This study investigates how English medium instruction (EMI) is conceptualised, organised, and im... more This study investigates how English medium instruction (EMI) is conceptualised, organised, and implemented at national, institutional, and classroom levels. Drawing on a multi-level, multi-dimensional policy framework, we examine Bangladesh as the macro-level context and focus on one university and its classrooms as meso-and micro-level cases. The study utilised multiple data sources, including policy documents, interviews, classroom observations, and stimulated recall. Across the levels of policy implementation, the findings point to three common ideological drivers: employability, internationalisation, and English proficiency as capital. In terms of language management, bilingualism is encouraged in national policy documents and by macro-level actors, although it remains largely symbolic. At the meso level, institutional actors translate national goals into English-dominant policies through their recruitment preferences, English-only requirements, and admissions thresholds. At the micro level, however, teachers intentionally employ translanguaging to support student learning, thereby counterbalancing the top-down emphasis on English. These discrepancies highlight EMI as an ongoing, negotiated process. By foregrounding teachers' translanguaging as a principled form of policy enactment rather than a deviation from policy, the study offers practical guidance for national authorities and universities seeking to develop EMI models that are both pedagogically sound and equitable.
International Journal of Educational Research, 2026
A master's thesis is often the most demanding component of taught postgraduate programs. Despite ... more A master's thesis is often the most demanding component of taught postgraduate programs. Despite the rapid expansion of such programs, research on master's thesis supervision and student experiences remains scattered across disciplines, methodologies, and regions, highlighting the need for a systematic synthesis. This scoping review synthesizes findings from 99 peer-reviewed articles to identify patterns, challenges, and gaps in research on master's thesis work and supervision. The review draws on Bronfenbrenner's ecological system theory as a guiding framework. The findings reveal that most studies have focused on master's thesis research and supervision at the individual or microsystem level. However, few have explored the significance of the wider exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem. Future research should examine broader environmental factors, given that thesis work and supervision are embedded in and shaped by socio-historical contexts.
Despite growing scholarly attention to both research integrity issues and predatory publishing, t... more Despite growing scholarly attention to both research integrity issues and predatory publishing, the phenomenon of retraction in potential predatory journals (PPJs), especially reasons for retraction, remains underexplored. Drawing on the revived Beall's List and the Retraction Watch Database, we identified 16 direct and three indirect reasons for 717 PPJ retractions. The indirect reasons reflected institutional investigations by three stakeholder groups: journal authorities (editors and publishers), research institutions, and research integrity overseers. Fourteen direct reasons were author-related, with five involving content issues and eight concerning broader breaches of research integrity. Another author-related direct reason was retracting to publish elsewhere, accounting for 60.1% of all PPJ retractions. The two non-author direct reasons involved errors made by journal authorities and third parties. PPJ retractions in the Natural Sciences covered all direct retraction reasons, whereas those in the Humanities and Social Sciences involved only four, and cross-disciplinary retractions involved five. The 10 countries with the most retractions for direct reasons contributed 86.5% of the total, with seven Asian countries (Malaysia, China, Iran, India, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Thailand) representing 72.2%. Some direct retraction reasons were significantly associated with disciplinary groupings and/or primary affiliation countries.
This study presents a scientometric analysis of student plagiarism research spanning five decades... more This study presents a scientometric analysis of student plagiarism research spanning five decades (1970–2022) to map the intellectual structure and evolution of this interdisciplinary field. Drawing on a co-citation analysis of 719 journal articles from the Web of Science and Scopus databases, we identified six major thematic clusters that characterise different research strands: student academic misconduct, source-based writing, cognitive factors of inadvertent plagiarism, Internet plagiarism and detection technologies, authorship and originality, and counter-plagiarism measures. Informed by Shneider’s (Citation2009) four-stage model of scientific development, we trace the field’s progression through four distinct developmental stages: pre-conceptualisation (up to the 1990s), conceptualisation (the 1990s), maturation (the 2000s), and expansion (2010 onwards). The analysis reveals how student plagiarism research has evolved from scattered studies treating plagiarism as a subset of general academic misconduct to a mature, specialised field with distinct theoretical frameworks, methodological approaches, and pedagogical implications in response to technological and cultural changes in higher education. This scientometric review offers evidence-based insights to inform future research, policy development, and pedagogical practice.
Background:
Despite the importance of showcasing research achievements and safeguarding researc... more Background:
Despite the importance of showcasing research achievements and safeguarding research integrity, our understanding of how Chinese universities navigate these potentially competing priorities remains limited.
Methods:
In response, this study investigated 579 Chinese universities on the 2024 Stanford lists of the world's top 2% scientists (WTSs) and operationalized their fulfillment of the dual priorities in terms of institutional visibility (i.e. public institutional responses to the release of the 2024 Stanford lists of WTSs and to the government requirements for safeguarding research integrity) and institutional responsiveness (i.e. promptness in publishing news reports featuring WTSs and releasing annual research integrity reports). In this connection, three types of publicly accessible official documents were analyzed: 1) news reports featuring WTSs, 2) academic integrity webpages, and 3) annual research integrity reports disclosing integrity investigations.
Results:
Among these universities, 28.5% published news reports featuring WTSs, 52.8% maintained academic integrity webpages, and 16.8% released annual research integrity reports. Furthermore, significant variations were found across four contextual factors: university prestige (elite universities vs. non-elite universities), retraction status (universities hosting retraction-afflicted WTSs vs. universities hosting retraction-free WTSs), the number of WTSs, and the prevalence of retraction-afflicted WTSs.
While previous studies have demonstrated the pedagogical utility of data-driven learning (DDL), l... more While previous studies have demonstrated the pedagogical utility of data-driven learning (DDL), little research has compared direct (computer-based) and indirect (paper-based) DDL in Englishas-a-second-language writing instruction. To address this gap, this study examined the effectiveness of the two DDL approaches in improving first-year college students' knowledge and use of that-clauses in an English-for-academic-purposes course. Using a pre-post-delayed quasi-experimental design, two experimental groups received either direct or indirect DDL interventions, while a control group received traditional teacher-fronted instruction. Both DDL interventions led to short-term gains in the frequency of that-clause use. While the indirect DDL intervention was effective in sustaining such gains beyond the post-test, the gains for the direct DDL group disappeared on the delayed test. In terms of variety of use, only the direct DDL group showed improvement from the pre-test to the post-test and maintained this improvement on the delayed test. The direct DDL intervention was also somewhat more effective than the indirect DDL intervention in improving participants' variety scores on the post-test. Finally, neither the direct nor the indirect DDL intervention had any significant effect on the accuracy with which that-clauses were used. Implications for second language writing instruction and future DDL research are discussed.
Causality is integral to academic writing, and the use of causality markers can vary over time an... more Causality is integral to academic writing, and the use of causality markers can vary over time and across disciplines. While previous research has focused mainly on how linking adverbials connect causal clauses, few studies have explored verbs and nouns as causality markers. This study examines how the use of causality markers in research articles has evolved over 40 years and between two disciplinary divisions (hard vs. soft and applied vs. pure). Drawing on a corpus of 480 research articles collected from two periods (1981-1985 and 2016-2020) and four disciplines (physics, chemical engineering, sociology, and education), mixed three-way ANOVAs were conducted to examine diachronic and cross-disciplinary differences in the use of causality markers. The diachronic contrasts reveal an increasing use of linking adverbials to express causal explanations over time. Furthermore, in hard-discipline articles, result linking adverbials have been increasingly replaced by verbal expressions in signaling result relations. These diachronic patterns are interpreted in light of broader institutional and policy shifts toward research accountability and transparency, as well as the rise of interdisciplinarity in hard disciplines. The cross-disciplinary comparisons show a higher incidence of reason and result relations in the hard-discipline articles, reason relations in pure-discipline articles, and result relations in applied-discipline articles. These differences could be explained by the distinctive knowledge structures and epistemologies that define these disciplines. The findings underscore the need for current and discipline-specific pedagogical strategies for teaching the expression of scientific causality.
This chapter addresses scientific discourse from the perspective of genre analysis and offers an ... more This chapter addresses scientific discourse from the perspective of genre analysis and offers an overview of its key established and emerging genres, including research articles, theses/dissertations, literature reviews of various types, lay summaries, graphical abstracts, science podcasts, among others. Drawing on existing research literature, it presents salient linguistic features and typical structural patterns of these scientific genres.
It is no exaggeration to say that the folders of our journal in Editorial Manager have become inu... more It is no exaggeration to say that the folders of our journal in Editorial Manager have become inundated daily with manuscripts on GenAI. An overwhelming proportion of skyrocketing submissions to JEAP and rejections now bear the unmistakable stamp of GenAI: in the title, the abstract, or the feverish enthusiasm of the authors. As Co-Editor-in-Chief, I often experience a sense of déjà vu, reading what feels like the same paper repeatedly, each promising to revolutionize the field of EAP with the latest GenAI tool, model, or chatbot, whether commercial or self-developed. The fundamental impact of GenAI on teaching, learning, and research in EAP is undeniable, and this surge in submissions is, in many ways, a natural consequence of the technology's meteoric rise. Yet, as with any gold rush, there are both nuggets of genuine value and plenty of fool's gold. The bright side is clear: GenAI has opened new vistas for research and practice. But the negative repercussions are equally apparent: redundancy, superficiality, and a creeping sense that we are all caught in a cycle of repetition. Like many fellow academics, I embrace GenAI's transformative potential (Wang & Tian, 2025) but also caution against the perils of uncritical bandwagon-jumping . Let us first acknowledge the truly valuable research that GenAI has made possible. The best GenAI-related studies do not simply ride the wave but chart new courses. For example, investigations into how GenAI can be leveraged ethically, reliably, and efficiently in peer review processes are not only timely but essential, given the increasing demands on reviewers and editors . It is also a fertile area to explore the productive uses of GenAI in EAP research, such as automated move analysis, identification and classification of linguistic or rhetorical features, and the development of sophisticated tools for corpus analysis (Kim & Lu, 2024). These applications allow researchers to tackle questions at a scale and depth that were previously unimaginable (Hu & Zhang, 2025). Pedagogically, GenAI offers exciting opportunities to create high-quality teaching and learning materials, enhance the validity and reliability of assessments , and mediate feedback in ways that can optimize student uptake and development . Such research has the potential to elevate our field, making teaching, learning, and research more effective, efficient, and equitable. In short, when it comes to innovative, rigorous, and relevant GenAI research, the more, the merrier. However, for every ground-breaking GenAI study, there are dozens that seem to be little more than opportunistic attempts to cash in on the GenAI gold rush. The journal is awash with submissions comparing GenAI-generated and human texts in terms of (often overly researched) linguistic, rhetorical, and textual features: generic moves, lexical bundles, metadiscourse, linguistic complexity, informality features, highlights, and so on. The first few studies in this vein were eye-opening, but the subsequent deluge has become a parade of imitation and diminishing returns. One begins to suspect that the differences observed are less about the inherent qualities of GenAI and human writing, and more about the creativity (or lack thereof) in prompt engineering. Another popular genre involves surveying perceptions and challenges of GenAI among every possible demographic: teachers, students, males, females, novices, experts, and, I suspect, even the family pet. While understanding perceptions and challenges is important, we have reached a saturation point. The field does not need another study telling us that students welcome but often misuse GenAI, or that teachers are cautiously optimistic but feel challenged at the same time. What we need now are actionable insights, innovative applications, and research that move beyond the obvious. In short, enough with the perceptions; let's see some action! At the same time, there is an acute need to guard against everyone jumping on the GenAI bandwagon, as the consequences are not merely academic but also existential. When GenAI-related submissions crowd out other topics, we risk neglecting areas of research that are vital to the continued growth and relevance of EAP: for example, the development of genre-based instruction; the exploration of intercultural communication in diverse academic contexts; the fostering of ethical and critical academic literacies in students; the investigation of academic writing development across disciplines; the study of feedback practices and their impact on learning; the advancement of inclusive pedagogies; and instructional responses to the growing role of digital tools, online platforms, and multimodal texts in academic communication . These topics deserve space in our pages, lest we become a journal of GenAI and nothing else. So, to all would-be GenAI researchers, a word of gentle warning: for the reasons discussed above, don't feel surprised, frustrated, or annoyed if your manuscript on GenAI is desk-rejected. It's not personal. It's just that we've read it again. And again. And again. Let's keep the field vibrant by remembering that, sometimes, the best research is not about the hottest technology, but about the most enduring questions.
Given the challenging nature of effective teacher questioning, teachers often need support in ask... more Given the challenging nature of effective teacher questioning, teachers often need support in asking more learning-conducive questions. However, little research has explored how professional development initiatives could contribute to language teachers' effective questioning practices and the cognitions behind them. To address this gap, the present study explored the contributions of a classroom-based mentoring initiative to three Hong Kong English-language teachers' development of questioning skills, drawing on a microgenetic analysis perspective. Data included rounds of teacher-mentor conversations and semi-structured interviews conducted with the teachers at the end of the program. Data analyses showed that as the teachers became better at identifying question types and provided increasingly sophisticated reasoning for their questioning practices, they gradually increased their talk in mentoring sessions, whereas the mentor's talk decreased. Furthermore, the teachers reported heightened awareness of questioning's contributions to student learning and a shift toward dialogic questioning, which they associated with increased student engagement and enjoyment. We discuss the implications of these findings for language teachers and teacher educators regarding how questioning can be integrated into mentoring initiatives to improve teachers' questioning skills.
Listening in the real world involves both verbal and non-verbal inputs. However, second language ... more Listening in the real world involves both verbal and non-verbal inputs. However, second language (L2) listening activities in the classroom often lack non-verbal inputs and are removed from the situational and cultural contexts where they would naturally occur. Virtual reality (VR) technology offers the potential to create more authentic and engaging L2 listening experiences. This study examines the impact of immersive and interactive VR on L2 listening experiences (operationalized as flow) and comprehension among Chinese university-level English-as-a-foreignlanguage (EFL) learners. Drawing on a randomized experimental design and semi-structured interviews, the study found that while VR did not directly improve L2 listening comprehension, it contributed indirectly to L2 listening comprehension by enhancing learners' listening experiences. Furthermore, although VR enhanced listening experiences in both cognitive and affective terms, only the affective enhancement had a noticeable positive medium-sized effect on L2 listening comprehension. Cognitive benefits of VR, such as sustained concentration and heightened absorption, did not translate into better L2 listening comprehension. The observed relationships can be explained by the misalignment between VR's interactive elements and the cognitive demands of the listening task. The findings highlight the pedagogical value of VR in enhancing affective engagement in learning, underscore the need for instructional design to mitigate cognitive overload, and emphasize the importance of careful VR design to ensure that immersive features support, rather than distract from, cognitive engagement.
This study compares the roles of eye-tracking and verbal reports (think-alouds and retrospective ... more This study compares the roles of eye-tracking and verbal reports (think-alouds and retrospective verbal reports, RVRs) in L2 reading process research through three qualitative studies. Findings indicate that eye-tracking provided precise, quantitative data on visual attention and reading patterns (e.g., fixation duration, gaze plots) and choice-making during gap-filling. Based on our mapping, it was mostly effective in identifying 13 out of 47 reading processing strategies, primarily those involving skimming or scanning that had distinctive eye-movement signatures. Verbal reports, while less exact in measurement, offered direct access to cognitive processes (e.g., strategy use, reasoning) and uncovered content-specific thoughts inaccessible to eye-tracking. Both methods exhibited reactivity: eye-tracking could cause physical discomfort or altered reading behavior, whereas thinkalouds could disrupt task flow or enhance reflection. This study reveals the respective strengths and limitations of eye-tracking and verbal reports in L2 reading research. It facilitates a more informed selection and application of these methodological approaches in alignment with specific research objectives, whether employed in isolation or in an integrated manner.
Journal of multilingual and Multicultural Development, 2025
Despite the growth of research on language teachers' emotion and professional identity in the pas... more Despite the growth of research on language teachers' emotion and professional identity in the past decades, little is known about the emotional life of language teacher educators (LTEs), much less about their emotional vulnerability. Accordingly, the present study drew on activity theory and explored 14 Iranian LTEs' emotional vulnerability and professional identity construction. Drawing on data from narrative frames and semi-structured interviews, our study demonstrated how context created tensions that profoundly shaped the LTEs' emotional vulnerability and identification processes. Specifically, we found that LTEs' emotional vulnerability results from others' malpractice and/or their own lack of autonomy, leading to further identity investment. Although they faced a myriad of challenges serving as sources of emotional and professional identity tensions, the LTEs adhered to ethics in maintaining their identity standards to positively contribute to teachers' professional growth. We provide implications for institutional policymakers to better acknowledge the professional status of LTEs so that they become less emotionally vulnerable.
Despite its importance in handling retractions, little research has explored how retraction stigm... more Despite its importance in handling retractions, little research has explored how retraction stigma is rhetorically addressed in retraction notices or whether its management varies by context. To address this gap, we analyzed 3,296 retraction notices and identified eight primary and 28 secondary rhetorical strategies, which were evenly split between reinforcing and mitigating retraction stigma. We further investigated the influence of four contextual factors on the use of these rhetorical strategies: retraction periods (1980-2009 versus 2010-2019), research domains (biomedical and natural sciences versus social sciences and humanities), retraction notice authorship (journal authorities versus authors of retracted publications), and retraction reasons (blatant misconduct, inappropriate conduct, questionable conduct, and honest error). Our analysis uncovered significant differences in the deployment of all eight primary and 23 secondary rhetorical strategies across these four contextual factors. We discuss the practical implications of these findings for issuing retraction notices that can effectively address retraction stigma.
Internationally operating business professionals use English as a business lingua franca (BELF) f... more Internationally operating business professionals use English as a business lingua franca (BELF) for their transnational communication, which requires linguacultural competencies (LCCs). This study explores classroom interventions designed to improve professionals' LCCs for business communication. Drawing on a novel conceptualization (i.e., the LCC framework) and adopting a mixed-methods design, this experimental study investigated the effects of an intervention on two groups of job-experienced Chinese professionals who used English for work: a control group receiving instruction on an existing business English textbook unit and an experimental group exposed to an adapted version of the unit specifically targeting two LCCs. Quantitative results revealed that both groups showed statistically significant and similar improvement from pre-to post-intervention assessments. Qualitative data provided evidence of LCC development and particular characteristics of the job-experienced participants as moderating factors. These results illustrate the utility of LCCs to curricular development and Business English pedagogy. However, they also exemplify challenges in the design and practicalities of experimental research on BELF communication. Importantly, this investigation provides insights into how to develop Business English curricula to prepare learners for transnational communication in the workplace, ideally contributing to more efficient professional communication.
In this conversation published in the RELC Journal, I provide a personal viewpoint on English for... more In this conversation published in the RELC Journal, I provide a personal viewpoint on English for Academic Purposes (EAP) as a field of practice and inquiry. Some of the questions I respond to include: What topics in the field may have been overly explored and, therefore, left little space for future research? What are some emerging issues that deserve immediate attention? Where does qualitative research stand in the current research landscape of EAP? What advice can you offer to scholars on learning about and using quantitative research in EAP? What do you think are the reasons for the limited application of corpus-based research findings in teaching and learning, despite the rich body of research documenting patterns of language features across academic contexts?
Adopting a quasi-experimental design, this study investigated the effects of motivational interve... more Adopting a quasi-experimental design, this study investigated the effects of motivational interventions on second language (L2) willingness to communicate (WTC), self-confidence, and anxiety over a period of 27 weeks. A total of 391 Chinese junior secondary students were assigned to four instructional conditions: Instruction incorporating no motivational strategies (control condition), instruction supported by experience-related motivational strategies (Intervention 1), instruction utilizing vision-related motivational strategies (Intervention 2), and instruction drawing on experience-related and vision-related motivational strategies (Intervention 3). The effects of the interventions were assessed through measures administered at three timepoints to track changes in participants' WTC, self-confidence, and anxiety. A combination of two-way mixed design ANOVAs and post-hoc pairwise comparisons revealed that all three motivational interventions had significantly positive effects on the outcome measures immediately after the interventions. Furthermore, while all three interventions demonstrated sustained effects on L2 self-confidence and anxiety, only the vision and integrated treatments had a lasting impact on L2 WTC. Of the three interventions, integrated motivational strategies produced the strongest effect on L2 WTC, followed by vision-related and experience-related motivational strategies. The vision-related and integrated interventions were equally effective and outperformed the experience-related intervention in their effects on L2 self-confidence. All interventions had comparable effects on L2 anxiety.
The dominant medium of instruction (MOI) in higher education in the twenty-first century is Engli... more The dominant medium of instruction (MOI) in higher education in the twenty-first century is English, a phenomenon largely attributable to the forces of neoliberalism. The widespread use of English as the MOI has led to educational and socioeconomic disparities, particularly in Asian countries such as Bangladesh. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of neoliberalism and linguistic capital, the present study demonstrates how neoliberal ideologies are reflected in policy discourse and have transformed proficiency in the English language into a form of capital. The study focuses on discourses produced by actors at both the national (macro) and university (meso) levels: the National Education Policy, University Grant Commission policies, and various policy documents of selected private universities, including mission and vision statements, MOI statements, curriculum, textbook recommendations, assessment, admission requirements for the students, and advertisements for faculty positions. The analysis reveals that policymakers' ideologies regarding English as the MOI in Bangladesh represent a shift from nationalism to neoliberalism. This shift effectively advances a covert colonial agenda through various discourses in higher education, particularly those emphasising economics, internationalisation, and Americanisation, thereby reinforcing English as a form of capital in Bangladeshi society.
A master's thesis is a unique blend of independent work and shared responsibility between the sup... more A master's thesis is a unique blend of independent work and shared responsibility between the supervisor and the student. While the crucial roles of thesis supervisors and institutional environments are widely acknowledged, it is the students' proactive behaviours and actions that hold the key to shaping the level of support they receive and the ultimate outcomes they achieve. This paper presents a systematic review of 51 carefully selected peer-reviewed studies on writing a master's thesis. Based on a meticulous thematic analysis, the study has developed a conceptual framework encompassing the key phases of preparation, engagement, and outcomes. The findings underscore the importance of students' careful planning before embarking on the thesis journey and their multidimensional engagement as a prerequisite for optimising supervisory support, maximising learning opportunities, and achieving meaningful outcomes.
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Papers by Guangwei Hu
Despite the importance of showcasing research achievements and safeguarding research integrity, our understanding of how Chinese universities navigate these potentially competing priorities remains limited.
Methods:
In response, this study investigated 579 Chinese universities on the 2024 Stanford lists of the world's top 2% scientists (WTSs) and operationalized their fulfillment of the dual priorities in terms of institutional visibility (i.e. public institutional responses to the release of the 2024 Stanford lists of WTSs and to the government requirements for safeguarding research integrity) and institutional responsiveness (i.e. promptness in publishing news reports featuring WTSs and releasing annual research integrity reports). In this connection, three types of publicly accessible official documents were analyzed: 1) news reports featuring WTSs, 2) academic integrity webpages, and 3) annual research integrity reports disclosing integrity investigations.
Results:
Among these universities, 28.5% published news reports featuring WTSs, 52.8% maintained academic integrity webpages, and 16.8% released annual research integrity reports. Furthermore, significant variations were found across four contextual factors: university prestige (elite universities vs. non-elite universities), retraction status (universities hosting retraction-afflicted WTSs vs. universities hosting retraction-free WTSs), the number of WTSs, and the prevalence of retraction-afflicted WTSs.