Constant Leung
Biographic Data
| ID | 4012871 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Constant Leung |
| GIVEN NAMES | Constant |
| FAMILY NAME | Leung |
| SIGNATURE | LEUNG C |
| AFFILIATIONS | King's College London |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8533-2837 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 37 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 154 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 34 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 3 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1989 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Continua of Multilingualism and Multiliteracy Across English Language Teaching Settings
It has been some 35 years since the publication of the article “Continua of Biliteracy” by Hornberger (1989). In this time much has changed in language education in terms of concepts, theories and practices, partly due to the different educational needs in different parts of the world, and partly due to the influence of ideas that have emerged from research in relevant areas of language studies related to ethnolinguistic diversity. The fundamenta…
Localising linguistic citizenship in England
What's the relevance of ‘Linguistic Citizenship' (LC), a concept developed in southern Africa, to language education in England? LC is committed to democratic participation and voice, to linguistic diversity and the value of sociolinguistic understanding (Stroud 2001), and it provides a framework for contesting linguistic conditions in England, where vernacular multilingualism faces monolingual language education policies and an officially ‘hosti…
Open science
Open science (OS; also known as “open research” and “open scholarship”) refers to various practices to make scientific knowledge openly available, accessible, and reusable. The core purpose of such practices is to open the process of scientific knowledge creation, evaluation, and communication to societal actors within and beyond the traditional scientific community (UNESCO, 2021). Looking across the different areas within TESOL and applied lingu…
English language proficiencies – recasting disciplinary and pedagogic sensibilities
The notion of language proficiency in English Language Teaching (ELT), as an internationalized educational enterprise, has tended to be operationalized in terms of stable lexicogrammar and enduring normative patterns of social use. It will be argued that this ‘established’ stability has been challenged by the scholarship in several fields of applied language studies that has demonstrated the ‘leaky’ and mutable language boundaries and emergent co…
Language proficiency
Language proficiency, when expressed as a grade or a mark, is often associated with the notions of measurement accuracy, reliability and trustworthiness. In this article my focus is on English as an additional/second language proficiency in the past fifty years or so. I will suggest that the notion of proficiency is an artefact influenced by the ebbs and flows of intellectual movements and conceptual recontextualizations. The onset of the concept…
English as an additional language
English as an Additional Language (EAL) as a professional discipline is a significant component of public education, and a main educational response to the growing ethno-linguistic diversities in many English-speaking countries. In this article I will focus on the ways in which professional language teacher knowledge has changed over time, paying particular attention to the disciplinary content bases, and the likely influences of current research…
Conceptualising assessment literacy of teachers in Content and Language Integrated Learning programmes
In Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programmes, non-linguistic content is taught and assessed in an additional language. Hence, CLIL teachers, most of whom are content subject specialists, may encounter difficulties in evaluating students’ content knowledge independent of their L2 proficiency and in aligning objectives, instruction and assessment. These concerns are closely related to teachers’ assessment literacy, which is seen as…
Brian Street - Thinking Through Practice And Working With Theory
Brian Street joined King’s College London as Professor of Language Education in 1996. For the best part of twenty years Brian was an enthusiastic and tireless colleague and teacher in the School of Education, Communication and Society. Already a well-established scholar, he continued to develop and extend his ideas in language and literacy theory and practice throughout his time at King’s. He drew on his intellectual grounding in cultural anthrop…
Co-constructing Social Justice
This article involves the work of four language educators/researchers collaborating on an ongoing longitudinal multilingual participatory action research (PAR) project in a Bachelor of Arts (BA) language teaching program in Oaxaca, Mexico. Overall, this PAR project aims at the co-construction of social justice in ELT in Mexico. In particular, it explores an approach that would encourage learners to make full(er) use of their language resources to…
Classroom-based assessment
The assessment of students in the classroom has been going on since time immemorial. What is comparatively recent, however, is the systematic study of classroom-based assessment (CBA). The term ‘CBA’ has been putatively linked to Michael Scriven's (1967) work on formative and summative evaluation. However, current interest in such assessment and how it is enacted has, to a large extent, been prompted by shifts in educational policy in various con…
Understanding agency and constraints in the conception of creativity in the language classroom
In this paper we investigate the ways in which creativity is understood and enacted by language teachers. Although the term ‘creativity’ has gained enormous traction in language pedagogy, and in education more generally, we suggest that the concept remains a floating signifier carrying different personal connotations that are shaped by wider institutional and professional constraints. We report on interview data with practising language teachers …
Putting translanguaging into practice
Translanguaging and the Transdisciplinary Framework for Language Teaching and Learning in a Multilingual World
The ideas and arguments associated with translanguaging have generated highly energized debates on a number of fundamental issues in linguistics, applied language studies and language education. Aspects of many long-held and apparently settled concepts such as ‘language/s’, ‘code switching’ and ‘Second Language Acquisition/Teaching’ have been fundamentally challenged. As has been acknowledged by scholars in the field, the discussions have at time…
From mythical ‘standard’ to standard reality
This position paper builds on three of our earlier publications on the same subject (Jenkins & Leung 2014; Leung, Lewkowicz & Jenkins 2016; Jenkins & Leung 2017), as well as a number of conference papers we have given both jointly and individually. However, what we have not done up to this point is to propose alternatives to the large-scale standardized English tests administered by the major international examination boards, of which we have bee…
Raciolinguistics
Classroom Assessment Practices and Learning Motivation
Classroom-based assessment carried out
Re-Theorizing Literacy Practices
This chapter examines a specific Critical Thinking-based construct of ‘reading’ in the context of an Advanced Level Philosophy and Ethics class for students of 17 years of age. It focuses on reading events surrounding students’ engagement with an extract from a philosophy textbook in an A Level Philosophy lesson. Critical Thinking is self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored and self-corrective thinking. A Critical Thinking-based approach t…
Empirical foundations for medium of instruction policies
With global attention currently focused on the challenge of providing Education for All (UNESCO 2000), we must ensure that the language of teaching and learning remains a topic on the agenda towards making sure that the education being provided is effective. This is therefore a critical time to review medium of instruction debates, and to reassess what empirical evidence exists to guide policymaking that is both appropriate and achievable. Contri…
The Routledge Companion to English Studies
Although many different varieties of English have been spoken for several centuries, it is only surprisingly recently that the field of study that has become to be known as World Englishes has been established. A key figure in the field is Braj Kachru. His debate with the British linguist Randolph Quirk drew the boundaries between two distinct positions. Quirk’s (1985) position was that a single standardized form of English, based on British Engl…
Symposium
This symposium article, to which three authors contribute distinct parts, presents the rationale for standards‐based language assessment and examines both the uses and misuses of language assessments in English‐speaking countries that are engaged in standards‐based education reform. Specifically, they focus on the assessment of emergent bilinguals (also referred to as English language learners or English as an additional language students). The f…
Frequency in Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition Research
The most commonly examined variable in the growing body of literature on incidental second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition is frequency of exposure to target words. Earlier studies even ventured claims for minimum or optimal frequency of exposures needed in order for learners to acquire target words. More recent research addresses more nuanced questions with frequency still figuring prominently among the factors examined. In this article we …
Qualitative Research in Language Assessment
Assessment research addresses a diverse range of issues including identification of disciplinary content for assessment (e.g., subject‐based concepts and knowledge in biology or English), principles of assessment, and means of charting students' knowledge and understanding.
Video Recording and the Research Process
TESOL Quarterly publishes brief commentaries on aspects of qualitative and quantitative research
Formative Assessment in Language Education Policies
Formative assessment, particularly in the current form known as Assessment for Learning (AfL), has caught the attention of policymakers in many education jurisdictions. Diverse educational systems such as Hong Kong and Western Canada have publicly endorsed the principles and practice of AfL. In the United Kingdom, progressive devolution of state power from London has meant that Scotland and Wales now have national autonomy in education matters. I…
Current Issues in English Language Teacher‐Based Assessment
Teacher‐based assessment (TBA) is increasingly being promoted in educational policies internationally, with English language teachers being called on to plan and/or implement appropriate assessment procedures to monitor and evaluate student progress in their own classrooms. However, there has been a lack of theorization of TBA in the English language teaching field, with researchers pointing to much variability, a lack of systematic principles an…
The Idealised Native Speaker, Reified Ethnicities, and Classroom Realities
TESOL practice in the schooling sector in England has implicitly assumed that ESL students are linguistic and social outsiders and that there is a neat one-to-one correspondence between ethnicity and language. This perspective has tended to conceptualise L2 learners as a linguistically diverse group (from non-English-speaking backgrounds) but with similar language learning needs. However, demographic and social changes in the past 30 years have r…
Convivial communication
The advent of the concept of communicative competence in English Language Teaching (ELT) over thirty years ago signalled a shift from grammar‐based pedagogy to Communicative Language Teaching. It was generally accepted that, in addition to grammar rules, language teaching needed to take account of social context and social rules of use. The concept of communicative competence, initially developed for ethnographic research, appeared to offer an in…
Current Issues in English Language Teacher‐Based Assessment
Teacher‐based assessment (TBA) is increasingly being promoted in educational policies internationally, with English language teachers being called on to plan and/or implement appropriate assessment procedures to monitor and evaluate student progress in their own classrooms. However, there has been a lack of theorization of TBA in the English language teaching field, with researchers pointing to much variability, a lack of systematic principles an…
From mythical ‘standard’ to standard reality
This position paper builds on three of our earlier publications on the same subject (Jenkins & Leung 2014; Leung, Lewkowicz & Jenkins 2016; Jenkins & Leung 2017), as well as a number of conference papers we have given both jointly and individually. However, what we have not done up to this point is to propose alternatives to the large-scale standardized English tests administered by the major international examination boards, of which we have bee…
Expanding Horizons and Unresolved Conundrums
Since the last TESOL Quarterly commemorative issue 15 years ago, there have been too many important developments in language testing and assessment for all of them to be discussed in a single article. Therefore, this article focuses on issues that we believe are integrally linked to pedagogic and curriculum concerns of English language teaching. Although the discussion has been organized into two main sections, the first dealing with issues relat…
Symposium
This symposium article, to which three authors contribute distinct parts, presents the rationale for standards‐based language assessment and examines both the uses and misuses of language assessments in English‐speaking countries that are engaged in standards‐based education reform. Specifically, they focus on the assessment of emergent bilinguals (also referred to as English language learners or English as an additional language students). The f…
Putting translanguaging into practice
Open science
Open science (OS; also known as “open research” and “open scholarship”) refers to various practices to make scientific knowledge openly available, accessible, and reusable. The core purpose of such practices is to open the process of scientific knowledge creation, evaluation, and communication to societal actors within and beyond the traditional scientific community (UNESCO, 2021). Looking across the different areas within TESOL and applied lingu…
Classroom-based assessment
The assessment of students in the classroom has been going on since time immemorial. What is comparatively recent, however, is the systematic study of classroom-based assessment (CBA). The term ‘CBA’ has been putatively linked to Michael Scriven's (1967) work on formative and summative evaluation. However, current interest in such assessment and how it is enacted has, to a large extent, been prompted by shifts in educational policy in various con…
Frequency in Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition Research
The most commonly examined variable in the growing body of literature on incidental second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition is frequency of exposure to target words. Earlier studies even ventured claims for minimum or optimal frequency of exposures needed in order for learners to acquire target words. More recent research addresses more nuanced questions with frequency still figuring prominently among the factors examined. In this article we …
Dynamic Speaking Assessments
Raciolinguistics
Video Recording and the Research Process
TESOL Quarterly publishes brief commentaries on aspects of qualitative and quantitative research
The multilingual classroom
This paper attempts to describe the differences between majority language learners learning a second language and minority language learners learning a second language in a publicly funded schooling environment in England. It highlights the difficulties faced by minority language speakers and the need for the development of a more rigorous and informed pedagogical practice in a multilingual classroom
Multilingualism in England
A great deal has happened in the study and understanding of multilingualism in England since it was last considered in ARAL (Reid 1985). To examine these changes, this review will concentrate on the dynamic and contested relationships among 1) educational policy, 2) academic discourse, and 3) everyday sociolinguistic practice. Our account is limited to England and to its newer heritage languages; due to limitations of space, it also does not prov…
The Idealised Native Speaker, Reified Ethnicities, and Classroom Realities
TESOL practice in the schooling sector in England has implicitly assumed that ESL students are linguistic and social outsiders and that there is a neat one-to-one correspondence between ethnicity and language. This perspective has tended to conceptualise L2 learners as a linguistically diverse group (from non-English-speaking backgrounds) but with similar language learning needs. However, demographic and social changes in the past 30 years have r…
Teacher assessment and psychometric theory
Alternative assessment (as opposed to formal testing) is gaining a great deal of attention in current educational discussion. This article attempts to address some of the epistemic and practical issues facing alternative assessment, with particular reference to teacher assessment of spoken English as an additional language/second language (EAL/ESL) in the early years of primary (elementary) education in England and Wales. We first examine the cla…
Teacher assessment and psychometric theory
Reception Classes for Immigrant Students in England
Teacher formative assessment and talk in classroom contexts
There is now widely recognized support for classroom-based formative teacher assessment of student performance as a pedagogically desirable approach to assessment which is capable of promoting learning. However, the highly localized and socially co-constructed nature of this type of assessment has raised conceptual and research issues that transcend the theoretical and epistemological concerns of the more established standardized language assessm…
Convivial communication
The advent of the concept of communicative competence in English Language Teaching (ELT) over thirty years ago signalled a shift from grammar‐based pedagogy to Communicative Language Teaching. It was generally accepted that, in addition to grammar rules, language teaching needed to take account of social context and social rules of use. The concept of communicative competence, initially developed for ethnographic research, appeared to offer an in…
Expanding Horizons and Unresolved Conundrums
Since the last TESOL Quarterly commemorative issue 15 years ago, there have been too many important developments in language testing and assessment for all of them to be discussed in a single article. Therefore, this article focuses on issues that we believe are integrally linked to pedagogic and curriculum concerns of English language teaching. Although the discussion has been organized into two main sections, the first dealing with issues relat…
Kay L. O'Halloran
The centrality of language and other semiotic means in the structuring of ideas and ordering of human thought lies at the heart of this immensely ambitious book. O’Halloran opens the discussion with two historically significant instances when words appeared to have represented and constructed visions, and aligned thinking in particular ways: ‘Success is right. What does not succeed is wrong’ and ‘Either you are with us, or you are with the terror…
Language Testing
Formative Assessment in Language Education Policies
Formative assessment, particularly in the current form known as Assessment for Learning (AfL), has caught the attention of policymakers in many education jurisdictions. Diverse educational systems such as Hong Kong and Western Canada have publicly endorsed the principles and practice of AfL. In the United Kingdom, progressive devolution of state power from London has meant that Scotland and Wales now have national autonomy in education matters. I…
Current Issues in English Language Teacher‐Based Assessment
Teacher‐based assessment (TBA) is increasingly being promoted in educational policies internationally, with English language teachers being called on to plan and/or implement appropriate assessment procedures to monitor and evaluate student progress in their own classrooms. However, there has been a lack of theorization of TBA in the English language teaching field, with researchers pointing to much variability, a lack of systematic principles an…
Dynamic Speaking Assessments
Video Recording and the Research Process
TESOL Quarterly publishes brief commentaries on aspects of qualitative and quantitative research
Qualitative Research in Language Assessment
Assessment research addresses a diverse range of issues including identification of disciplinary content for assessment (e.g., subject‐based concepts and knowledge in biology or English), principles of assessment, and means of charting students' knowledge and understanding.
The Routledge Companion to English Studies
Although many different varieties of English have been spoken for several centuries, it is only surprisingly recently that the field of study that has become to be known as World Englishes has been established. A key figure in the field is Braj Kachru. His debate with the British linguist Randolph Quirk drew the boundaries between two distinct positions. Quirk’s (1985) position was that a single standardized form of English, based on British Engl…
Symposium
This symposium article, to which three authors contribute distinct parts, presents the rationale for standards‐based language assessment and examines both the uses and misuses of language assessments in English‐speaking countries that are engaged in standards‐based education reform. Specifically, they focus on the assessment of emergent bilinguals (also referred to as English language learners or English as an additional language students). The f…
Frequency in Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition Research
The most commonly examined variable in the growing body of literature on incidental second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition is frequency of exposure to target words. Earlier studies even ventured claims for minimum or optimal frequency of exposures needed in order for learners to acquire target words. More recent research addresses more nuanced questions with frequency still figuring prominently among the factors examined. In this article we …
Empirical foundations for medium of instruction policies
With global attention currently focused on the challenge of providing Education for All (UNESCO 2000), we must ensure that the language of teaching and learning remains a topic on the agenda towards making sure that the education being provided is effective. This is therefore a critical time to review medium of instruction debates, and to reassess what empirical evidence exists to guide policymaking that is both appropriate and achievable. Contri…
Re-Theorizing Literacy Practices
This chapter examines a specific Critical Thinking-based construct of ‘reading’ in the context of an Advanced Level Philosophy and Ethics class for students of 17 years of age. It focuses on reading events surrounding students’ engagement with an extract from a philosophy textbook in an A Level Philosophy lesson. Critical Thinking is self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored and self-corrective thinking. A Critical Thinking-based approach t…
Translanguaging and the Transdisciplinary Framework for Language Teaching and Learning in a Multilingual World
The ideas and arguments associated with translanguaging have generated highly energized debates on a number of fundamental issues in linguistics, applied language studies and language education. Aspects of many long-held and apparently settled concepts such as ‘language/s’, ‘code switching’ and ‘Second Language Acquisition/Teaching’ have been fundamentally challenged. As has been acknowledged by scholars in the field, the discussions have at time…
From mythical ‘standard’ to standard reality
This position paper builds on three of our earlier publications on the same subject (Jenkins & Leung 2014; Leung, Lewkowicz & Jenkins 2016; Jenkins & Leung 2017), as well as a number of conference papers we have given both jointly and individually. However, what we have not done up to this point is to propose alternatives to the large-scale standardized English tests administered by the major international examination boards, of which we have bee…
Raciolinguistics
Classroom Assessment Practices and Learning Motivation
Classroom-based assessment carried out
Psychology (23 works) · Sociology (23 works) · Pedagogy (22 works) · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning (19 works) · Second Language Learning and Teaching (19 works) · Mathematics education (17 works) · Linguistics (16 works) · Multilingual Education and Policy (16 works) · Computer Science (14 works) · Student Assessment and Feedback (11 works)