Foreword (2020)
After an exceptional year, both in academia and society at large, we are delighted topublish the third issue of the revamped ELI journal, ​Literacies and Language
Education: Research and Practice ​(previously known as ​Working Papers​)​.
A ​special section​ of this journal, guest-edited by Sam Morris, was shared earlier thisyear, featuring 22 submissions that focused on both describing and reflecting on thechallenges that ELI lecturers faced in adapting their teaching to the pandemic. Theywill form part of a large, printed version of this year’s issue. The response by ELI staff
to the extraordinary situation we face in the current climate has garnered muchpraise, both internally and externally, and has indeed been impressive. Theabove-stated 22 submissions alone bear testimony to this fact.
This impressive response, however, should not distract us from the ongoing andequally impressive everyday work undertaken by ELI teachers, both in terms ofresearch and classroom practice. The papers in this regular edition of the journal,
published every autumn, are all excellent examples of long-term research projects
and/or innovative classroom practice.
Bower and Jurns​ introduce the various benefits that having students work in‘stations’ can offer in terms of making peer review more effective. In a project thatbegan in 2019, and that now seems wonderfully prescient, ​de Veas et al.​ ​experimentwith the use of online lessons, comparing their educational value to more regularin-person lessons, ​and then outlining considerations with implementing online
versions of communicative courses.
Last year, under the guidance of Academic Advisory Board member Professor AnneBurns, an Action Research Project group was launched. Two papers this year offerexcellent examples of the kind of work undertaken by this group. ​Garvey and Minerconsider the idea of conducting Exploratory Practice with students, analysing its
potential advantages and suggesting ways that it can be implemented in certain
contexts. ​Gill​ looks at the efficacy of ascribing roles to students in order to scaffold
activities where students discuss literature.
Rose-Wainstock​ describes how social annotation can be used to encourage online
interaction with authentic texts in a way that also supports the building of classroom
community. ​Sharma​ presents an integrated approach to promoting critical thinking
skills and cultural awareness regarding Asian countries with which Japan has
international relationships.
We hope these papers serve to motivate those considering future submissions. All
ELI lecturers, including those new to research, are encouraged to publish work whichis related to their classroom practices and/or may be applicable to the KUIS teachingcontext.
As always, we would like to express our gratitude to the ​editing team​ (peer reviewers,copyeditors, tutors, and designers)—those involved in both the special edition andthe regular edition—for their work. The sheer volume of submissions this year, inaddition to the exceptional circumstances we have all found ourselves working
under, have meant a not insignificant amount of work and some very tighttimeframes. The response by all has been, as with so much this year, inspirational.
James Owens
Jennie Roloff Rothman
Editors