The present issue consists of texts which do not share any clear-cut common denominator – they represent various themes and different points on the scale between the theoretical and the applied, although the first two are much broader in the scope of systemic solutions which they propose than the remaining four. The first paper, by Maria Villalobos-Buehner, titled “A Habermasian Approach to the Examination of Language Teachers’ Cognitive Interests,” reports on a very interesting qualitative study of nine pre-service teachers of ESL, focusing on their beliefs and interests related to language teaching and learning. The following paper, contributed by Hanna Komorowska, takes a much broader and systemic perspective, as suggested by its title “The Role of Attention in Teacher Education: A Factor in the Quality of European Schooling.” The author reflects upon plausible reasons for the observable lack of correspondence between the level of effort invested by leading international institutions in the improvement of educational systems and the results visible in their reports. The paper by Çağrı Tuğrul Mart entitled “Integrating Form and Content within Classroom Discussion of Literature” narrows down the focus to the long-standing dispute between the supporters of form-focused instruction and the devotees of content-based teaching, while Meihua Liu looks at the advantages and disadvantages of the two options mentioned in the title “Foci and Effects of Peer and Machine Feedback on Chinese University EFL Learners’ Revisions of English Argumentative Essays.”
Electronic media of communication are the focal point of the next paper, submitted by Daria Pańka, Polish-English Code-Switching in the Language of Polish Facebook Users, and the final research paper in the present issue, Jordanian University Students’ Awareness of the Different Phonetic Alternates of the English Plural Morpheme, authored by Hana Asaad Daana and Qadri Farid Tayeh, demonstrates the positive impact of exposure to English for the students’ L2 competence and performance, during their study period at the Princess Alia University College at Al-Balqa Applied University in Amman.
The present issue continues the tradition of presenting two reviews of very recent book publications in SLA. The first one, Teacher Wellbeing (2020), authored by two very well-known experts on applications of positive psychology in language teaching and learning, Sarah Mercer and Tammy Gregersen, is reviewed by Danuta Gabryś-Barker. The second volume, reviewed by Anna Mystkowska-Wiertelak, takes the reader on a reflexive trip through the territory of motivation in language learning. The publication in question is Contemporary Language Motivation Theory. 60 Years since Gardner and Lambert (1959), an anthology edited by Ali H. Al-Hoorie and Peter MacIntyre (2020).
