Language, Literature and Education: Research Updates Vol. 7

Task-based Language Teaching: Perspectives of Secondary Level EFL Educators and Actual Classroom Experiences

Laxman Prasad Bhandari — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Task-based language teaching (TBLT) is one of the widely discussed student-centred approaches to language teaching. Teaching a lesson under a task-based framework requires careful consideration of the learners' ages and interests, as well as the task itself. This study provides an overview and characteristics of TBLT, and the advantages of employing it; highlights teacher and student roles; and explores teachers’ perceptions and practices of this approach. The study explores two purposively selected secondary-level English language teachers’ perceptions and practices of using language tasks in their classrooms. Applying an ethnographic research design, the data were collected through in-depth interviews and class observation. The findings suggest that the teachers hold positive attitudes toward TBLT as a current English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching approach and perform task-based classes to some extent; however, they are not well aware of the methods and techniques of implementing tasks appropriately. The study suggests that language educators require proper training to be equipped with the knowledge and skills required for task-based instruction.

Transforming STEM Education through Social-Emotional Learning and AI: Enhancing Engagement and Emotional Intelligence

Bhavna Galhotra — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Social-emotional learning (SEL) plays a pivotal role in fostering engaged learning by enhancing students' emotional intelligence, which is essential for deep conceptual understanding and effective collaboration in STEM education. SEL is known to improve student outcomes but is rarely combined with STEM. This review highlights the role of SEL in Promoting Engaged Learning and Deep Conceptual Understanding in STEM education. The incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) alongside social-emotional learning (SEL) can enhance student engagement and foster a more inclusive learning environment in STEM education. Integrating AI with SEL strategies not only supports diverse learning needs but also promotes equity, allowing all students to thrive in STEM fields. Moreover, by leveraging AI tools that align with SEL principles, educators can create personalised learning experiences that cater to the emotional and academic needs of each student, thereby enhancing overall educational outcomes. This approach emphasises the importance of collaborative efforts among educators, policymakers, and technologists to ensure effective implementation and equitable access to AI-driven SEL strategies in STEM education. Addressing these challenges requires ongoing professional development for educators and a commitment to ethical practices that prioritise student well-being and equitable access to resources in AI-enhanced learning environments. This synergy of AI and SEL in STEM education underscores the need for comprehensive frameworks that prioritise both academic success and emotional well-being, ultimately preparing students for future challenges. Ultimately, a holistic approach that combines AI, SEL, and STEM education can significantly improve learning experiences and outcomes for all students, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds. This integration not only addresses the diverse needs of students but also helps bridge the achievement gaps prevalent in STEM education, especially for those with disabilities. This holistic strategy can empower students with disabilities, ensuring they receive the necessary support to excel in STEM fields and contribute to a more diverse workforce. Furthermore, it is essential to continuously evaluate the effectiveness of AI and SEL integration, adapting strategies based on feedback and emerging research to maximise their impact on student learning and inclusivity. This integration can lead to innovative teaching practices that not only enhance academic performance but also support the emotional development of students, fostering a more equitable educational landscape.

Exploring Joy and Challenge: Fourth-Grade Students’ Perceptions of English Writing in Tashicholing Dungkhag, Bhutan

Ten Gyeltshen, Parkash Gurung, Manika Rai — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This study explores fourth-grade students' perceptions of English writing in Tashicholing Dungkhag, focusing on emotional, cognitive, and contextual influences.

Using a phenomenological qualitative approach, 14 students—two each from seven government schools—were purposively selected based on their active participation and interest in English writing lessons. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed using Braun and Clarke’s (2021) thematic analysis framework.

Four primary themes emerged: enthusiasm for writing, mechanical challenges, emotional complexity, and the role of teacher support. Students expressed both joy and anxiety, highlighting the dual impact of writing as both a creative outlet and a site of struggle. Positive reinforcement and empathetic instruction significantly influenced their engagement.

Addressing a gap in EFL writing research in Bhutanese primary education, this study emphasises emotionally responsive pedagogy, increased use of low-stakes writing, and teacher development centred on constructive feedback and encouragement, while offering practical recommendations to enhance primary education in Bhutan and similar contexts.

Rhyming Roles: Gender Representations in Early Childhood Education through Critical Discourse Analysis

Nyevero Maruzani — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Nursery rhymes play an important role in the formal and informal development of toddlers. The rhyme is used to impact values that make the young grow into responsible citizens. It punctuates various social activities where socially accepted themes are communicated (Muranda & Maruzani, 2022). In children, it fosters intimacy and close relationships, therefore creating a sense of belonging. Through music, toddlers expand their communicative abilities and their imagination. Music enables toddlers to express themselves freely and develop a degree of confidence and creativity, as well as academic skills and socially accepted behaviours. In pursuance of international calls to eradicate gender inequality in communities, the study aims to make a gender analysis of selected ECD rhymes. Three popular Early Childhood Development (ECD) rhymes (Old Mac Donald Had a Farm, Mary Had a Little Lamb and Five Little Ducks) were subjected to a three-pronged analytical lens adopted from critical discourse analysis. The rhyme lyrics were analysed in the following ways: (i) analysis of the rhymes as discourse, (ii) rhymes as performed language, and (ii) description of discourses about the rhyme. Conclusions from the study show that there is a critical role that music plays at ECD level. However, nurturers seem oblivious to the role that rhymes play in perpetuating traditional gender stereotypes that fuel gender inequality in our communities. The description of rhyme discourse further adds to the dynamic meanings that can be exposed by CDA. The discourse in these rhymes takes place in the natural, everyday settings. The actors and the themes that are used in the lyrics all make reference to the realities that the young interact with on a daily basis. This helps the toddlers to link the world of fantasy to the realities in their everyday lives. The analysis of these rhymes may help in making stakeholders aware of the need to come up with gender-neutral rhymes that promote equal opportunities for girls and boys in all spheres of life, even as they grow up. The use of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) helped the study unpack these explicit and implicit gender ideologies that prevail in ECD rhymes. The issue of these gender connotations at the ECD level needs urgent attention, for failure to do so is a recipe that will contribute to rhetoric in the pursuit of gender equality in our communities.

Socioeconomic and Pedagogical Factors Influencing Home Language Skills: A Study of the Secondary School Improvement Program (SSIP) Grade 12 Leaners in Gauteng's Johannesburg East District

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This study examines the effectiveness of the Secondary School Improvement Program (SSIP) in Gauteng Province towards improving the Grade 12 learners’ proficiency in home languages listening and speaking, reading and phonics, and writing and handwriting in the Johannesburg East District. The study analyses several home languages, including Setswana, IsiZulu, Sesotho, Sepedi, isiXhosa, and isiVhenda, to enhance literacy and fluency in home language instruction at the Matric level. The study used Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theoretical Framework as well as a mixed-method approach. Face-to-face interviews collected the qualitative data, which then underwent coding and thematic analysis. We gathered the quantitative data through semi-structured questionnaires and used ANOVA techniques for regression analysis. The data analysis was based on general learner performance in home language proficiency: hence learners’ skills in listening and speaking, reading and phonics, and handwriting and writing. The study's findings revealed that there are diversified learner performance competencies due to teaching methods, resource availability, and socio-economic factors. The study recommends that there should be numerous educational support materials and personalised teaching approaches to enhance learners’ proficiency and performance in home languages at Matric Level to enable the impact of SSIP to be more effective and efficient towards improving learners’ educational outcomes.

Empowering Leadership of Change Management for Sustainability in High-Performance Educational Organizations

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Organisational leadership is pivotal to defining an organisation's culture, driving team morale, and achieving success. This framework sheds light on empowering leadership of change management for sustainability in high-performance educational organisations. A mixed-method study, which includes qualitative interviews and a quantitative survey, investigates critical empowering leadership of change management, such as vision for creating an organisational future, structures and work processes to support the organisational vision, open communication among the organisation's personnel, continuous learning, teamwork, sharing power, and participation in operations. These factors have a direct and indirect impact on creating an organisational culture for sustainability. Change management mechanisms in modern corporate management and leading organisational practices, strategic planning, human resource management, process focus, knowledge management, and performance outcome lead to goal achievement in high-performance educational organisations.

Integration of the Framework for STEM Language Literacy Development of Engineering Students

Damira Jantassova, Zhanat Azimbayeva, Saltanat Aitbayeva — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This chapter discusses the implementation of a framework for developing STEM language literacy of engineering students in the context of STEM education. This framework was developed as part of the research project funded by the Science Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the topic “Enhancing Scientific and Professional Language Learning for Engineering Students in Kazakhstan through Digital Technologies” (Grant No. AP19678460). The article assesses students’ needs in the field of scientific communication and identifies key characteristics of scientific and technical discourse, including academic writing skills, use of STEM terminology, data visualisation, and analysis of scientific information. Based on a multifactorial SWOT analysis of the current state of scientific and language training at Abylkas Saginov Karaganda Technical University, the framework of scientific and language training has been developed, consisting of conceptual, content, technological, and evaluative-resultant blocks. The implementation of the framework involves the integration of linguodidactic approaches, digital technologies, and design thinking methods. It also describes measures to integrate the framework into the educational process, develop specialised courses, and create the digital program “STEM language literacy through design thinking” aimed at developing students' language literacy by means of digital technologies, including AI-powered learning. The proposed algorithm for implementing the framework includes diagnosis of the students’ level of scientific English language, creating a digital program, training teachers, and organising a pilot implementation. The results of the work emphasise the importance of comprehensive training of students in the field of scientific communication for the formation of competitive specialists in the context of digitalisation.

Enhancing Middle School Science Learning through Minecraft: A Case Study of Virtual World Applications

Deepika Sharma, Vinod Kumar Jain, Ruby Sharma — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Minecraft, a widely popular sandbox video game, has emerged as a powerful educational tool capable of transforming traditional educational instruction. This case study explores the educational potential of Minecraft as a pedagogical tool for teaching scientific concepts through immersive, student-centred learning. The study focuses on two middle school interventions: (1) simulating the water cycle, and (2) constructing electrical circuits using Minecraft's Redstone mechanics. A total of 42 students (grades 6–8) participated, divided into small groups of 4–5, across two urban classrooms in India. Guided by a design-based research (DBR) framework, the interventions were designed to foster collaboration, critical thinking, and conceptual understanding through hands-on virtual modelling. Key research questions included: (1) How does Minecraft-based learning influence students’ understanding of scientific processes? (2) What 21st-century skills do students demonstrate during Minecraft learning activities? Students built functional virtual models that demonstrated processes such as evaporation, condensation, and precipitation, and explored concepts like current flow, resistance, and conductivity in circuit design. Observational notes, student reflections, and teacher feedback were used to evaluate outcomes. Findings indicate that Minecraft enabled students to visualise and manipulate abstract concepts, thereby enhancing conceptual clarity. Students also demonstrated increased engagement, teamwork, and digital fluency. Teachers reported improved participation and deeper inquiry compared to textbook-based instruction. The study concludes that Minecraft, when strategically integrated into curriculum design, can support interactive science learning and foster a range of cognitive and collaborative skills essential for 21st-century education.

Cognitive-emotional Sensitivity Across Academic Subjects: A Study of Sixth-Grade Students in Bulgaria

Nina Gerdzhikova — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The creation of a supportive classroom environment has emerged as a significant area of pedagogical inquiry in the contemporary school. It is therefore important to establish how cognitive-emotional appraisals function in real learning settings. This article presents a tool for diagnosing the momentary cognitive-emotional sensitivity of 13-year-old students to learning in four subjects: Bulgarian language, mathematics, history, and biology. The questionnaire comprises seven scales, namely activity, concentration, tiredness, extraversion, introversion, fear and self-confidence. The Cronbach alpha coefficients serve to demonstrate the reliability of the scales. The results of the factor analysis indicated that the questionnaire could be shortened, thereby facilitating its use in the classroom. The calculations demonstrate a good value for the goodness-of-fit statistic in the sample of 296 students. The data obtained from the empirical research demonstrate the general trajectory of cognitive-emotional sensitivity development among 13-year-old students. The subjects exhibit a range of cognitive-emotional experiences, which enable them to interpret these experiences in a sufficiently concrete manner. The chi-square test yielded statistically significant results for the activity, concentration, tiredness, extraversion, and fear scales, thereby confirming the null hypothesis. With 54 degrees of freedom, the critical value is 76.154. It is of significant importance for students to engage in cognitive activities and to maintain an emotionally open disposition toward the learning processes that occur within the classroom setting. In light of the fact that they prompt the formation of a shared internal disposition towards emotional experiences, it would be beneficial to consider how teaching might evolve in order to foster a more diverse range of perceptions.