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The essay is a typical task provided in schools to evaluate learner’s writing abilities and newly acquired knowledge. Because of how text-oriented the world has become, writing has been regarded as one of the most important abilities. As a result, teachers are in tremendous need of efficient methods to boost writing abilities in their classrooms. Yet, most learners lack the ability to write an English essay, particularly in remote areas. The aim of the study is to investigate the underlying reasons for the difficulties teachers encounter while attempting to teach English writing skills in rural schools of OR Tambo Inland District, Eastern Cape Province. The Zone of Proximal Development is highlighted as the issue of collaboration in the education system in order to develop children’s creative writing. Therefore, the study adopted socio-cultural theory as the theoretical framework. The study also adopted a quantitative research method. The participants of the study included six language teachers that were purposefully selected as information-rich participants. The findings of the study revealed that (i) teachers were lacking inappropriate methods, (II) the time spent in teaching essay writing was grossly inadequate, and finally (III) teachers experienced many challenges in reading and writing skills, which included, difficulty in motivating their learners, learners of diverse levels, difficult materials and time constraints to teach the learners. Therefore, the study recommended the use of pre-taught vocabulary, various teacher influences and the implementation of positive literacy practices.

Social interaction among peers and teachers in English First Additional Language (EFAL) classrooms is a more significant predictor of communicative competence, which is the goal of any language program. During the Covid-19, there was a decline in social interaction among learners due to the sudden change from onsite to remote teaching and learning. This paper aimed to explore the effects of lack of social interaction in EFAL classrooms and how it can be enhanced during the 'New Normal'. This study was underpinned by Long's (1981) Interaction Hypothesis Theory, which emphasizes social interaction as an essential component of language learning. This study adopted a qualitative approach embedded in an interpretive paradigm. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were utilized to gather data from 32 conveniently selected participants. Data were analyzed through content analysis. The findings of this paper indicated that the effects of lack of social interaction were; the inability to solicit information from learners, lack of direct contact, and lack of immediate feedback, which were caused by the COVID-19 social distancing measures. This negatively affected the quality of education. Furthermore, the lack of interactive social activities in EFAL classrooms threatens the acquisition of language proficiency skills, which are key to academic literacy. Therefore, the authors recommend that language teachers receive training on how language lessons should be planned during blended learning to engage learners in interactive social activities like role-playing, storytelling, debates, and group discussions.

It is recognized that reading ability is essential for Thai EFL students and English reading is perceived as a difficult task among them. To understand the difficulty experienced by the students while reading English text, this study hence aimed at investigating problems of using English reading strategies perceived by Thai EFL students as well as providing suggested reading instructions for Thai lecturers to cope with the emerging problems. This study employed a mixed-method design. The participants of the study were 412 Thai EFL students who, in this study, were also considered as Gen Z students at a large-size university in Bangkok, Thailand. The participants were asked to complete an online questionnaire on 4-point Likert’s scale, which was adapted from Aebersold and Field (1997). Moreover, 10 students were recruited for two focus group interviews. The results revealed that Thai EFL students experience difficulties in using English reading strategies when they have to skip unknown words during the first reading (mean = 2.67, SD = 1.01) followed by varying reading speed rates according to the type of the reading passage (mean = 2.66, SD = 0.97), and guessing the meanings of unknown words by using the context clues (mean = 2.59, SD = 0.92) respectively. Based on both quantitative and qualitative results and personality traits of Thai Gen Z, suggested reading instructions including guided reading, improving student’s vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension, technology-blended classroom and critical reading were purposed.

The Second Language (L2) research has presented vast curiosity to learners and their judgments on L2. The numerous directions of learner-focus study, however, have not been sufficient to emphasize the learning experiences of learners in relation to their social and economic context, particularly in third world countries. This research explores the perspectives and experiences of school learners in second language learning in the peripheries of Bangladesh. In addition, this research demonstrates how socio-economic drawbacks of students’ family affect their English subject scores in secondary school certificate examination. Educational background of parents also contributes to achieve the better scores in L2. A close relationship is found between learners’ family education, parents’ occupation, and family income and their achieved scores in English in board examination.