TESOL in the New Era: Introduction to the Special Column for the 2022 Global English Education China Assembly

Abstract

Welcome to the International Journal of TESOL Studies (IJTS) special column for the 2022 Global English Education China Assembly (henceforth "the Assembly"). This is the first of the three special columns of the 2022 Assembly (see also the Call for Papers at the end of this volume). Organized by China Daily in partnership with Shanghai International Studies University, the Assembly is a high-level international English Language Teaching (ELT) event that is held annually in China. The 2022 Assembly held in July in Hangzhou (Zhejiang Province, China) brought together over 2,600 attendees, both on site and online. They were ELT practitioners, scholars and researchers in China and from abroad. On the platform offered by the Assembly, they exchanged experiences and opinions and shared research.When the call for full paper submission ended, we had been working in a challenging period of time where one of the world's largest disruptions to daily life was affecting every sphere of our life. Notwithstanding the stress everyone was facing during the Covid-19 pandemic, contributors to this special column still managed to be very productive. The column features three papers from TESOL experts and researchers from China and beyond. These empirical studies are followed by one interview with one internationally renowned scholar Professor Chuang Wang conducted by Ms. Peng Lun, Secretary-General of the Assembly and Editor-in-Chief of the Assembly Special Columns. As Guest Editors, we feel honoured and pleased to introduce the works of these six researchers (including the prestigious interviewee) that are showcased in this special column. Prior to our introduction, we would like to warmly congratulate these experts for their research completed successfully during the challenging Covid-19 period.The first article, "Foreign Language Anxiety, Motivation and Intercultural Communication Competence of Chinese Top University Students" by Huameng Yang and Xia Wu, utilised a mixedmethods research design. Based on a sample of 223 undergraduates from one leading university in China, these authors collected quantitative data with a battery of questionnaires on their focal variables (e.g. anxiety and motivation) and qualitative information about the students' opinions and experiences via semi-structured interviews. Major findings included (1) these students experienced a low-to-medium level of anxiety and a medium-to-high level of motivation; and (2) their English use anxiety negatively correlated with English learning motivation at a statistically significant level. Two dimensions of the students' intercultural communication competence (viz. intercultural effectiveness and intercultural sensitivity) were also examined and discussed vis-à-vis their anxiety and motivation. In connection with data analysis, it is commendable that this first article reports measures (e.g. r) of effect size, which is