New Features of the Asia TEFL Journal: Research Issues Section & Teaching Issues section

1. Research Issues section edited by Dr. Natsuko Shintani, University of Auckland ( asiatefl.researchissues@gmail.com)

The section will publish non-empirical short articles (up to 4000 words) focusing on issues in research on English learning and teaching in Asia. The formats include a survey or short narrative synthesis of published work on an aspect of English teaching in Asia or a paper setting out  a particular issue concerning English language teaching in Asia. Research issues can be presented in the form of a single authored commentary or a set of multi-authored articles where different views on the same issue are presented.  All manuscripts will be peer-reviewed.

Topics for each category are as follows:
Teaching approaches

• Task-Based Language Teaching as an innovation in English teaching at primary schools in Asia
• Developing an academic writing program for university graduate students
• Needs analysis for task-based language teaching
• Teaching grammar and vocabulary
• Language teaching materials (e.g. course texts)
• Computer-mediated language instruction
• Classroom-based assessment

Research design and methodology:

• Measuring learning outcomes
• Utilizing learner corpora in second language teaching research
• Eye-tracking for researching English reading skills
• Narrative inquiry
• Qualitative data analysis
• Classroom observation
• Questionnaire design

2. Teaching Issues section edited by Dr. Andrew Moody, University of Macau (asiatefl.teachingissues@gmail.com)

This section will provide discussions and debates (up to 4000 words) on all issues related to the teaching of English in Asia. Single or multiple submissions on the same topic will be the format for this section. All submissions will be peer-reviewed.

Topics for this section are as follows:

• Using mobile telephone technologies in the language classroom
• The role of the L1 in the English L2 classroom
• Using popular culture to teach English
• Representing world Englishes in the language classroom
• Official language policy updates affecting teaching across Asia
• Social media and the teaching of English