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Open research questions in EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning

1,670 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 12,956 EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • The inability of Chinese university students to articulate their own cultural heritage in English - The lack of integration of Chinese cultural content into college English instruction - The need for a more comprehensive approach to developing students' intercultural communicative competence

    College English Teaching for Chinese Cultural International Communication · 2026 · DOI

  • The small sample size limited the generalizability of the findings. The study had to balance the need for contextual diversity with the risk of compromising participant anonymity. The researchers had to integrate quantitative and qualitative data to provide a nuanced understanding of teacher emotions.

    Heartfelt pedagogy across borders: Emotional experiences of language teachers in multilingual educational contexts with insights from Malta · 2026 · DOI

  • further studies on teacher emotions in multilingual and multicultural settings, - examination of the impact of policy-level interventions on teacher retention, - investigation of the relationship between teacher emotions and student outcomes

    Heartfelt pedagogy across borders: Emotional experiences of language teachers in multilingual educational contexts with insights from Malta · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a lack of understanding about how multilingual learners experience participation in rubric development. The study addresses the gap by examining the interactional processes through which assessment criteria are negotiated.

    Co-Constructing Rubrics with Multilingual Writers: Inclusive Approaches to Formative Assessment in L2 Classrooms · 2026 · DOI

  • Controlled evidence regarding the effects of gamified digital tools on phonetic knowledge among Latin American secondary students remains limited. Previous research has frequently conflated written phonetic recognition with oral pronunciation.

    Gamified digital mediation and the development of American English phonetic competence in secondary EFL learners · 2026 · DOI

  • Several practical recommendations follow from these findings. Every point, timer, badge, ranking mechanism, and challenge should be aligned with a specific phonetic contrast and an explicit learning objective. Digital response cycles should be Taken together, the results are consistent with the proposition that short classroom-response loops can support grapheme-to- phoneme mapping when input, retrieval, immediate feedback, teacher-guided correction, and cumulative review. The evidence is limited to the response-test items. improved pronunciation, intelligibility, speaking skill, or acoustic production, and the nonrandom classroom design prevents a strong causal claim.

    Gamified digital mediation and the development of American English phonetic competence in secondary EFL learners · 2026 · DOI

  • Investigate the process that produced the pattern of positive covariation - Examine the relationship between cognitive load and foreign-language anxiety in different contexts

    Cognitive Load and Foreign-Language Anxiety in Second-Language Learning: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies a gap in the literature, where cognitive load and foreign-language anxiety are often examined separately. The paper notes that thirteen additional reports measured both constructs but provided no statistic linking them.

    Cognitive Load and Foreign-Language Anxiety in Second-Language Learning: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis · 2026 · DOI

  • One challenge is to understand the complex relationships between teacher autonomy support, basic psychological needs, classroom engagement, and academic English speaking performance. Another challenge is to develop effective methods for measuring and assessing academic English speaking performance.

    Exploring the effect of teacher autonomy support on Chinese EFL undergraduates’ academic English speaking performance through the mediation of basic psychological needs and classroom engagement · 2024 · DOI

  • Future research should examine the outcomes of such integrated programmes through longitudinal studies, comparing students’ cultural communication competence before and after exposure.

    College English Teaching for Chinese Cultural International Communication · 2026 · DOI

  • Practical implications and suggestions for future educational and psychological research are discussed

    Do Females Outperform Males on Second/Foreign Language (L2) Achievement? A Meta-Analytical Review across Three Decades · 2026 · DOI

  • Abstract Positive language education research has primarily centered on positive emotions and character traits, leaving the third pillar of positive psychology, namely positive institution, largely underexplored both conceptually and empirically, especially regarding its role in shaping learner engagement.

    Defining “positive institution”: A multilevel analysis of support systems for foreign language engagement across family, classroom, school, and society · 2026 · DOI

  • Abstract Although research on language teacher well‐being is expanding, that of language teacher educators (LTEs) remains scarce.

    The role of institutions in language teacher educator well‐being: Unpacking the third pillar of positive psychology · 2026 · DOI

  • ABSTRACT Despite indications that creating opportunities for student talk in language classrooms is crucial for language development and educational outcomes, few studies have compared the amount of student talk in first (L1) and second or foreign (L2/L3) language classrooms.

    Fluid Multilingualism: Classroom Talk in English and French Classes in England, France and Norway · 2026 · DOI

  • These findings suggest that fostering resilience-oriented motivation strategies could be a valuable component of EFL instruction to support positive engagement in GenAI-assisted language learning contexts; however, such integration should be explored with consideration of the cross-sectional design, which precludes claims about causality or actual learning outcomes.

    Unpacking the Underlying Factors Behind Behavioral Intention to Use GenAI: The Roles of Motivation and Resilience · 2026 · DOI

  • These findings point to the need for further research on the nature of online conversations between paid NSs and L2 learners, which cannot be assumed to replicate interactional patterns observed in other settings.

    L2 Interaction in Service-Provider Virtual Exchanges · 2026 · DOI

  • , Boomalang, TalkAbroad) have become an increasingly popular resource to supplement classroom instruction, yet little is known about the nature of the interaction on these platforms.

    L2 Interaction in Service-Provider Virtual Exchanges · 2026 · DOI

  • Although metacognitive listening instruction has been recognised for enhancing learners’ awareness and self-regulation, its classroom application in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts is still underexplored.

    Metacognitive listening instruction for non-English major students: insights from EFL teachers · 2026 · DOI

  • English Medium Instruction (EMI) has expanded globally into school settings, yet research on its implementation in secondary schools and the interconnected perspectives and experiences of secondary school stakeholders remains underexplored.

    The Ecology of English Medium Instruction: Multi-System Insights from Secondary School Stakeholders in Malaysia · 2026 · DOI

  • Although considerable research has explored the role of feedback in second language writing, limited studies have compared the effects of AI-generated feedback and teacher-written feedback on both academic performance and emotional experience, particularly in EFL contexts.

    Effects of AI generated and teacher feedback on EFL learners writing performance and emotional experience · 2026 · DOI

  • Given that the existing data are insufficient to support strict causal inference, this paper positions the research as an exploratory classroom intervention and proposes a testable follow-up research scheme accordingly.

    Explicit Instruction of "Request and Refusal" Speech Acts in High School English from a Pragmatic Perspective: An Exploratory Study Based on Classroom Intervention · 2026 · DOI

  • Contrary to monologue performance, few studies have, however, investigated L2 interaction due to its inherent complexity (Galaczi & Taylor, 2020).

    Assessing functional adequacy in oral dialogic speech: Validating a rating scale for L2 interaction · 2026 · DOI

  • In Chinese as a Second Language (CSL) learning, however, relatively little is known about CSL learners' TL in autonomous out-of-class learning or about the learner-side factors that may support this capacity.

    Technology-mediated Chinese learning beyond the classroom: the role of L2 resilience and L2 engagement · 2026 · DOI

  • However, DI is at present understudied within second language acquisition research, especially when compared to its more well‐known counterpart of study abroad (SA).

    Domestic immersion in postsecondary language education: Review and research agenda · 2025 · DOI

  • However, the impacts of POA on students’ foreign language writing anxiety and English writing performance were still under-researched.

    The Effect of Production-Oriented Approach on Chinese University Students’ Foreign Language Writing Anxiety and English Writing Performance: Evidence From a Longitudinal Study · 2025 · DOI

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1,670 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 12,956 EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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