Introduction: the variety of realities of language learning and teaching in Higher Education throughout the world. A step forward to keep on sharing ideas

For each issue of Language Learning in Higher Education (LLHE), we endeavour to compile a Table of Contents that connects one contribution to the next in some way, stringing together a thread of common themes, or some aspects that follow naturally on from one paper to the next. This results in our focussing, as always, on some key words that are relevant to language educators and learners alike according to their own context. Indeed, an equal balance is struck between the two.

Consequently, bearing in mind the readership of our journal, it goes without saying that all papers present the realities of language learning and teaching in Higher Education throughout the world. Contributions for this number, 13.2, again present and discuss experiences with reference to specialized and academic language, intercultural communicative competence, and attitudes to language variation, working together face-to face and online, as well as reliance on the technology that these forms of instruction and learning necessarily involve, including the difficulties encountered. Furthermore, some papers present research into the increased use and implications of English Medium Instruction in Higher Education and the means of interrogating it together with specialised language to increase (language) knowledge and competence, while other papers describe the realities of learning other languages and learners’ attitudes to and acceptance of them in both spoken and written codes.

In the Section dedicated to Research Articles, in his paper entitled Model United Nations: A Thematic Analysis of Japanese EFL Students’ Reflections on Intercultural Communicative Competence, Samuel Nfor (Seitoku University, Japan) describes a simulation of the United Nations that is adapted for academic purposes and includes elements of discussion, negotiation, presentation, and engagement with global issues and international affairs. Emily Morgan (University of Tasmania, Australia) discusses Japanese Tertiary Students’ Perceptions of Group Work which is considered through examples of Explicit Scaffolding. Zeynep Mine Derince (Near East University, Nicosia, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus), in her article A Critical Literacy Class: Beyond English learning and teaching in Higher Education, analyses the introduction of Critical Literacy as a transformative teaching approach in an English language teaching setting at tertiary level in Turkey.

The section continues with three articles that present the state-of-the-art of English Medium Instruction and ESP approaches in different academic contexts: Predictors of English Medium Instruction academic success in Vietnamese Higher Education by Duy Van Vu (East Asia University of Technology, Hanoi, Vietnam), University English-medium instruction in Turkey – What instructors say by Yavuz Kurt and Yasemin Bayyurt (Yeditepe University, İstanbul, Turkey) and Testing English for Medical Purposes: the effects of traditional and distance education on learning outcomes by Anna Barnau (Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia).

The final set of research articles that are included in this section focuses on detailed aspects of language learning in academic contexts. Hümeyra Can (Necmettin Erbakan University, Konya, Turkey) proposes Using Corpora in Teaching Vocabulary to Advanced EFL Learners in a Higher Education Context. This is done for the benefit of the development of lexical competence of tertiary level learners who, despite their high level of competence, still have difficulty in recognizing and producing academic words in terms of their correct and appropriate use in various contexts. Vicent Beltrán Palanques (Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain) proposes Digital multimodal PechaKucha presentations in ESP, considered through insights from students’ learning experiences. The technique has the objective of encouraging students to become aware of the complexity of expressing meanings through the multimodal genre of PechaKucha presentations. Anila R. Scott-Monkhouse (University of Parma, Italy), in her article From face-to-face tuition to online classes: ‘Re-styling’ a course of English for Academic Purposes, shares ideas about the elements which contributed to the overall positive outcome of online classes, the strong social connotation this new teaching and learning context came to bear, the development of class dynamics, and the learning points that emerged. The author also provides some practical suggestions which can add to the creative solutions experienced by language teachers at a global level. Barbora Chovancová, Štěpánka Bilová and Alena Hradilová (Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic) offer insights by Turning the Tables on Online Exam Cheating via Language Mediation Tasks. In the specific, the authors address the issue of modern language testing in the online mode and propose a strategy to reduce the possibility of academic misconduct by designing tasks that assess the language skill of mediation in Legal English exams. This intriguing strategy requires test-takers to generate original answers, which can significantly reduce the risk of copying and pasting. Simultaneously, the tasks encourage mastering the skill of mediation that can be considered a valuable asset for future lawyers. José María Santos Rovira (University of Lisbon, Portugal) analyses the Attitudes to Spanish language variation, through a study on Portuguese students of Spanish as a Foreign Language. The analysis is carried out by drawing on data collected via a web-based survey which shows that Portuguese students of Spanish as a modern language have a clear preference for the Castilian variety, despite their age and gender. Finally, Joaquim Guerra (Universidade do Algarve, Portugal) with the article “Mur de paroles” – ou tentative de promotion de l’expression orale en langue française explores the usefulness of mobile technologies in the language classroom by focussing on the Audience Response System of Padlet, used in French language and culture courses.

The Activity Reports Section complements the above contributions by bringing together the practical experiences of both teachers and learners in a plurilingual and pluricultural context, where international collaboration is the essence of the professional world. The section includes three contributions proposed by Kateřina Sedláčková (Université Masaryk, Brno, Czech Republic) with her paper « Being plurilingual is a gift we make to ourselves » : amener les étudiants à valoriser et développer leurs compétences plurilingues et pluriculturelles, Nathalie Kirchmeyer and Kristina Knauff (Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden) who focus on International collaborative tasks in language courses for engineers integrated in a multidimensional teaching format and Catherine Jeanneau and Christian Ollivier (University of Limerick, Ireland and Université de La Réunion, France) who are interested in Training citizens as users of languages and digital technology. Real world tasks to tame the digital wilds. The three activity reports close the 13.2.2023 LLHE Issue by offering practical ideas that can hopefully encourage other language practitioners to share further meaningful experiences.

In the meantime, we wish the LLHE readers a relaxing and thoughtful time while reading the articles we have carefully selected and edited for them.