thorough definition of teachers’ effectiveness including all factors contributing to this construct. Considering “effectiveness” as a keyword, this paper reviews related studies in an attempt to classify the factors that contribute to language teachers’ effectiveness. It is argued that, although the word “effectiveness” is sensible to the context of teaching, factors contributing to this construct have some features in common in all contexts, and some of them are also shared among teachers of other fields. Factors extracted from the literature are as follows: assessment literacy, content and pedagogical knowledge, experience, oral proficiency, personality type, and self-efficacy, each with their sub-components. The findings of the present study can provide language teachers, teacher trainers, and other stakeholders with valuable insights into the ways that can enhance teacher effectiveness.

Review of the book Autonomy, agency, and identity in teaching and learning English as a foreign language, by (Mark) Feng Teng