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Teaching English as a Second Language Masters Thesis Collection

Theses/dissertations from 2020 2020.

Teaching in hagwons in South Korea: a novice English teacher’s autoethnography , Brittany Courser

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

“Racism doesn’t exist anymore, so why are we talking about this?”: An action research proposal of culturally responsive teaching for critical literacy in democratic education , Natalie Marie Giles

Stylistic imitation as an English-teaching technique : pre-service teachers’ responses to training and practice , Min Yi Liang

Telling stories and contextualizing lived experiences in the Cuban heritage language and culture: an autoethnography about transculturation , Tatiana Senechal

“This is the oppressor’s language, yet I need it to talk to you”: a critical examination of translanguaging in Russian speakers at the university level , Nora Vralsted

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

Multimodal Approaches to Literacy and Teaching English as a Foreign Language at the University Level , Ghader Alahmadi

Educating Saudi Women through Communicative Language Teaching: A Bi-literacy Narrative and An Autoethnography of a Saudi English Teacher , Eiman Alamri

The value of journaling on multimodal materials: a literacy narrative and autoethnography of an experienced Saudi high school English teacher , Ibrahim Alamri

Strategic Contemplation as One Saudi Mother’s Way Of Reflecting on Her Children’s Learning Only English in the United States: An Autoethnography and Multiple Case Study of Multilingual Writers at the College Level , Razan Alansari

“If you wanted me to speak your language then you should have stayed in your country”: a critical ethnography of linguistic identity and resiliency in the life of an Afghan refugee , Logan M. Amstadter

Comparing literate and oral cultures with a view to improving understanding of students from oral traditions: an autoethnographic approach , Carol Lee Anderson

Practical recommendations for composition instructors based on a review of the literature surrounding ESL and identity , Patrick Cornwall

One size does not fit all: exploring online-language-learning challenges and benefits for advanced English Language Learners , Renee Kenney

Understanding the potential effects of trauma on refugees’ language learning processes , Charis E. Ketcham

Let's enjoy teaching life: an autoethnography of a novice ESL teacher's two years of teaching English in a private girls' secondary school in Japan , Danielle Nozaka

Developing an ESP curriculum on tourism and agribusiness for a rural school in Nicaragua: a retrospective diary , Stan Pichinevskiy

A Literacy Narrative of a Female Saudi English Teacher and A Qualitative Case Study: 12 Multilingual Writers Identify Challenges and Benefits of Daily Writing in a College Composition Class , Ghassoon Rezzig

Proposed: Technical Communicators Collaborating with Educators to Develop a Better EFL Curriculum for Ecuadorian Universities , Daniel Jack Williamson

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

BELL HOOKS’ “ENACTMENT OF NON-DOMINATION” IN THE “PRACTICE OF SPEAKING IN A LOVING AND CARING MANNER”: AN AUTOETHNOGRAPHY OF A SAUDI “WIDOW’S SON” , Braik Aldoshan

WHEN SPIRITUALITY AND PEDAGOGY COLLIDE: ACKNOWLEDGING RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AND VALUES IN THE ESL CLASSROOM , Carli T. Cumpston

HERITAGE LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE: A MEXICAN AMERICAN MOTHER’S SUCCESS WITH RAISING BILINGUAL CHILDREN , Maria E. Estrada-Loehne

TEACHING THE BIOGRAPHY OF PEARL S. BUCK: DEVELOPING COLLABORATIVE READING STRATEGIES FOR MULTILINGUAL WRITERS , Nichole S. La Torre

An Autoethnography of a Novice ESL Teacher: Plato’s Cave and English Language Teaching in Japan , Kevin Lemberger

INQUIRY-BASED PHILOSOPHICAL DIALOGUE FOR ESL COLLEGE COMPOSITION AND FOR CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS , Aiko Nagabuchi

A TRIPLE CASE STUDY OF TWO SAUDI AND ONE ITALIAN LANGUAGE LEARNERS' SELF-PERCEPTIONS OF TARGET LANGUAGE (TL) SPEAKING PROFICIENCY , Jena M. Robinson

Theses/Dissertations from 2016 2016

"I am from Epifania and Tomas": an autoethnography and bi-literacy narrative of a Mexican American orchard workers' daughter , Brenda Lorena Aguilar

Technology use in young English language learners: a survey of Saudi parents studying in the United States , Hamza Aljunaidalsayed

Bilingualism of Arab children in the U.S.: a survey of parents and teachers , Omnia Alofii

College-level ELLs in two English composition courses: the transition from ESL to the mainstream , Andrew J. Copley

Increasing multimedia literacy in composition for multilingual writers: a case study of art analysis , Sony Nicole De Paula

Multilingual writers' unintentional plagiarism: action research in college composition , Jacqueline D. Gullon

Games for vocabulary enrichment: teaching multilingual writers at the college level , Jennifer Hawkins

Identifying as author: exploring the pedagogical basis for assisting diverse students to discover their identities through creatively defined literacy narratives , Amber D. Pullen

Saltine box full of dreams: one Mexican immigrant woman's journey to academic success , Adriana C. Sanchez

Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

Teaching the biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder: fostering a media literacy approach for multilingual writers , Kelly G. Hansen

Implementing a modified intercultural competency curriculum in an integrated English 101 classroom , Kathryn C. Hedberg

"Don't wake me, my desk is far too comfortable": an autoethnography of a novice ESL teacher's first year of teaching in Japan , Delaney Holland

ESL ABE, VESL, and bell hooks' Democratic education: a case study of four experienced ESL instructors , Michael E. Johnson

Theses/Dissertations from 2014 2014

Using Media to Teach Grammar in Context and UNESCO Values: A Case Study of Two English Teachers and Students from Saudi Arabia , Sultan Albalawi

A Double Case Study of Latino College Presidents: What Younger Generations Can Learn From Them , Sara Aymerich Leiva

WRITTEN CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK IN THE L2 WRITING CLASSROOM , Daniel Ducken

Academic Reading and Writing at the College Level: Action Research in a Classroom of a homogeneous Group of Male Students from Saudi Arabia , Margaret Mount

Reflections on Teaching and Host Mothering Chinese Secondary Students: A Novice ESL Teacher’s Diary Study and Autoethnography , Diane Thames

Theses/Dissertations from 2013 2013

Peer editing in composition for multilingual writers at the college level , Benjamin J. Bertrand

Educating Ana: a retrospective diary study of pre-literate refugee students , Renee Black

Social pressure to speak English and the effect of English language learning for ESL composition students in higher education , Trevor Duston

Poetry in translation to teach ESL composition at the college level , Peter M. Lacey

Using media to teach a biography of Lincoln and Douglass: a case study of teaching ESL listening & viewing in college composition , Pui Hong Leung

Learning how to learn: teaching preliterate and nonliterate learners of English , Jennifer L. Semb

Non-cognitive factors in second language acquisition and language variety: a single case study of a Saudi male English for academic purposes student in the United States , Nicholas Stephens

Teaching English in the Philippines: a diary study of a novice ESL teacher , Jeffrey Lee Svoboda

ARABIC RHETORIC: MAIN IDEA, DEVELOPMENT, PARALLELISM, AND WORD REPETITION , Melissa Van De Wege

Theses/Dissertations from 2012 2012

Video games and interactive technology in the ESL classroom , Melody Anderson

English as a second language learners and spelling performance in university multilingual writers , Nada Yousef Asiri

The communal diary, "... " (Naljeogi), transformative education, and writing through migrations: a Korean novice ESL teacher's diary and autoethnography , S. (Sangho) Lee

The benefits of intercultural interactions: a position paper on the effects of study abroad and intercultural competence on pre-service and active teachers of ESL , Bergen Lorraine McCurdy

The development and analysis of the Global Citizen Award as a component of Asia University America Program at Eastern Washington University , Matthew Ged Miner

The benefits of art analysis in English 101: multilingual and American writers respond to artwork of their choice , Jennifer M. Ochs

A novice ESL teacher's experience of language learning in France: an autoethnographic study of anomie and the "Vulnerable Self" , Christopher Ryan

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Review article, studies of teaching and learning english-speaking skills: a review and bibliometric analysis.

• School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia

This study conducted a comprehensive historical review and bibliometric analysis of the literature on English-speaking (ES) education and mapped the current state of the field, trends, and emerging topics, as well as identified gaps where further research is needed. We retrieved 361 sample documents on ES teaching and learning in Scopus (2010–2021) under certain conditions and analyzed the extracted data using Excel and VOSviewer 1.6.17 from the perspectives of the number of yearly publications, countries, authors, citation numbers, and keywords. The findings show that the number of publications on ES education increased from 2010 to 2021, but there was a lack of sustained engagement with this topic by researchers. Countries with an ESL or EFL context focused more on the subject of ES, although studies from native ES countries were more influential. The research topics showed a multidimensional trend, covering communicative skills, language knowledge, assessment, teaching or learning methods, ICT-related applications, and cognitive factors, of which ICT-related applications (such as flipped classrooms, blended learning, and e-learning) and cognitive factors (such as motivation, anxiety, and affect) were the areas of focus. Students in higher institutions, rather than children, became the main research subject of ES education over the period studied.

Introduction

A considerable amount of time and money has been invested in English language education (ELE) around the world, especially in countries where English is a Foreign (EFL) or Second Language (ESL). For example, ELE in East Asian countries such as China, South Korea, and Japan has been identified as a necessary skill, which has motivated the development of various approaches and policies ( Song, 2011 ; Hu and McKay, 2012 ). There have been at least three phases of English curriculum reforms by the Malaysian Ministry of Education directed toward improving students’ English proficiency and teachers’ professional development (TPD) ( Rashid et al., 2017 ; Kummin et al., 2020 ).

Despite unremitting efforts in many countries, ELE is still facing the problem of low average English skills. For example, students’ English skills in Turkey are not as good as expected ( Coskun, 2016 ; Özmen et al., 2016 ; Umunĉ and Raw, 2017 ). The survey by Wei and Su (2015) clearly showed that the subjects’ ES proficiency was generally low.

Many terms have been used to refer to the speaking aspects of the English language, e.g., “oral English,” “spoken English,” or “English speaking.” “English speaking” is the term used in this article. Speaking is different from writing, although both are productive skills, in that it is “transient, unplanned, context-dependent, oral/aural, and dynamic” ( Hughes, 2017 ). English-speaking (ES) has been treated as an indivisible language skill for learners in the language education fields of TESOL, EFL, and ESL.

How to improve ES ability, including teaching and learning approaches, influencing factors, and other related issues, have always been a focus of researchers. Thus, in view of the profound changes in society, politics, economics, and technologies, this article aims to give an overview of the current situation and trends regarding ES studies based on Scopus from 2010 to 2021. Moreover, it seeks to provide useful information for further ES teaching and learning research through visualized data analysis using VOSviewer 1.6.17 and Micro Excel.

Thus, the research questions (RQs) of this article are as follows:

RQ1. What is the bibliometric information regarding publications about ES teaching and learning in Scopus (2010–2021), including the number of yearly publications, authors, citations, country contributions, and keywords?

RQ2. What is the status of ES teaching and learning?

RQ3. What are the most influential authors in the field of ES teaching and learning?

RQ4. What are the trends in ES teaching and learning?

RQ5. What are the gaps in ES teaching and learning from the bibliometric information?

Materials and Methods

Bibliometric analysis refers to the cross-science of quantitative analysis of all carriers of knowledge by means of mathematics and statistics ( Broadus, 1987 ). The development of bibliometric software such as VOSviewer, Citespace, and Gephi, and the foundation of the big databases for academic documents such as Scopus, Web of Science, and Taylor and Francis make bibliometric analysis more feasible and practical ( Donthu et al., 2021 ). Meanwhile, according to Rogers et al. (2020) , the recommended minimum sample size for a bibliometric analysis is 200 entries.

Article Selection and Identification

Scopus was chosen as the database for this historical review and bibliometric analysis of ES education. This is because Scopus, as one of the world’s largest databases, covers a wide range of academic journals, conference proceedings, books, and other related publications with relatively high citation indexes and quality, much like the Web of Science ( Pham et al., 2018 ; Baas et al., 2020 ). Scopus is user-friendly in the sense that information can be conveniently retrieved through string retrieval. This study replicated the methodologies used by Lázaro (2022) and Kaya and Erbay (2020) . This article was conducted around RQs after the identification of some keywords as conditions for data mining.

Thus, 23,633 sample documents were first strictly extracted under the condition [TITLE-ABS-KEY (“English speaking” OR “English-speaking” OR “oral English” OR “spoken English”)] AND (“TESOL” OR “EFL” OR “ESL”). Then, the conditions of time span and document type were added for filtering from 2010 to 2021. Then, the articles, conference papers, reviews, book chapters, and books were chosen as the target document types. The detailed conditions can be seen in Table 1 .

Table 1. Retrieval conditions.

Finally, 1,893 documents were obtained. These were exported in the form of an Excel document with citation information, bibliographic information, abstract and keywords, funding details, and other information.

After strict data cleaning through thematic analysis of the abstracts by three researchers for more than three times, 361 sample documents remained, which were classified into four types of documents: journal articles (256; 70.91%), conference papers (79; 21.88%), book chapters (16; 4.43%), and reviews (10; 2.77%), covering more than 10 subject areas, such as social sciences, computer sciences, medicine, engineering, and arts and humanities.

Research Framework and Instruments

In the data selection step, sample documents were screened for information about authors, titles, years, citations, author keywords, index keywords, publishers, document types, countries, and author affiliations from Scopus under strict conditions. The sample documents were then uploaded to Excel and VOSviewer 1.6.17 during the data-processing step. Excel and VOSviewer 1.6.17 were used to perform the visualized bibliometric analysis of the number of publications per year, contributions of authors and countries, and keywords ( Chen, 2016 ; Van Eck and Waltman, 2017 ). Finally, the current situation, developing trends, research gaps, and lessons we can learn about ES teaching were sorted. Thus, the research framework is divided into four main steps, as shown in Figure 1 .

Figure 1. The conceptual framework.

Compared with studies on English writing and reading, studies on ES education are relatively very small in scale. Although only 361 sample documents conforming to the screening conditions were identified, it was still feasible to conduct a bibliometric analysis from the perspectives of the number of yearly publications, countries, authors, citations, and keywords.

Number of Publications by Year

According to the linear trend line in Figure 2 , the overall trend of the ES education literature in Scopus was on the rise from 2010 to 2021. The number of publications in 2021 was six times more than that in 2010, indicating that ES education was gradually beginning to be taken seriously by researchers.

Figure 2. Yearly publications on English-speaking teaching and learning (2010–2021).

However, there were some tortuous changes. In 2010, only 10 studies were identified, but the percentage of the high citation index occupied 50%. From 2011 to 2018, the number of documents published in this area presented an up-and-down curve. The number of publications was slightly lower in 2012 than in 2021. This might be due to the decreased demand for ES education as a result of the economic downturn in many emerging economies such as China, South Korea, and Brazil ( Reid, 2013 ). Yearly publications in this field increased from 2012 to 2013, but decreased again from 2013 to 2015, which was again in line with the global economic situation ( Mau and Ulyukaev, 2015 ). In 2015, the number of publications was more or less the same as in 2010. The reasons for this might be that world trade reduced during the global crisis from 2014 to 2015 ( Baber, 2015 ; Xu and Carey, 2015 ) or that no new research directions were explored during that time. After 2015, there was a continuous increase until 2017. After a subtle decrease in 2018, there was a significant accumulation in the number of publications from 2018 to 2021, showing a new growth trend. Especially in 2020 and 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic brought disaster to the whole world, publications on ES education increased, reflecting the increasing requirement for ES communication during this time of global cooperation ( Sun and Lan, 2021 ). The influence of the date on the extraction of the sample documents was not very great, as it was 12 December 2021.

Contributions and Collaborations by Country/Region

The 361 sample records extracted in Scopus from 2010 to 2021 were associated with around 40 countries, showing the global distribution of interest by country in ES education.

Figure 3 shows the top 20 countries/regions publishing articles in this field, and they were responsible for 344 ES education publications (2010–2021) (accounting for 95.29% of the total). The countries with big and bright circles were the ones with the large number of the publications. Apart from the 75 publications contributed by the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Spain, and New Zealand, the remaining 269 publications were published by 10 Asian countries, accounting for 74.52% of the total sample documents, which implied the huge demand for the improvement of the learners’ ES skills in those countries. Mainland China contributed 128 publications, accounting for 40.44% of the total, followed by the United States, with 38 documents, accounting for 10.53%.

Figure 3. Density map of the top 10 countries.

Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, countries in South-East Asia, occupied the third, fourth, and fifth positions, with 22, 22, and 18 publications, respectively. Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Bangladesh began to participate in country collaborations in recent years, in contrast to countries such as the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Singapore where English is the native language or first language.

The citation network in Figure 4 shows only countries with more than five publications, which reflected the passive collaboration among the countries. As one of the native ES countries, home to many ELE approaches and English assessment tools such as TOFEL, the publications by the United States were cited 518 times (total link strength = 10). Meanwhile, the United Kingdom, home to IELTS, contributed 12 publications, which were cited 72 times (total link strength = 5). Malaysia, where ESL, contributed 22 publications, which were cited 90 times (total link strength = 17). Meanwhile, China, with an EFL context, ranked second with 128 publications, which were cited 395 times, and the total link strength achieved 24.

Figure 4. Country co-authorship in the field of English speaking teaching and learning.

The total citation number of the 361 sample publications was 1,828. Table 2 provides detailed information on the 15 countries that published the most cited articles. The publication and the corresponding citation rate of the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore showed huge contrasts, respectively, 12.92, 19.45, 19.5, and 13.83. The high citation rate may to a certain extent represent a high reference value, although it may also be influenced by some highly cited papers ( Schubert and Braun, 1986 ; Aksnes et al., 2012 ; Brika et al., 2021 ). Thus, it was concluded that the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore, where English was the official language, were the leading countries with high citation rates in the field of ES education studies. Similarly, native ES countries—the United Kingdom and Canada—showed relatively high citation rates of 5.83 and 6.14, respectively. Meanwhile, the citation rates of Asian countries such as China (4.73), Japan (6.35), South Korea (5.08), Vietnam (8.38), and Oman (6.75) indicated the progress and the relatively high reference value of publications on ES education studies in those countries. The non-ES European countries such as Spain received 4.57 in citation rates, which were much lower than those of the native ES countries.

Table 2. Description of the 15 countries that published the most cited articles in the field of English-speaking (ES) education studies in Scopus (2010–2021).

Co-authorship among the countries is shown in Figure 5 , which is a presentation of active collaborations. The co-authorship links among Malaysia, India, China, and the United States were linear. However, the collaboration in the map showed a tendency toward a partial focus. For instance, the United States was the main collaborating country for Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Canada, Australia, and Singapore. While China collaborated mainly with the United Kingdom, the Philippines, Turkey, Vietnam, and New Zealand. Thus, there was a need for an omnidirectional and multi-angle collaboration among the countries for ES teaching and learning research across the world for further studies.

Figure 5. The map of the co-authorship among the countries on English-speaking teaching and learning.

Author Contributions

Table 3 shows general information about the citations for the 361 sample documents in Scopus (2010–2021). As can be seen in Table 4 , the topics of the top 10 most frequently cited articles were concerned with the assessment of ES proficiency and fluency, teachers’ influence, lexical acquisition, and the facilitation of mobile social networks. The total citation number was 1,828. On average, each document was cited 5.06 times. An experimental study by Kang et al. (2010) that proposed suprasegmental measurement for pronunciation assessment from the perspective of accent and equipment use was the most frequently cited article, which was cited 134 times. A qualitative study by Ma (2012) was cited 66 times, ranking second among the top 10 most frequently cited. It focused on ES teaching methods and investigated the advantages and disadvantages of native and non-native ES teachers in practice. The third most frequently cited article, which analyzed the academic lexical demands and academic word list coverage for ES communications by means of corpus, was cited 61 times ( Dang and Webb, 2014 ). Obviously, most of the top 10 most frequently cited articles were published before 2016, except for the experimental studies by Sun and Lan (2021) on the application of e-learning to develop young learners’ ES competence, implying the emergence of new research topics after 2016 in ES teaching and learning studies.

Table 3. General citations of English-speaking (ES) education publications in Scopus (2010–2021).

Table 4. Top 10 frequently cited authors on English-speaking (ES) education in Scopus (2010–2021).

The top 10 authors with more than three articles in order, were Ismail, K. (6), Abdullah, M. Y. (5), Hussin, S. (5), Liu, M. (5), Habil, H. (4), Chen, Z. (3), Hasan, M. K. (3), Hwang, G. J. (3), Rao, Z. (3), and Seraj, P. M. I. (4), and the co-authorship relationships can be seen in Figure 6 . Seraj, P. M. I published four articles (one in 2020 and three in 2021) focusing on the topic of a flipped classroom. The other author with four publications was Liu M., studying the problem of Chinese EFL students’ anxiety, respectively, in 2013, 2018, 2018, and 2021. Rao Z. made three publications on the issues of native and non-native English teachers in China in 2010, 2016, and 2020.

Figure 6. Density map of the key words.

Keyword Analysis

There were 1,049 keywords among the 361 sample documents, and only 49 keywords (2.88%) appeared more than five times after merging synonyms and deleting extraneous words. This indicates that the number of high-frequency keywords was relatively small, which reflects the relatively extensive content of ES research in the field of language education. Table 5 lists the top 10 keywords ordered by the frequency of occurrence apart from the retrieval words, among which the frequency of “ES skill” was the highest, accounting for 3.43%. The remaining keywords with a frequency greater than 10 were “speech recognition” (32), “College English” (26), “e-learning” (22), “computer-aided instruction” (19), “learning system” (14), “native-English speaking teachers” (13), anxiety (13), “oral communication” (12), “virtual reality” (11), and “artificial intelligence” (10). Obviously, the gap in frequency among keywords is not very large.

Table 5. The top 10 most frequently occurring keywords on English-speaking (ES) education in Scopus (2010–2021).

The bibliometric co-occurrence analysis of keywords provided a convenient way to assess the state of the research field and spot hot issues ( Chen, 2016 ; Mutira et al., 2021 ; Sun and Lan, 2021 ). Meanwhile, importantly, keyword co-occurrence analysis can reflect the viewpoints of core academic articles and may be beneficial for researchers trying to keep up with research trends in a certain area ( Li et al., 2016 ; Shoaib et al., 2021 ). Figure 6 shows the density of keywords that appeared more than 10 times; the brightness of the color represents the heat color of the keyword studied. The more studies, the brighter the color ( Van Eck and Waltman, 2020 ). The colors of the keywords “English speaking skill,” “college English,” “computer-aided learning instruction,” and “speech recognition” were brighter than others. The other keywords, such as “speaking anxiety” and “e-learning,” were also brighter. To some extent, these brighter keywords reflected the research hotspots in the field of ES education from 2010 to 2021 in Scopus.

Keyword cluster analysis reflected the topics to some extent ( Yang et al., 2017 ). After combining synonyms (e.g., oral English and spoken English; computer-aided learning and computer-aided instruction; and native and non-native ES teacher) and the deletion of non-sense words (e.g., human, priority journal, and education), the keywords except the retrieval terms “English speaking,” “oral English,” “English-speaking,” “spoken English,” “EFL,” “TESOL,” and “ESL” were categorized into seven clusters with three main topics, as seen in Figure 7 . The keywords with red color dealt with the application of ICT in ES education, including items such as artificial intelligence, automatic speech recognition, computer-aided instruction, correlation methods, deep learning, information science, learning system, machine learning, quality control, correlation methods, corrective feedback, ES learning, oral communication, etc. Cluster 2 dealt with the cognitive factors influencing students’ ES skills or performance, such as attitude, EFL, English speaking performance, ES skill, the flipped classroom, motivation, speaking anxiety, and teaching methods, of which flipped classroom as a teaching method had the highest frequency of occurrence. Clusters 3 and 4 dealt with the application of ICT in college ES education, covering topics such as e-learning, engineering education, English speaking, learning, virtual reality, big data, college English, and educational computing. Cluster 7 dealt with the assessment of pronunciation or others.

Figure 7. The network visualization map of co-occurrence of keywords.

Keyword Changes and the Enlightenment to Research Topics

Figure 8 reveals a change in the time distribution of topics. It was obvious that most of the light-colored nodes were close to the keyword “college English,” while there were only a few around the keywords “child,” “preschool,” and “adolescent” after 2016. This shows that college students had become the main subjects of ES education studies instead of young learners.

Figure 8. The overlay visualization map of keywords according to year.

Meanwhile, studies with keywords related to the application of ICT, such as “big data,” “artificial intelligence,” “flipped classroom,” “speech recognition system,” and “virtual reality” in ES education, were emerging as a focus of research. Academic ES also began to attract researchers’ attention. Some researchers started to consider the development of twenty first-century skills during ES education. In addition, light-colored nodes of the keywords concerning teaching and learning modes (“continuous development,” “teaching method,” “EMI,” “error correction,” etc.), cognitive factors (“students’ interests,” “anxiety,” “motivation,” etc.), language skills (“ES performance,” “communicative skills,” “accuracy,” “fluency,” etc.), and language knowledge (“pronunciation,” “grammar,” etc.) remained the focus of research.

Limitations

The interpretation of the review should be very cautious due to some limitations. First, bibliometric analysis is a literature review method based on big data technology rather than synthesized thematic analysis. The data were collected and analyzed through the software. Thus, the accuracy of this analysis method is highly dependent on that of the software. The second limitation refers to the database. Though Scopus has covered the majority of the publications on ES teaching and learning worldwide, there are still some publications that were not included in the research.

This historical review and bibliometric analysis sought to better understand the current state of the research field, trends, and emerging research topics on ES education from 2010 to 2021. The results show that there was an increasing trend in the number of publications in this area from 2010 to 2021 in Scopus, indicating that ES education studies remained a necessary research topic, although the research population was not large. Countries with an ESL or EFL context, such as China, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia, paid more attention to the development of learners’ ES abilities and contributed more to ES education studies. However, the citation analysis revealed that native ES countries such as the United States, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Canada, were the major authorities or origins of ES education studies, which can also be seen by author contributions. Country collaboration analysis showed that the United States, China, India, and Malaysia acted as hubs of contact, establishing overall relationships within the collaboration network. In addition, the analysis of author distribution and collaboration revealed that there were constantly new researchers entering this field, but the lack of authors focusing on ES education over the long term and sustained research was still a problem. Further exploration of keywords revealed that the hot research issues encompass communicative skills, language knowledge, assessment, teaching or learning methods, ICT-related applications, and cognitive factors. Rather than focusing on ES education for young and adolescent learners, researchers showed a preference for investigating ES education for college students, catering to the increasing requirements of oral international communication. Meanwhile, topics on ICT application, autonomous learning, academic ES ability, and twenty first-century learning skills are gradually becoming hot areas for the improvement of ES teaching and learning worldwide.

JW was the research designer and executor of this study, participated in and completed the data analysis, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. RA and L-ML gave suggestions when necessary. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Acknowledgments

JW would like to express their gratitude to RA and L-ML who participated in this project.

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Keywords : English-speaking skills, bibliometric analysis, research trends, enlightenment, research state

Citation: Wang J, Abdullah R and Leong L-M (2022) Studies of Teaching and Learning English-Speaking Skills: A Review and Bibliometric Analysis. Front. Educ. 7:880990. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2022.880990

Received: 22 February 2022; Accepted: 01 June 2022; Published: 06 July 2022.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2022 Wang, Abdullah and Leong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Rohaya Abdullah, [email protected]

Basic research in English language teaching

Research is an inherently human trait! Human beings are naturally inquisitive.

We are always trying to 1) figure out how something works, 2) why something went wrong, or 3) what might happen if we tried something a certain way. It’s in our DNA, and we can’t help it! In teaching a language, our inquisitive nature manifests everyday when we investigate how the language works, how to use the best teaching techniques, or how to understand why things we’ve done in the classroom may not have gone as planned. This is research in its purest, most basic form and in essence, we are all “researchers”; we all have discovered something important in our language teaching classrooms and we all have had something valuable to share with our colleagues. The problem is sometimes teachers hear “research” and they say, “Oh no, that’s not for me.” “That’s too complicated.” “That’s for university professors.” I’ve heard some of these statements with my very own ears, and they’re simply not true! Research is accessible to everyone. This post will define in broad terms what role research in a language classroom plays, how our research can inform our teaching practice and lastly what different avenues teachers can take to share their work.

What is research and why do it?

To begin I’d like to clarify that there is “Research” (capital “R”), and then there’s “research” (lowercase “r”). “Research” as concerned with scientists and applied linguists involves a very meticulous and rigorous set of procedures aimed at presenting a study’s findings (that are deemed reliable and valid) to an academic audience. This is highly specialized and requires a great degree of training. It tends to be very theoretical but can also have some practical implications/applications in the language classroom. Then there’s “research”, inquiries that originate from a teacher based on his/her observations and that he/she investigates further in order to draw some logical conclusions. These findings may not necessarily be presented to an academic audience (though they very well may; it’s really up to the teacher how far he/she pursues public dissemination of the results), but are rather intended to help the teacher make informed, evidence-based decisions about how to more effectively run his/her class.

We will be more concerned with “research” for this short post and we will regard it broadly as involving: “1) question(s) to be answered, 2) systematic collection of data, 3) analysis of data [and] 4) answer(s) to the question(s)” (Smith & Rebodello, 2018, p.16). One common research method utilized in language teaching that you might have heard of is “action research”, defined as “systematically collecting data on your everyday practice and analyzing it in order to come to some decisions about what your future practice should be” (Wallace, 1998, pg. 4). In essence, both research definitions explain that you as a teacher reflect on and observe what’s happening in your classroom, record information to serve as evidence, analyze it with the goal of answering questions that you have come up with and finally think about how those results might help you modify your current teaching practices. Because we don’t have a lot of space to go into the procedural details of action research, I highly suggest you read 1) “A Handbook for Exploratory Action Research” by Richard Smith and Paula Rebolledo (courtesy of our very own here at Teaching English!), and 2) Action Research for Language Teachers by Michael Wallace. They are really fantastic books which give teachers a strong foundation in basic research and provide practical examples of how teachers go about effectively investigating language matters in their classrooms.

My own practical example

I’ll quickly give you a practical example of how I performed an action research study at a medical university I used to work for in Saudi Arabia. As a supervisor of the writing program, I had quite a lot of complaints from students, parents, and teachers alike that the pace of our curriculum was too demanding: that we were asking students to do too much too soon. After the first semester of academic writing, we were requiring that learners use secondary sources, which many students clearly struggled with. Intuitively, I could sense that we were on the wrong track but didn’t have any measurable data to support or confirm my intuition. I decided to design a questionnaire to be given to first year, second year, and post graduate students studying in our writing program, and the questions sought to ascertain 1) how much English writing practice had they had before joining university and 2) how much writing had they done in their own language (Arabic). The results of the questionnaire were shocking; on average not only had they not done much academic writing in English, but they hadn’t done much in their own native language either!

Upon analyzing the results, I presented them to our writing administrators calling for a major revision in our curriculum. If students aren’t very proficient in writing academic English (let alone writing academically in their own language) before joining us, then it was a bit taxing to ask them to jump too soon into secondary source use, a skill that requires a much higher level of writing proficiency. Based on the results of that study, we made major revisions to our curriculum and solved some critical issues for our students. After presenting the results to the writing administrators, I called for a general assembly for all the teachers to give a presentation on the rationale for the simple study and its findings. The results and the ensuing curricular changes were well received at the meeting, and the writing courses ran quite smoothly after the changes were implemented. Thus, the action research process entailed the surfacing of the problem of students’ writing, designing a questionnaire to obtain data, recording and analyzing data, and making suggestions to help improve the program. From my action research, I was not only able to tweak the curriculum nationwide, but in my classroom, I became much more sensitive to students’ writing needs and created many more opportunities for feedback and practice to help develop their writing skills. That wouldn’t have been possible without a study and conclusive data.

Where do we go from here?

As teachers, you have the same research tools at your disposal. If you notice a particular activity isn’t working, or there’s a common linguistic problem shared by your learners, or you’re interested in the efficacy of a new teaching idea, do some research! Get permission to conduct your research from a senior administrator and he/she will probably be very interested in your teaching/learning inquiry and your willingness to improve your teaching. After all, performing research and sharing it with others is an excellent way to professionally develop. Once you’ve gotten the approval, conduct the project in a systematic way making sure you gather documented evidence. After collecting the data, analyze it and look for answers. When you have completed this stage, it’s important to share your new knowledge, and there are many ways to do so. You can form a WhatsApp research group with your colleagues to discuss the results of projects that you’re all involved in, form a research committee in your department and schedule regular workshops, call a meeting and make a formal presentation to the teaching staff, contribute to a schoolwide newsletter, or submit your work (in a highly formalized fashion expecting painstaking hours of revision and critique!) as a manuscript for publication in an academic journal. Whatever format you choose, dissemination of your work is important because chances are other people might be experiencing the same issues that you are facing in the classroom. Presenting your work in a public space helps promote dialogue and discussion about important classroom matters, matters that probably concern many others in your field. At the end of the day, don’t forget that your teaching experiences in the classroom matter and they need to be heard!

References:

Smith, R., & Rebolledo, P. (2018). A Handbook for Exploratory Action Research. London: British Council. Available at https://goo.gl/iWDR5m.

Wallace, M. J. (1998). Action Research for Language Teachers. Cambridge University Press.

Research and insight

Browse fascinating case studies, research papers, publications and books by researchers and ELT experts from around the world.

See our publications, research and insight

Second Handbook of English Language Teaching pp 991–1005 Cite as

Action Research in English Language Teaching: Contributions and Recent Developments

• Anne Burns 2  
• Reference work entry
• First Online: 10 October 2019

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Part of the book series: Springer International Handbooks of Education ((SIHE))

Action research, as part of a more general movement toward “teacher research,” has become increasingly prevalent in the field of English language teaching (ELT) over the last two decades. It can be considered as a form of professional learning for language teachers which takes a socioconstructivist approach in which teachers are seen as agentive actors within their own social contexts. After providing an account of the conceptual features of action research and a brief overview of its origins, this chapter considers how it relates to other forms of research in ELT. It outlines the development of action research within the field of English language teaching. It then considers what various studies have shown about the impact of conducting action research on teachers. The chapter also considers some of the more recent initiatives that have contributed to the spread of this form of research in the field of English language teaching.

• Action research
• Teacher research
• Language teaching
• Professional development
• Teacher education

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Winter R, Munn-Giddings C (2001) A handbook for action research in health and social care. Routledge, Abingdon

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Xuesong Gao

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Burns, A. (2019). Action Research in English Language Teaching: Contributions and Recent Developments. In: Gao, X. (eds) Second Handbook of English Language Teaching. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02899-2_52

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Qualitative Research Topics in Language Teacher Education

May 2020 – volume 24, number 1.

In Qualitative Research Topics in Language Teacher Education, Gary Barkhuizen assembles a host of researchers in the field of language teacher education (LTE), aiming not only to highlight current topics in second, foreign, and multilingual LTE but also to provide practical advice from seasoned educators and researchers on developing a research topic in LTE. The book includes guidance in pairing qualitative research methods with suggested research topics for readers who are already teaching, who are training to become language teachers, or who are interested in or already pursuing graduate studies.

The book covers a breadth of research areas relevant to language teachers and LTE researchers. After the introduction (Chapter 1), each chapter focuses on a particular theme or area of research in LTE. Chapter 2 addresses topics related to working with LTE doctoral dissertation writers. Chapter 3 is based on the theme of “going beyond familiarity” in LTE research, suggesting that researchers draw on other disciplines or explore commonly studied topics in less traditional settings. Contributors also focus on areas of research in LTE that include learning to teach languages (Chapter 4) and language ideologies (Chapter 5). Other research areas, such as language teacher learning and professional development (Chapters 6 and 7), language teacher psychology (Chapter 8), emotions in language teaching (Chapters 9, 10, and 11), and language teacher identities (Chapters 12 and 13) are addressed. Some authors offer topics from a sociocultural perspective (Chapters 14 and 15), as well as topics for second language academic writing (Chapters 16, 17, and 18), English for academic purposes (Chapter 19), and race and gender in LTE (Chapters 20 and 21, respectively). In addition, English as an international language (Chapter 22), multilingualism (Chapters 23, 24, and 25), and teacher study abroad (Chapters 26 and 27) are presented as LTE research areas. Action research in LTE is highlighted (Chapters 28, 29, and 30), along with topics related to issues in language and content instruction (Chapter 31), LTE in primary and secondary education (Chapter 32), task-based teaching and assessment (Chapter 33), approaches in language teaching (Chapter 34), and strategy instruction (Chapter 35). Although some chapters address similar research areas, each chapter provides a unique perspective to the research topics. In the few cases of redundant topics, each chapter serves to reinforce the need for said research.

Each of the 34 chapters following the introduction is formatted to include the same five sub-sections. The first sub-section is a biographical statement introducing the author(s). Nearly all of the biographical statements include reference to the author’s experience as both an educator and LTE researcher. For instance, Maria Ruohotie-Lyhty (Chapter 13) shares how her career of 15 years as a language teacher has contributed to her research about language teacher identity in her present role as a language teacher researcher and teacher educator.

The second sub-section of each chapter is devoted to strategies for choosing a research topic. Each author’s presentation of suggestions varies, ranging from numbered lists to narratives about the author’s experiences. A majority of the authors emphasize advice applicable to any researcher. For example, multiple authors advise choosing a topic that the researcher cares about. Several authors suggest reading existing literature deeply to identify research gaps. Some chapter authors provide suggestions particular to their research area. For instance, Chapter 7 (written by Simon Borg) provides research selection considerations related to professional development initiatives, the overarching theme of the chapter. Similarly, in Chapter 12 (written by Bonny Norton and Peter de Costa), the authors center their strategies specifically on steps for arriving at a research topic in the area of language teacher identity in teacher education.

The third sub-section of each chapter is a description of five proposed research topics from a particular focus in LTE research. For instance, Chapter 28 (written by Anne Burns) offers topics related to action research, which include research into educators’ identified classroom issues (e.g., materials or approaches to teaching), the process of teachers becoming researchers, the impact of action research on teacher identity, the support needs of teacher researchers, and the sustainment of action research among teachers. Chapter 3 (written by Tan Bee Tin) presents five suggested research topics on the theme of “going beyond familiarity in LTE research,” with topics including creativity in the use, learning, and teaching of language; the role of interest in teaching and learning environments; the learning and teaching of language in diverse settings; teacher talk; and the language learning experiences of students in varied settings. For each potential research topic, a one- to two-paragraph description is included with a rationale explaining the research need.

The fourth sub-section of each chapter is a list of ten specific research questions that frame the identified gaps from the research topic descriptions. For example, Jim McKinley (Chapter 17), based on the suggested topic of English L2 writing standards and norms in international higher education, offers such questions as “How open are learners and teachers to non-standard uses of English in L2 writing?” and “How do attitudes to non-standard Englishes vary across types of writing?” About two-thirds of the chapter authors provide an additional rationale, ideas for different directions, or potential methodologies for each research question. The remaining chapters present only a list of research questions. Brief explanations and suggestions for next steps and/or potential methodologies in every chapter would improve the usefulness of this sub-section for readers who are familiarizing themselves with choosing topics and constructing research questions. The final sub-section of each chapter is a brief list of key references (maximum of 10) for further reading, making continued exploration of the research area accessible to readers.

Despite representing a fair range of countries and languages, the majority of chapter authors represent English-dominant countries, with many world regions underrepresented in authorship, including most of Africa, Central and South America, the Middle East, and Asia. This reflects many of the chapter authors’ calls for research in LTE across diverse global settings. Notably, the book chapters are grounded in the personal experience of their authors, adding credibility to their suggestions. The inclusion of the trajectories the authors followed from their early careers as educators to their current research interests makes this book suitable for those highly invested in LTE—teachers themselves. The strategies and advice provided by the chapter authors, as well as the research topic descriptions, could introduce and encourage discussion about global topics in LTE in a research course for students training to become language teachers. Most especially, the chapters on teacher action research can inspire action research projects for those just beginning or a few years into their teaching careers, expanding on the collective understanding of LTE.

The short chapters, the simplicity of the design, and the consistent sub-section organization in each chapter allow the reader to easily locate or revisit points of interest in Qualitative Research Topics in Language Teacher Education . While some terminology used throughout the book may be new for readers inexperienced with academic literature, the concepts important to the suggested research topics are briefly defined. Overall, fitting with the editor’s outlined purpose, this book serves as a starting point for additional reading on LTE topics that inspire interest in more detail and depth.

190 Best English Research Topics and Ideas

Table of Contents

What are the best English Research Topics? Do you want to write an impressive research paper on a unique English research topic? In general, when it comes to writing a research paper on English, there are numerous topics you can research about. However, out of them all, choosing an interesting topic that will help you grab the attention of the readers is challenging.

If you are confused about how to choose a good English research topic and write a brilliant English research paper, then continue reading this blog and learn how to get started. Also, explore the suggested list of the top English research paper topics and ideas for writing an A+ English assignment.

English Research Paper Topic Selection

Every student needs to know how to select a good topic for writing an academic essay or research paper. No matter whether it is an English research paper or the research papers of any other subject, whenever you are assigned a task to write a research paper by selecting a topic on your own, this is what you should do.

• First, identify the topic of your interest.
• Conduct background research and brainstorm different ideas related to your area of interest.
• Note down various keywords that will help you narrow down the essay topic.
• Finally, analyze and get different perspectives on the topic by raising questions such as what, why, who, and when.
• Based on your answers to the variety of questions, prepare an outline of how your content would look like.
• Before finalizing your research topic, keep in mind the length, and due date, and also check whether or not your topic meets all the assignment requirements shared by your instructor.

For choosing the best English research topic, you don’t need to be so focused on a specific topic. Instead, you can modify your topic and generate new interesting research ideas to deal with by analyzing the different perspectives of the topic.

Remember, the research topic you choose is said to be good only if it is interesting and exciting to you and your readers. Also, it is advisable to go with a topic you are familiar with and have a wide research scope and different reference sources. So, when generating research paper topic ideas, keep these aspects in mind and make sure to pick a unique topic that will help you earn an A+ grade.

Read More – Learn and Understand the Common English Techniques

List of English Research Topics and Ideas

As said earlier, English is a broad subject with a variety of research topics. If you are asked to write an English research paper, you can choose any topic from categories that are related to English literature, technology, drugs and alcohol, politics, culture, religion, gender discrimination, and activism.

Usually, searching and finding a good research topic consumes a lot of time and effort. Hence, to make your search process easier and to help you save time, here we have recommended a list of the top English Research Topics and Ideas.

Go through the entire list of ideas and pick a research topic that is comfortable for you to perform research and write a top-quality English research paper.

Outstanding English Research Topics

• Examine American Literature
• How have women contributed to literature?
• Advantages of studying internationally versus locally
• What is the prevalence of discrimination at work today?
• How do alcohol and drug addiction lead to suicide?
• Ways of improving race relations
• How have novels impacted political issues?
• Should corporal punishment be allowed?
• Analyze terrorism and its impact on business
• Should drug testing be mandatory for student-athletes?
• How effective is the No Child Left Behind Act?
• The effect of cell phones and texting
• The impact of tenure on teaching quality
• The impact of tariffs on domestic jobs
• The issue of accessibility of contraceptives for high school students

Amazing English Research Paper Topics

• Should people sell their organs to get money?
• Ways of reducing human trafficking in America
• The role of technology in economics
• Psychological factors that influence consumer choice
• Biblical allegories in modern literature
• The democratic political system along with its benefits and limitations
• Difference between authoritarianism, democracy, and monarchy
• Biblical hermeneutics
• Manuscripts of the New Testament
• Textual Criticism of the New Testament
• Controversies related to Euthanasia
• Describe the contributions of Indian writers to English literature.
• Explain the theme of racism in Heart of Darkness by Josef Conrad.
• The manifestation of non-standard usage of English among University Students.
• Describe the personal happiness versus societal norms in Victorian literature.

Also read: Top 12 Longest Words in the English Language

Intriguing English Research Paper Topics

• Find and compare the same characters in Japanese Myths and anime series
• How has Miguel de Cervantes ridiculed chivalrous ideals, and why is it now essential for society?
• The consequences of negativity in modern literature.
• How can hunting become a necessary means in some cases?
• Provide a detailed history of the Hundred Years’ War and its results.
• Holy Roman Empire: from successor to the Romans to a Nazi symbol.
• Liberalism in national politics: emergence and evolution.
• The history of the world is a series of conquests.
• Impact of counseling and guidance on scholars’ academic performance.
• Sexism in the media industry
• Drawbacks of a democratic political system
• The issue of feminist women being too harsh on other women who don’t support the movement
• Whether or not convicted criminals should be eligible for social welfare.
• The effects of gangs in poor urban centers
• How can the pleasure of literature lead to a dark side?

Best English Research Ideas

• The perception of how women love in the legend of La Llorona
• The importance of the digitization of medical records
• Life in London in the 18th century
• Literary Criticism of The Monk by Mathew Lewis
• Compare and contrast Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S Eliot.
• Discuss the theme of industrialization, corruption, and capitalism using Williams Blake’s London.
• The expectation of women in Marge Piercy’s Barbie Doll
• Criticism of gender roles in The Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
• The theme of racism in Heart of Darkness by Josef Conrad
• How modern-day heroes shape young people
• The link between illegal immigration and terrorism
• Does modern technology for teaching affect the quality of education?
• How marriage has changed in modern society
• Celebration of Pride Month in the United Kingdom
• Cases of Mercy Killing in the United States

Informative Topics for English Research Paper

• Euthanasia – Right to Die versus Right to Life
• Use of automation in the Healthcare system
• What is the neoclassical period in English Literature?
• What is Medieval English Literature as well as the idea of the anthology?
• Explain the variations across the different dialects and speakers of English
• What is the impact of diversity on a society’s development and progress?
• Should the government control what is served in school cafeterias?
• The high school curriculum should include subjects related to real life. Discuss.
• What are the psychological effects of the Holocaust on the survivors?
• Effectiveness of the federal education system as compared to other countries’ education systems.
• Discuss the role of postsecondary educational institutions in American literacy.
• Legal consequences of plagiarism in academic writing.
• How to boost English communication skills for international students?
• Technical barriers in oral and written communication in the English language.

Interesting English Research Topics

• Pros and Cons of e-learning
• The American Dream for immigrants and marginalized group
• Are UFOS a reality or fiction?
• Write about the life of tribals.
• How has the role of women in the military and battlefield changed?
• How technology is revolutionizing terrorism
• The drawbacks of online dating apps
• How depression affects human behavior
• Violent discipline by caregivers affects a child’s mental growth
• How alternative medicine for cancer is unsafe
• Negative effects of doing the wrong exercises
• Cybercrime is the new terrorism
• European influence on fashion in the world
• The genetic link to optimism can shape attitudes. Explain
• The Impact of Bioterrorism

Captivating English Research Paper Ideas

• Effects of commercialization of sports
• Dangers of consuming organic foods
• The refugee crisis is increasing terrorism
• Analysis of the Crisis between Ukraine and Russia
• Impact of the Controversial Cartoon of Prophet Muhammad
• The recent issue on Prophet Muhammad
• The threat of Third World War
• How the English Language Has Evolved Over the Last 20 Years Due to Improvements in Technology.
• What is the difference between communicative English as well as Written English?
• Discuss the role of America in the aerospace field.
• What is psychology and Literature?
• Does beauty, in general, determine how much a person will be successful in life?
• What are some pros and cons related to plastic surgery?
• Cross-cultural influences of the English language.
• Should sports betting be regulated?
• Critical analysis of the role of the National Organization for Women (NOW)
• What other common sayings such as “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” exist in your language?
• Discuss the Importance of Grammar in English language to increase employability in developed nations
• Communism as an ideology and communism in the USSR are many different things: Explain
• Theatre artists often risk their mental health while playing the roles of killers: Explain with justification

Excellent English Research Paper Topics

• Tobacco advertising and its effects
• Dangers of weight lifting on women
• The definition of feminism has changed since the 18th century
• Should it be mandatory for parents to control their kid’s social media accounts?
• Globalization and How It Affects the Economy
• Contributions by Indian writers to English literature.
• The civil rights movement and its effects
• Shakespeare’s contribution to English literature.
• Industrialization and agricultural activities are the greatest contributors to climate change
• Is social media making it easy for models to become rich?
• The reasons for fictional languages in literature
• Female writers in English literature.
• Gender controversy in modern English.
• Challenges of learning English as a second language
• The role of women in the military.

Popular English Research Topics

• The impact of child labor on society.
• The decline or increase of divorce over the decades
• The role of affirmative action in education or work
• The COVID-19 – An Unrestricted Bio-weapon
• The Outbreak of Monkeypox
• Contribution of the World Poet Rabindranath Tagore in the field of global Literature
• Contribution of William Gaddis in the field of US literature
• Can fan fiction be considered in terms of independent literature?
• What do you mean by comedy literature?
• What is the influence of modern technology on the quality of education?
• How does depression affect human behavior?
• The effective ways to reduce bullying in learning institutions
• What has led to the reduction of unemployment today?
• Analyze crimes orchestrated by white collars and the punishments
• How prevalent are wrongful convictions?

Impressive English Research Paper Topics

• Should we legalize all immigrants without papers?
• How efficient are police borders?
• How are activism and protests criminalized?
• The modern pop musician has more influence than musicians of the 80s
• Children should be taught at school about various types of sexual orientation
• Therapy and how it can be an effective rehabilitation method for hard-core prisoners
• Is bodybuilding only for boosting ego or for health reasons?
• Dehumanization effects of colonialism in Heart of Darkness by Josef Conrad
• Sea symbolism in Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold
• Use The Monk by Matthew Lewis as a response to formal realism.
• Strange medieval family laws and their influence on society
• Golan Heights and its importance to the Israelites
• The pros and cons of legalizing prostitution
• Second-hand smoke is the major cause of lung cancer deaths
• Athletes are excelling because of their professional trainers.
• Critical analysis of the impact of religious believers and stereotypes of society
• Discuss the similarities and differences between classical music and modern music
• Analyze the relationship between social status and political power depicted in William Shakespeare’s play
• What should be actions every government needs to undertake to provide equal rights and opportunities to the people belonging to the LGBTQ+ community?
• Discuss how Europeans perceive Indians and Middle-East countries’ people

Awesome English Research Questions

• Discuss the impact of grammatical mistakes on English writing skills.
• Explain the role of poetry in learning English literature.
• Write about Modern American English Literature.
• Examine the obstacles in modern English Literature.
• Suggest digital tools to advance English fluency.
• How to search for credible resources for writing English papers?
• Discuss the role of mobile applications in advancing English verbal communication.
• Explain the impact of reading in English communication.
• Explain how to boost English communication skills for international students.
• Examine Intensive English Programs (IEPs) in the US.

Also read: Learn About Different Language Features in English

Trending English Research Paper Topics

• How obsession with healthy eating can drive more people into anorexia
• Ethical Use of Stem Cells
• What are the reasons for the fictional languages in the literature?
• Is it ethical to wear fur coats?
• Are standardized tests a good way to evaluate a student’s knowledge?
• Is random drug testing in the workplace ethical and necessary?
• Is technology affecting health management?
• If college education is made free, will it be more or less qualitative?
• Does motivation play a role in human development?
• Do pharmaceutical companies view the Ebola vaccine as unprofitable?
• Should the use of marijuana be regulated?
• Have the effects of religious cults changed today as compared to those in ancient society?
• Caricature and Nigger – An Anti-Black Imagery
• Effect of systemic diseases on olfactory functioning among coronavirus infected patients
• Which practices of the Native Americans helped them to protect nature?
• Discuss the way music listening practices changed during the last three decades
• Analyze the negative impacts of social media networking sites on face-to-face or physical communications
• What should be strategies every government needs to undertake to ensure equal access to technology, health, and education?
• Compare and contrast the philosophy of African culture and European culture

Final Words

From the list of English research topics and ideas suggested in this blog post, you can use any topic of your choice and come up with an excellent, top-scoring English research paper. If you still find it difficult to choose an impressive English research paper topic, then you can use our English Assignment Help service without hesitation.

We are well-known for offering reliable essay writing and research paper writing services to our customers by connecting them with well-experienced academic writers in various fields of study. So, without any second thought, just avail of our USA assignment help & writing service to enjoy the necessary academic benefits at a reasonable rate.

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