This paper explores the effects of instruction that promoted AI literacy in English Language and Literature and Translation courses at an English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) institution in southern China following the launch of ChatGPT-3, which prompted a global debate on the role of AI in education. It explores how pedagogical frameworks and teacher-student relationships shaped student engagement with AI while considering the technologization of education and its impacts on second language writing instruction. The study involved two different groups: Year 1 students in an Introduction to Corpus Linguistics course, and Years 3 and 4 students in a Learning through Digital Narratives course. Following the AI literacy framework suggested by Tseng and Warschauer (2023), the courses incorporated a variety of activities intended to facilitate students’ reflection on the affordances and limitations of AI tools and AI-generated products. Findings show that while AI tools can enhance text quality, they can also produce results that can be either vague or authoritative, potentially erasing the students' voice or style. The paper concludes by highlighting how teachers and students can benefit from their increased awareness of the potential and limitations of AI as well as the integration of AI into the curriculum to promote AI literacy in EMI higher education.

This paper explores the implementation of blended learning in higher education through a selective course “Readings from Selected English Journals.” The study investigates the development of an online platform for the course, the adaptation of the teaching syllabus to suit blended course dynamics, student and teacher’s feedback on the effectiveness of online resources and in-class interactions. In spite of some constraints in the syllabus design, differentiated instruction could be provided within the class based on students’ learning interests and motivations. Also, student and teacher expressed positive attitudes towards blended learning, suggesting a promising shift towards digital tools in education. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research to explore diverse course offerings and refine teaching practices. This is to meet students’ evolving needs in blended learning environments.

How can college education, especially language and literature studies, help students better understand themselves and the world they live in? How does a language or literature teacher connect reading and writing activities with the broader society beyond class? This autoethnographic essay reflects upon these two questions through a critical examination of my use of autoethnography in college writing courses. Drawing from communication theories and my own teaching experience, I will demonstrate how teaching autoethnography develops students’ critical thinking skills and motivates them to connect their learning with broader social issues. The paper will first share my struggles as a literature scholar and college writing teacher. Then I will discuss how my autoethnography teaching bridges teaching with research and helps students better understand language.

Textbooks and exams are important aspects of English language teaching (ELT) as they influence or even determine what students learn. Previous studies have compared ELT materials and proficiency exams to verify and ensure consistency and reliability in both testing and teaching materials designed for the same target students; a mismatch might lead to tests negatively affecting teaching and vice-versa, which is called the educational washback effect. However, the Chinese ELT context remains under-investigated, and rare studies illustrate a step-by-step guidance of this comparative corpus-based analysis approach. This research aims to provide researchers with hands-on suggestions for the construction and analysis of ELT-specialised corpora which can improve future ELT material development and assessment practices to be better aligned and more statistically objective.

This paper explores the perceptions of their teachers' instructional strategies by students of an EMI university EAP course. It describes teacher-student interactions within language classrooms and investigates how their value is understood by students. Six participants were studied, using classroom observations employing the Foreign Language Interaction (FLINT) system, and semi-structured interviews. The participants consisted of four students and two teachers, who were enrolled in the same university EAP course. The analysis revealed persistent difficulties in academic listening amongst English learners regardless of their proficiency level. The findings indicate that EAP instructors employ a coherent set of teaching activities with an implicit rationale to develop listening strategies, but that this rationale is not always understood or aligned with students’ own learning strategies. The findings are limited, but, even so, suggest that instructors and students should discuss the rationale for their learning strategies more explicitly at the outset of a course.

This article is a working paper that previews the next stage in an ongoing comparative study. It explores nodal situations (Bode, 2013) within music education in Bulgaria (Demerdzhiev, 2024b) and compares them to the findings of a grounded theory-based study of the education of gifted music students, conducted in Malaysia from 2017 to 2019 (Demerdzhiev 2021a, 2024a). While Western-style music education tends to prioritize curriculum, evaluation, and technical equipment (López-Íñiguez & Westerlund, 2023), traditional music education in Southeast Asia and Southeast Europe places more emphasis on the teacher-student relationship and the development of students’ artistic personalities, alongside instrumental technique (Brand, 2006; Demerdzhiev 2021a). Recent studies indicate that this holistic approach is crucial for nurturing young people’s musical talents (Bork, 2016; McPherson, 2016; Gagné, 2023, López-Íñiguez,& McPherson, 2023). The project seeks to facilitate mutual learning and capacity improvement while encouraging a critical review of music education programs in both regions and beyond.

As English-medium cooperative universities emerge in China, students’ English learning strategies, which have long been documented as an important factor in their academic success, have gained increasing attention in second language acquisition. This study investigated students’ English learning strategies in an English-medium cooperative university in China. Drawing on data collected using Oxford (1989)’s language learning strategy survey from Year-1 (N = 339) and Year-2 students (N = 207), an exploratory factor analysis was conducted. It suggested three main English learning strategies, including cognitive, metacognitive, and compensatory/evaluative/affective strategies. A 2 (study years) × 3 (strategies) ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of study years and that of strategies as well as a significant interaction effect. A structural equation model (SEM) indicated that students’ use of language learning strategies served as a significant mediator between their English learning history and their self-rated English proficiency. The pedagogical implications of these findings are discussed.