Autumn, 2025
Foreword
The 2025 edition of Literacies and Language Education: Research and Practice showcases how ELI instructors are responding to a shared challenge: helping students move beyond controlled classroom tasks toward more authentic, culturally informed, and digitally literate language use. The papers in this issue address this theme through perspectives on spoken fluency, materials design, cultural awareness, and emerging digital and AI literacies.
Focusing on spoken fluency, Ito-Maitland examines a screenshot-based presentation activity that reduces script dependence and promotes spontaneous speaking through visual storytelling, demonstrating how visual prompts can support extended ad-lib speech and build learner confidence. Meanwhile, Blatchford investigates teachers’ readiness to design materials for Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in Japan, identifying limited training alongside strong interest and underscoring the need for targeted professional development.
Eardley and van Ossenbruggen illustrate how cultural awareness can be scaffolded into reading lessons to enhance engagement, vocabulary retention, and real-world understanding. Shifting attention to digital practices in the classroom, Taube-Shibata and Wills explore gaps between teachers’ assumptions and students’ actual digital literacy skills in a first-year speaking and listening course, highlighting the value of optional digital literacy materials that meet diverse learner needs. Extending this discussion into emerging technologies, Pare reports on a unit introducing generative AI to second-year students, noting largely positive perceptions and offering practical suggestions for strengthening AI-related digital literacy instruction.
Together, these papers reflect the breadth of pedagogical inquiry within the ELI and its commitment to innovation, inclusivity, and relevance in language education. We hope this issue encourages instructors at all stages of their research journey to contribute to future volumes.
We also extend our sincere thanks to the peer reviewers, copyeditors, and designers whose dedication makes each issue of Literacies and Language Education: Research and Practice possible.
James Owens & Jennie Roloff Rothman (Editors)
