Under the developing trend of artificial intelligence (AI) technology gradually penetrating all aspects of society, the traditional language education industry is also greatly affected ^[1]. AI technology has had a positive impact on college English teaching, but it also presents challenges and negative impacts. On the positive side, AI technology can provide personalized learning experiences, real-time feedback, and autonomous learning opportunities, and so on. However, it may also lead to a lack of communication between students and humans, resulting in a decline in students’ interpersonal skills, and cause students’ dependence on online learning resources as well as possible risks to student data privacy and security, and other negative impacts. To address these challenges, teachers can adopt the following countermeasures: improving teachers’ skills in the use of AI technology incorporated in the classroom, offering personalized instruction to reduce students’ dependence on AI technologies, emphasizing the cultivation of students’ humanistic literacy and interpersonal communication ability. Additionally, colleges and technology providers should strengthen data security and privacy protection to ensure the safety and confidentiality of student data. By implementing comprehensive measures, we can maximize the advantages of AI technology in college English teaching while overcoming potential issues and challenges.

On the basis of the framework of Perceptual Assimilation Model connected to speech perception, this paper reports on a study of the relationship between the experience of L1 (Chinese) and L2 (English) production from the point of lexical stress level. Chinese EFL speakers were recruited for this study. All the participants were required to read 20 words in the form of English, of which the lexical stress was recorded so as to make further analysis and comparison. The study indicates that the biggest challenge for Chinese EFL learners is the misplacement of word stress. It often occurs in polysyllabic words, and there is a strong tendency of stress shift on the second syllable. The dominant reason for the misplacement is that the second or the latter syllable is frequently stressed in mandarin dissyllables. This implies that Chinese EFL learners should lay more emphasis on phonological awareness of L2 and sufficient supply of L2 auditory input should also be assured in order to maintain the quality of perception and production in stress acquisition.

With the requirements of New English Curriculum Standards, English teaching has shifted towards organising content thematically, focusing not only on the transmission of linguistic knowledge but also on the improvement of students’ comprehensive quality during language learning. This evolution undoubtedly raises higher demands on English instruction. Unit-based integrated teaching, as an innovative pedagogical model, is characterised by its holistic, interconnected, progressive, and comprehensive features. It can help students to build a correlated knowledge network facilitates the establishment of connections between disparate pieces of knowledge, deepens students’ understanding and enhances their retention, improves their overall linguistic competence and learning ability, so as to foster the comprehensive development of core literacy. Therefore, this article takes the teaching of English in compulsory education as an example, and explores and elaborates on the design and implementation path of integrated teaching of English units under the new curriculum standards from four aspects: teaching objectives, teaching content, teaching process, and teaching evaluation, in order to provide reference for promoting integrated teaching of English units in compulsory education.

Use of technologies and online presence is now almost inevitable in language learning. The practice of virtual exchanges (VEs) has been receiving a lot of attention among educators at all levels over the past years. This research paper sheds light on 13 VEs carried out in pre-service teacher education in the last six years and proposes its own VE design based on recommendations from the literature with the future perspective of designing a specific VE for the research. The aim of the systematic review was at first to determine the exchange and interaction set-ups and the potential gains in the terms of pre-service teachers’ skills development. Afterwards, we identified areas for improvement and proposed our design of a VE between pre-service teachers of English in Slovakia and Turkey. Some of the expected contributions of the proposed VE design are development of a linguistic and intercultural communicative competence, digital literacy, and other competences relevant for development of VEs.

This study investigates the impact of the metaverse on English language teaching, focusing on the perspectives of students from the University of Boyacá. The use of the metaverse was compared with the Moodle platform in a virtual educational environment. A mixed-method approach combining quantitative and qualitative methods was employed. The sample consisted of 30 university students enrolled in English courses, randomly assigned to two groups: one using the metaverse and the other using Moodle. Students’ grades on different activities and assessments throughout the course were collected, and semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore students’ perceptions of the educational platforms. Results revealed that while students recognize the potential of the metaverse to enhance interactivity and learning experience, they also identified technical and accessibility challenges. Although no significant differences in grades were found between the groups, less variability in grades was observed in the metaverse group. The mixed design allowed for a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of the metaverse on English language teaching, while providing a variety of student perspectives on their experience with educational technology. This research contributes to understanding the role of the metaverse in English language teaching and highlights key areas for future research and developments in the field of virtual education.