Adopting a mixed design based on the Latent Growth Curve Modeling and Retrodictive Modeling from a Complexity Theory perspective, this study investigates the macro, meso and micro developmental features of English writing competence in a group of English-major freshmen across one year. It uses lexical complexity, sentence complexity, accuracy and fluency as the variables, and finds that: (1) the students' CAF development is not linear, faster at the beginning and the end than in the middle; (2) the students' English writing competence can be longitudinally classified into three prototypes, namely the continuous stable type, bouncing first and then stable type, and alternate bouncing and stable type; (3) the CAF development of the typical students indicates that the dynamic correlations among the sub-systems are different in three prototypes, and distribution of cognitive resources, initial writing habits, feedback and motivation are the driving forces of different outcomes. The results have implications for teaching of English writing.

Playing an important role in learners' L2 writing development, engagement with feedback is jointly affected by individual factors and environmental factors. The application of automated writing evaluation (AWE) system has furnished L2 writing pedagogic practice with a new environment of integrated feedback. This study examines the impact of the integrated feedback environment on learner engagement and L2 writing performance. The findings reveal that: (1) integrated feedback significantly outshines teacher feedback in improving learner engagement and consequently L2 writing performance; (2) in the integrated feedback environment, cognitive engagement has the greatest impact on learners' L2 writing performance, followed by behavioral engagement and affective engagement, and regarding cognitive engagement, the use of metacognitive strategies significantly contributes to a valid prediction of learners' writing performance.

This paper focuses on the philosophies and paths of building the College English Courses (CEC) Virtual Teaching & Research Center led by Zhejiang University. Based on the concepts of “fostering virtue through education, integrating research with education, connecting the east with the west, and contributing jointly for shared benefits”, the CEC Virtual Teaching & Research Center commits itself to boosting core competitiveness featuring “innovation in course concepts, optimization in the course system, improvement in teaching and assessment, and enhancement in technological application”, and developing its organization system with “five elements”, namely serving the nation, perfecting the system, integrating research with education, innovating curriculum design, and contributing for shared benefits. The building of the CEC Virtual Teaching & Research Center reflects the efforts to actively explore innovative forms and modes of basic teaching organizations, which conforms to the requirements on College English teaching in the information age and responds to both the growth need of student individuals and the strategic need of national development.

Through questionnaires and background data mining, this study explores the level of English reading flow state, its influencing factors and the relationship between flow experience and reading performance of 101 English major freshmen. Descriptive statistics, correlation and multiple linear regression analyses find that: (1) the overall level of reading flow is low, and nearly two thirds of the students have no flow experience; (2) the learner factors affecting reading flow include reading interest, reading confidence and reading skills, among which reading interest has the greatest impact; (3) flow experience is significantly correlated with reading achievement, amount of reading and reading speed, and there are significant differences in these three aspects of reading performance between the students with and without flow experience. Flow experience is an important predictor of reading achievement, but there is no correlation between flow experience and reading duration.

One of the major challenges in implementing blended foreign language courses is how to realize the organic integration of online and face-to-face instructional activities. Drawing on the semantic waves theory, this study argues that online and face-to-face instructions should be integrated to produce semantic waves, where knowledge is transformed between relatively decontextualized, condensed meanings and context-dependent, simplified meanings, so as to enable cumulative knowledge building. The study illustrates the application of this blended learning model in a college English course with respect to the organization of knowledge objectives, selection of learning resources, design of teaching activities and monitoring of learning processes. Finally, it puts forward suggestions for the construction of the blended foreign language learning ecosystem.

Self-efficacy in the L2 context has been increasingly explored by researchers both at home and abroad. Evidence shows that it could significantly predict academic performance, but its relation with L2 language proficiency has not been conclusive. This meta-analytic study aims to quantitatively synthesize the extant literature on the relation of these two constructs and explore potential moderators. With 57 independent samples included, the study finds that self-efficacy is moderately related with L2 language proficiency (r=0.458). Moderator analysis reveals that genders, majors, and culture significantly moderate the relation of self-efficacy and L2 language proficiency.

This paper centers on the development of the “Key Content Foci” section of the Guidelines for Integrating Moral Education into College Foreign Language Teaching. It details the questionnaire survey and the discrepancy needs analysis based on the key content foci of moral education through courses, and explains the five aspects of the key content foci. From the perspective of curriculum theories, it further illustrates the relationship between the Guidelines for Integrating Moral Education into College Foreign Language Teaching and the College English Teaching Guidelines, with the purpose that the two guidelines can provide better guidance to college foreign language teaching in the New Era.

The world today is going through major changes unseen in a century. Amid the new trend, how to boost a steady and sustained development of the foreign language discipline has become a new task for the academia of foreign languages. This paper explains the dialectical relationship between “going steady” and “going far”, analyses the challenges and opportunities faced by the foreign language discipline, and discusses the ways to enhance the high-quality development of the foreign language discipline.

Based on the macroscopic socio-educational model and the microscopic L2 motivation model, this study explored the interrelationship among 6 internal dimensions of L2 learning motivation (i.e., ideal L2 self, interest in language learning, cultural integration, information medium, attitudes toward native speakers of the target language, and individual development). A total of 898 Chinese, American and British university students completed a questionnaire, and the survey data were subsequently fitted by structural equation modelling. Results showed that interest in L2 learning had significant impacts on individual development, cultural integration, attitudes toward native speakers of the target language, and ideal L2 self. Nationality had mediating effects on individual development, information medium, attitudes toward native speakers of the target language, and interest in L2 learning. These observations, the direct effects of interest in L2 learning and the mediating effects of nationality in particular, are potentially insightful for updating the existing L2 learning motivation models.

Foreign language teaching is faced with the requirements of “content upgrading” and “mode innovation” in the context of the new liberal arts construction. Based on the tenets of strengthening value orientation and enhancing academic connotation, this study constructs a smart learning community for foreign language majors by combining smart classrooms, cloud platform modules and other digital technologies, in order to enrich carrier forms and innovate teaching methodology. In the teaching practice, the smart learning community adopts systematically a three-in-one teaching mode of “knowledge impartingability trainingvalue shaping” through four stages, which helps learners clarify value orientation, polish professional skills, and improve autonomous learning ability and academic ability.

Although recent years have witnessed a blooming scholarly interest in emotions in second language acquisition, little attention has been directed to the arousal of foreign language classroom emotions. Drawing on the Control-Value Theory, the present study investigated the predictive effects of foreign language (FL) learning control-value appraisals on foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA) and foreign language enjoyment (FLE) among 251 Chinese FL learners. The results indicated that: (1) the participants experienced a medium level of FLCA and FLE, and had a medium to upper-medium level of control-value appraisals; (2) the participants' control and positive (intrinsic and extrinsic) value appraisals of FL learning jointly predicted their FLCA and FLE; (3) the participants' negative (cost) value appraisals of FL learning, while interacting with control appraisals, significantly predicted their FLCA. The results offer insights into the arousal of FL learning emotions, and provide implications for the intervention of foreign language classroom emotions.

Based on China's Standards of English Language Ability (CSE), this study explores an implementation path of assessment for learning (AfL) in college English writing, including two implementation stages of CSE application and assessment practice. At the stage of CSE application, scale descriptors are properly processed to clarify writing ability, design writing tasks, and develop rating scales, so as to ensure rationality and feasibility of AfL implementation. The stage of assessment practice places emphasis on the combination of formative and summative evaluation, encourages students' full participation, and actively adopts new technologies to help teachers and students receive high-quality feedback. The construction of the AfL implementation path is a helpful attempt to give full play to the role of CSE, and provides some implications for more effective English writing assessment.

The Project-based College English Virtual Teaching & Research Center was among the first batch of national experimental virtual teaching & research centers approved by the Ministry of Education. It aims for innovativeness in theoretical research, modes of organization and operation, and focal areas of work, and for excellence in course and teaching materials development, teaching methodology, and pedagogical research. To this end, the center coordinates collaboration in course development, resource construction and faculty development among school-based or virtual teaching & research groups, and encourages the sharing of academic and teaching resources, expertise, and pedagogical research achievements.

This two-term ethnographic case study explored the process and the influencing factors of the academic literacy socialization of five freshmen majoring in foreign languages. It was found that the socialization of academic literacy developed at different stages, and at the practice stage the participants underwent three sub-stages, namely challenge, exploration and harvest. This complex and dynamic socialization process was influenced by the sociocultural environment at the marco level, the contexts of schools and classrooms at the meso level, and the individual factors at the micro level. The study further proposed a model of the academic literacy socialization.

Research on English listening comprehension difficulties of Chinese EFL learners is still in its infancy. The present study explores the inner structure of listening comprehension difficulties based on the language comprehension theory, and investigates the relationship between listening comprehension ability and difficulties. The results show that English listening comprehension difficulties are composed of difficulties at three stages of perception, parsing and utilization. Freshmen majoring in English encounter listening comprehension difficulties in a similar pattern, most frequently at the stage of perception, then utilization, and least frequently parsing; the lower their listening comprehension ability is, the more frequently they may encounter listening comprehension difficulties at three stages. The findings provide some implications for teaching of English listening.

This paper introduces the background of virtual teaching & research centers, and sketches foreign language virtual teaching & research center projects approved by the Ministry of Education in 2022. It then gives an overview of the development of the Virtual Teaching & Research Center of College English Curriculum Development. Based on the proposed virtual community of practice model, the paper further illustrates its intended implementation from the aspects of theoretical basis, organizational management and community of practice.

Advances in information and communication technology (ICT) have brought new opportunities to foreign language education in universities, and the new ecology of online and offline integrated teaching has put forward new requirements for non-language major foreign language teachers. This paper sorts out the conceptions of teacher competence and the previous relevant literature both at home and abroad. Then, it proposes a situated and dynamic competence framework for non-language major foreign language teachers in the online and offline integrated environment. The proposed framework comprises three competence components of awareness, knowledge and skills, and includes three development stages of exploration, integration and innovation. The paper is expected to provide insights for the professional development of university non-language major foreign language teachers in the information age, and promote the deep integration of ICT and foreign language teaching.

Based on the notion of translanguaging and its pedagogical theory, this study analyzed the mechanism of language acquisition and interaction between teachers and students in bilingual teaching, proposed a bilingual teaching mode from the translanguaging perspective, and explained its necessary teaching links and advantages. It illustrated the structure and contents of the translanguaging experience database, and divided the development stages of bilingual teaching according to the construction rules of the database. The bilingual teaching mode may provide some enlightenment for the foreign language teaching interaction practice of teachers and students in China.

Based on an analysis of the definition, disciplinary base and features of language data science and applications, this paper expounds on its major research areas and approaches. It is argued that the research in language data science and applications, featured by the integration of liberal arts and sciences, and equal emphasis on theoretical and applied studies, primarily involves data-based language studies, data-based translation studies, and data-based studies of smart education and artificial intelligence. The research on language data science and applications mainly uses corpora and databases, quantitative methods and data mining.

With 76 non-English majors as the subjects and through questionnaires, background data analysis and interviews, this study explored the relationship between their affordance perception and English learning engagement in the mobile environment. It found that: (1) the subjects' overall performance of affordance perception and English learning engagement were good, but the imbalance of their internal development still existed; (2) affordance perception had different regression effects on the three sub-items of English learning engagement, and compared with resource affordance and interpersonal affordance, network affordance had better predictive effects on English learning engagement. The findings showed that the affordance perception and English learning engagement were the results of the coupling between learners and the mobile environment, and the internal relationship between them could be influenced by learners' adaptability and initiative.

Based on the Investment Model and language ecology perspective, this study uses the methods of content analysis, discourse analysis, questionnaires and interviews to investigate the language ideologies of society, universities and learners, the interaction among them, and their influence on learners' multilingual learning planning. It is found that there is a coexistence of priority for English and multilingual development in language ideologies at the society and university layers, and both language ideologies have different influences on multilingual learners. Although learners are influenced by language ideologies at different layers, they take their own initiative to do demand-driven individual learning planning. The results can provide implications for planning of foreign language education in China.

This study reviews the theories and literature on classroom thinking culture, and explores the development of classroom thinking culture in higher education from the perspective of pedagogy. Based on foreign language teaching reform and practice, the study puts forward four principles for developing classroom thinking culture in terms of educational goals, teaching environment, teaching content and teaching methods. It proposes five developing strategies, namely specializing classroom thinking objectives, designing teaching activities, adopting question-driven approaches, making two-way reflections and visualizing thinking skills, so as to help students improve critical thinking skills in the classroom thinking culture.

Based on an analysis of the advantages and misunderstandings of integrated values education (IVE) in foreign language majors, this paper discusses the practical IVE approaches from three dimensions of the development patterns, curriculum field and participants. As for the development patterns, the specification requirements of IVE for foreign language talents are clarified, and an IVE development chain closely attached to the knowledge and ability chains is built, with the aim of linking the course IVE and major IVE. As for the curriculum field, the curriculum field of foreign language majors should be extended on the basis of IVE ideas, and the key elements in the resource-based field and space-based field should be activated and connected for dynamic interaction. As for the participants, teachers, students, CPC members and administrative personnel should form a joint force to achieve synergy of in-class and out-of-class teaching, and enhance the effectiveness of holistic education.

This study collected 1 758 valid questionnaires from college students all over China, and used structural equation modelling to explore the influence of digital nativeness composed of 4 factors on students' online English learning engagement. The results showed that: (1) the digital nativeness of Chinese college students was at a high level; (2) their online English learning engagement was above the medium level; (3) “growing up with technology” had no significant impact on online English learning engagement, “comfortable with multitasking” had a significant negative impact on online English learning engagement, while “reliant on graphics for communication” and “thriving on instant gratifications and rewards” had significant positive impacts on online English learning engagement. Online English teaching suggestions and future research directions are further provided.

Academic motivation is an important factor in improving the innovation capacity of graduate students. This three-year retrodictive qualitative study, with 6 academic-oriented English major graduate students as the participants, explores the longitudinal dynamics of academic motivation through the lens of Dynamic Systems Theory. The findings regarding the participants' motivational trajectories indicate their individual uniqueness as well as the group-level similarity. Individual differences and their interaction with environments result in the variability of the participants' academic motivation, while educational environments dominate the group-level similarity. Therefore, the academic motivation of graduate students can be stimulated and maintained by optimizing educational environments and promoting the interaction between graduate students and educational environments.

This study investigated ESL learners' eye movement patterns in English speed reading based on the cognitive load theory. Two experiments were conducted: Experiment 1 increased the cognitive load through increasing the length of reading materials, and Experiment 2 increased the cognitive load through reducing the reading time. The results showed that the learners with higher reading proficiency level had higher reading accuracy, shorter reaction time, shorter average fixation duration, larger average saccade amplitude, fewer fixation counts and fewer regression counts compared with the lower proficiency level learners. When the cognitive load increased, the learners with higher reading proficiency level adopted flexible reading strategies to improve reading efficiency, while the lower proficiency level learners failed to employ effective reading strategies. Therefore, teachers can develop teaching strategies that focus on improving learners' reading cognitive ability, supplemented by strengthening eye movement flexibility in English speed reading.

This paper, based on the Biblioshiny package, presents a visualized analysis of the corrective feedback studies in the core database of Web of Science from 2000 to 2021, draws the knowledge maps of intellectual structures and conceptual structures in terms of key words and document citations, and outlines the research routes and core topics of corrective feedback. It is found that the hot topics of the corrective feedback research include written corrective feedback, recast, second language writing, computer-mediated feedback, teacher feedback and so on. Within the increasingly interdisciplinary and diversified theoretical frameworks, the corrective feedback research will put more effort into clarifying the definitions of related concepts, focus on factors affecting feedback effects, optimize experimental designs, and adopt more methods to explore various hot topics. The paper finally puts forward feasible suggestions for the development of the corrective feedback research in China.

Interactional structures reflect participants' underlying cognitive structures, and productive interactional structures in the classroom can help students engage in deeper cognitive processes. The perspective of conversation analysis has great strength in exploring micro interactional structures, while the perspective of language socialization excels at tracking speech events over time and unravels relationships among language, thoughts, and culture. Integrating these two perspectives, this paper proposes a theoretical framework for investigating structural patterns of classroom interaction in both hierarchical and linear dimensions. It then reviews, relates, and evaluates prior studies on classroom interaction before summarizing their gaps to point out future research directions.

Interpreting assessment is an integral part of interpreting education. As information and communication technologies (ICT) have been remodeling the educational ecology in the information age, systematic inquiry into the ICT-assisted innovation in interpreting assessment is therefore urgently needed for both theoretical and pedagogical purposes. Based on the concept and functions of interpreting assessment, this paper analyzes the opportunities lying ahead, and explores a possible ICT-assisted innovation path towards diversified subjects, comprehensivized objects, virtualized media and intelligentized methods in interpreting assessment, in the hope of shedding some light on interpreting assessment research and practice in the information age.

The present study used a mixed-method approach to examine the current situation of job burnout of English teachers for English majors in universities, and explored its sources and countermeasures from the perspective of Positive Psychology (PP). Data retrieved from a questionnaire survey showed that the overall job burnout of English teachers for English majors was not at a high level; teachers with high scores in the personality of neuroticism reported feeling more emotional exhaustion and depersonalization; teachers with high scores in agreeableness reported feeling less emotional exhaustion and depersonalization; teachers with high scores in extroversion and openness to experience reported feeling less reduced personal accomplishment. Interview results indicated that teachers adopted measures to mitigate job burnout from the aspects of emotion, personality traits and cognition. The findings have important implications for using PP to alleviate job burnout among English teachers for English majors in universities.