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Teacher Professional Vulnerability in EMI Contexts in Taiwan

Higher education has become a tradable commodity as globalization turns universities worldwide into players vying for visibility and student enrollment. To attract international talents while encouraging students' transnational mobility, English-medium instruction (EMI) programs have mushroomed in the past decade for higher education institutions to uphold their global standing (Dafouz & Smit, 2021; Sahan et al., 2021). The current study reports on an EMI program in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at a national university in Taiwan. Based on the conceptual framework of teacher professional vulnerability proposed by Lasky (2005), interview data and classroom observations, among data collected for a larger study, from six faculty members and five students who had participated in the EMI program were analyzed. Findings revealed that the more interactions there are between teachers and students in an EMI class, the more openness and rapport would be built in class to support learning. Teachers' openness about their vulnerability helps develop a trusting and safe learning environment in which students are less likely to perceive their own struggles as a threat. Instead, teachers' authentic openness validates students' learning difficulties and helps build empathy towards each other. Pedagogical implications and future research are also discussed.

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Enhancing International Business Communication in English through Innovative Instruction: An Exploration of Student Perceptions of YouTube Videos and Roleplays

This study explored an innovative instructional design that uniquely incorporated student-directed YouTube videos and student-generated roleplays, enhancing the teaching of international business communication in English to undergraduate students in Taiwan. This task-based learning approach aimed to bridge the academic-to-workplace readiness gap. Forty-one second-year Applied English majors participated, engaging in learning tasks that included individual listening quizzes, pair-work video presentations with worksheets, and both simple and complex group roleplays. The research was driven by three questions: 1) Were the students satisfied with the instructional design? 2) How did the students perceive the learning tasks? and 3) What challenges did the teaching method present? A mixed-methods approach was employed to collect quantitative and qualitative data through questionnaires, focus group interviews, and the instructor's reflective journal. The findings revealed that students were highly satisfied with the innovative approach. These activities were perceived as practical and engaging, promoting soft skills development such as creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration. Students found that scripting for roleplays bolstered their imaginative capabilities, and the element of surprise in pair-work assignments fostered interpersonal skills through random partner selection. Despite the positive reception, challenges emerged, including varying levels of English proficiency among students, complexities in scripting roleplays, time management issues, and stage fright during performances. This study contributes valuable insights into effective instructional strategies for international business communication education in Taiwan, emphasizing the importance of student-centered learning experiences that mirror real-world business interactions.

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What and Where? Usage of Transitional Markers in a TOEFL iBT® and Academic IELTS Writing Task Corpus

Transitional markers (lexical bundles and linking adverbials, among other lexico-grammatical devices) facilitate readers' text comprehension (Hyland, 2005) and also contribute to writing delivery and clarity (Lee, 2013). However, understanding of their teaching and use by learners with different proficiency levels is still lacking (Appel & Szeib, 2018; Staples et al., 2013). This situation can be linked to the challenges learners face when trying to integrate these devices as novice writers (Walková, 2020), and the problems demonstrating this integration in high-stakes proficiency tests as predictors of their competence in academic writing (Pearson, 2021). This study aimed to determine differences in the usage of transitional markers (TM) in TOEFL iBT® and Academic IELTS essay samples for their Integrated and Independent writing tasks. A corpus (˃ 130,000 words) was prepared based on 520 essay samples found in textbooks (Biber & Gray, 2013; Walková, 2020) and online. Following the literature, a function-based TM list was prepared (Appel & Szeib, 2018) and was expanded to extract TM frequencies with R (Staples et al., 2013). A 2 × 2 × 9 MANOVA design (tests × tasks × TM type) resulted in a statistically significant interactional effect of tests and tasks over TM types. Sequential-time placement, cause-consequence, and definitional-descriptive-classification TM were the most frequently found overall. Simple main effects analyses revealed that citing information-referential, exemplifying, and stance-opinion-generalization TM are significantly different for tasks but not for tests. Opposing-contrast-disagreement and supporting-emphasis-agreement TM are both different for tasks and tests. These results are beneficial as a reference for instruction, leaning towards a more tailor-made teaching of these devices in opposition to the current generalized standard guidance. Finally, the differentiation in the usage of transitional markers by test and type of task might help testees to improve their essays' comprehensibility (Avoiding overuse, underuse, or misuse) and, ultimately, their test performance.