Dear Readers,
Welcome to the first issue of our 28th Volume! This issue contains a “Special Issue” within it on “Between Indisposition and Perseverance: Disrupted Language Teacher Identities in Times of Uncertainty” ably edited by Hyunjin Jinna Kim and Huseyin Uysal. We hope that you will find it both informative and relevant to your own teaching context.
In addition, this issue contains 8 feature articles. We offer our usual smörgåsbord for your reading pleasure, topics include learner autonomy, ChatGPT, sustainable development goals in global education, digital literacy, vocabulary knowledge for writing, speech pragmatics of hotel negotiations, migrant learners, and language learner beliefs. In order to make our articles useful to our global readership, we are strictly enforcing our policy that articles must be applicable to other contexts despite the research having been carried out in a single country.
SCOPUS ranking improves. TESL-EJ’s ranking on the newly released 2024 version of scimagojr.com‘s SCOPUS listing has moved up to #253 from #267 out of the 312 journals in their Q1 “Linguistics and Language” category. We congratulate our editorial team, our contributors and you, the readers, for the steady improvement in our listing over the five years that we have been listed.
Kudos. We are proud to say that past Review Editor, Ilka Kostka and our new Review Editor, Rachel Toncelli (see below) received the TESOL “Ron Chang Lee Award for Excellence in Classroom Technology,” while Huseyin Uysal, co-editor of the current Special Issue, received the “TESOL Leadership Mentoring Program Award” for 2024. Congratulations to all!
Passages. Rachel Toncelli (Northeastern University) joins Dylan Burton on our Book Review Team. Dr. Toncelli was introduced by our former review editor and colleague, Ilka Kotska who co-authored the “On the Internet” article on ChatGPT in our November 2023 issue. We thank Behzad Mansouri for his long service to TESL-EJ as a co-editor, media review editor, special issue editor and special mentor to struggling authors. Behzad has now moved away from ELT, and is currently involved in a study of “community-engagement and leadership.”
New book! We are pleased to announce another book publication, Tips for Writing Well: Research-Based Principles, by Scott Alkire. This volume contains 25 easy-to-read and easy-to-follow tips on effective academic writing. The topics range from how to find sources to improving your style to grammar and proofreading. It is free for download in PDF from this site. It will soon be available on Amazon in ebook and paperback formats. Our policy is that 100% of profits from this and all of our books go to supporting TESL-EJ’s mission to remain free from advertising, and free from subscription fees. Thank you for considering a purchase.
Thanks to recent reviewers. We thank the reviewers of all submissions that had reached a decision since our last issue – regardless of whether the paper was accepted or declined. Thanks go to: Abdul Syahid, Adrian Leis, Ahmed Bashir, Andrias Susanto, Anh Ton-Nu, Aránzazu García-Pinar, Aurelio Vilbar, Azran Azmee Kafia, Baburam Upadhaya, Bao Trang Thi Nguyen, Betsy Gilliland, Boudjemaa Dendenne , Burak Senel, C-S Anna Chang, Chin Ee Loh, Cihat Atar, Claire Louise Rodway, Colin William Campbell, Dale Brown, Danial Babajani Azizi, Daron Benjamin Loo, David Berry, Eli Hinkel, Elisabet Murtisari, Emrah Cinkara, Eric Hagley, Fatemeh Ranjbaran, Flora Debora Floris, Frank Hermann, Gözde Balıkçı, Gina Paschalidou, Grant Eckstein, Ha Hoang, Hamid Bahador, Hjalmar Hernandez, I Putu Indra Kusuma, Ilka Kostka, Ismail Xodabande, Jofen Wu Han, Juland Salayo, Kathleen Eilers-crandall, Kuang Li, Kyle R. Van Horn, Larry Xethakis, Leonardo Veliz, Made Hery Santosa, Md. Didar Hossain, Meliha R Simsek, Michael Joseph Ennis, Minh Le, Mirjam Anugerahwati, Napak-on Sritrakarn, Nurkamilah, Omer Gokhan ULUM, Paul Mathieson, Penkhae Wongosuriya, Peter Ilic, Piyapong Laosrirattanachai, Rita Elaine Silver, Sachiko Nakamura, Shaun Manning, Shizuka Sakurai, Sophia Skoufaki, Theresa A Antes, Ufuk Atas, Valentin Werner, Vijayakumar Chintalapalli, Xiaoli YU, Xirui Cai, Yosefina Rosdiana Su and Zainurrahman.
Another Special Issue production by Thomas Farrell is in the offing! Moving Forward With Reflective Practice in TESOL is now calling for contributions, to be published in the August 2025 issue.
Best wishes,
Thomas Robb, for the Editorial Team