The CATESOL Journal

Regular Articles

• Reducing Language Anxiety Through the LARC Framework

  • Crespo, Ivan

  Language anxiety makes it difficult for many English learners to speak, even when they know what they want to say. This emotional barrier can block communication, limit classroom participation, and slow progress. While research has explored how anxiety affects second language learning, many teachers still lack simple, practical tools to help students build confidence. This article introduces the Language Anxiety Reduction Cycle (LARC), a four-step framework that guides learners from initial exposure to authentic English through structured practice, supported real-world interaction, and independent use. Each stage is designed to reduce fear and promote meaningful communication. Grounded in classroom experience and informed by second language acquisition theories, the model offers flexible, actionable strategies. Rather than aiming to eliminate anxiety altogether, the LARC helps students manage it and grow. This practical article is intended for teachers, program designers, and others interested in supporting English learners in developing the confidence to speak clearly.

• Understanding and responding to Afghan female refugee educational needs as they pursue higher education at a California community college.

  • Hey, Katarzyna

  The purpose of this study was to understand the educational needs of Afghan women refugees attending community college. Knowing this student population’s needs could allow educators and educational leaders to create more equity-minded support. A qualitative study with a narrative approach was conducted with four Afghan female participants who identified themselves as refugees. Yosso’s (2005) community cultural wealth theory was used as the theoretical framework to guide this study. Data analysis of the women’s narratives revealed the significance of their families’ and the Afghan community’s support when pursuing higher education. The women’s personal strengths: positive, motivated, persistent, intelligent, and giving surfaced during the research. The study also revealed the college resources that help refugee women persist in college.

• Situated, Relational, and Critical: A Participatory Action Research Study of English Language Educators’ Homegrown Professional Learning in Oaxaca, Mexico

  • Cortesio, Anna;
  • Morales Santiago, Angelica;
  • Rafael Rafael, Claudia;
  • Zárate Zárate, Nora

  Professional learning can promote equity in English language teaching, yet conventional approaches to professional development are technical, acontextual, and position educators as passive recipients of knowledge. This participatory action research study advances a situated, relational, and critical approach to professional learning and documents a collective of language educators in Oaxaca, Mexico that engaged in ongoing professional learning rooted in critical reflections on situated practice. Data were collected from transcripts of group discussions and teachers’ individual written reflections, and participants engaged in a process of collective data analysis. Findings suggest educators experienced increased confidence in their professional identities and their ability to develop culturally relevant curricula. Moreover, all participants reported an increased commitment to advocate for more equitable policies in the field. Finally, this paper offers guiding questions for educators in different contexts to consider when designing their own situated, relational, and critical professional learning experiences.

• Process over product with labor-based grading

  • Macklin, Ti;
  • Brun-Mercer, Nicole

  Many instructors adopt a process approach to writing, assigning multiple drafts and offering feedback for revision; they nonetheless maintain that ultimately a student must receive a grade based on the instructor-determined caliber of the final product in order to maintain high academic standards. This traditional grading system can be demotivating, increase anxiety, discourage creativity and risk-taking, and unleash linguistic bias. In contrast, labor-based grading focuses on effort and improvement and can result in greater student engagement, innovation, and growth. This article explains labor-based grading, illustrates its use in an L2 first-year writing class, and suggests ways to adopt it in other L2 teaching contexts. With testimonials from students, the authors show how labor-based grading, when used in conjunction with revision and a process approach to writing, can foster learning from error and a greater enjoyment of writing as an act of creation.

   

• The Role of Cognitive, Affective, and Experiential Individual Differences on L2 Pronunciation Production: Implications for the ESL Classroom

  • Kermad, Alyssa;
  • Dronjic, Vedran;
  • Kang, Okim;
  • Taguchi, Naoko

  Individual differences (IDs) refer to the cognitive, affective, and experiential factors which determine variability in language learning.  While ID research has had a strong appearance in second language acquisition, its presence in L2 pronunciation research has been sporadic.  This study investigated a range of IDs, including cognitive (phonological short-term memory), affective (motivation and anxiety) and experiential (age, length of residence and English use) on pronunciation production.  Speech data were collected from twenty ESL learners, and their patterns of segmental and suprasegmental performance were measured.  Results of linear mixed effect modeling demonstrated an overall negative effect of age, an overall positive effect of motivation and L2 English use, and a dynamic and complex effect of phonological short-term memory, anxiety, and length of residence.  Implications are discussed with respect to how IDs can be considered in pronunciation teaching and learning.