I do not have an answer to your question, but I HAVE observed that many scholarly papers about teaching English contain NO theoretical framework. In effect, they just say "here is something we tried" and do not show why it fits in with established theory.

So I think you post a good question.

Thank you Michael for supporting the question.

 I do have a similar believe that there is a need to support a theory that helps explain the process of learning (or little learning) of English or any other language in a FOREIGN context. I would like to promote the Multiliteracies theory which I have found to engage students in their learning especially through technology as a supplementary too. This theory motivates learners to engage in their learning activities in the EFL/ESL classroom. Please checkout my articles Jesus.

I have personal conviction which i am going to experiment that formal and functional  framework of language based on the corpus assisted learning will be a right choice for language learning.

The best reading for this would be Robert Gardner and AMTB research, Deci and Ryan  and Dornyei et al. on Educational motivation.

Adrians comment is very true. Second- and foreign language acquisition is more than acquiring lexicon, phonology, morphology and syntax of another language. Besides the above mentioned authors the works of Diane Larsen-Freeman can also be highly recommended.

The research is of little help in applied linguistics. Thousands of educators are looking for the research that will help students learn English faster and more effectively. What surprises me most is that, in spite of thousands of research institutions and dissertations, hundreds of millions of people, after learning a foreign language for five years and more, are not able to communicate in the target language.

Moreover, some educators quote that the failure rate of learning EFL is 95! Anecdotally, the high fail rate seems as bad in Asia and Lat Am. Abril Educacao in Brazil stated in their IPO roadshow that less than 2% of Brazilian college graduates were able to have a conversation in English or Spanish, despite English and Spanish "proficiency exams" required to matriculate into Brazilian universities.

Applied linguistics is an art or soft science and it is as hard to research as figure skating or playing guitar. Inventions should be more valued than research in applied linguistics, especially those that were a result of inspiration and which explain why the current traditional approaches to teaching EFL do not work.

Sometimes the whole situation is over thought. Motivation and need are the drivers. If the learner doesn't perceive a need,desire or ability to learn NO special tricks will help. A baby learns to walk through trial and error and constant repetition so it can reach it's care giver and satisfy it's need to explore. A child learns to ride a bicycle through the same process to socialize with peers and satisfy it's need to explore. An adult learns to drive a car to satisfy a need to socialize and meet it's employment needs. Once the "why" is established the "how" is then explored. There are more and less efficient ways of learning languages and research has shown many methods. But helping the learner to understand their own motivations making the 'WHY"  paramount to their personal needs and desires then creates for them the desire to explore the "HOW" that best suits their needs and abilities. Our job basically as educators is to help them explore as many possibilities as possible to meet those individual needs and abilities. We need to mold and develop our teaching to suit their abilities, not the other way around. Research continues to discover and show new ways to do it the same as mathematics or physics. We can't  write-off previous research as unsuccessful anymore than physics can write off E= MC2.

I agree, teaching is overwhelmingly minimising the use of principles of language learning. I tried to create a balance in my researches. Most relevant is the inner circle of Benchmarked TESOL model. I re-emphasise the benchmarks, baseline assessment (ZPD), teacher and student involvement, use of experiential real life tasks and activities and finally, active language practice. This is TESOL model but this generic model can be used for any other language learning other than English. You may like to see my postings on Benchmarking in TESOL. I hope it helps!

It will take hard efforts. First the person himself should take initiative. Besides theses we can arrange conference/seminars/workshops and invite teachers to contribute with their innovative ideas. Because every teacher at his/her level modifies teaching-learning methods if we just share these practices and club them together we can at list start to discover knew theory.

The other way is to call teacher to share and discuss their problems in teaching-learning process and the action they take to overcome them.

Further we can give project on this subject in which we can consider students ideas also.

Thank you all for accepting the invitation, at least, to be interested in a serious problem that has been with us all the time. As Arkady affirms despite the fact that a lot of students around the world study for more than ten years a foreign language from primary to secondary schools, and even to higher education, the results are very unsatisfactory. I certainly agree that there are interesting theories about the process of learning a SECOND language in the US and in Europe, but they do not constitute answers to the learning of another language in a FOREIGN context. They can be good guides and they can be illuminative, but they cannot explain our own learning situations. In fact, our problem is not only to explain why our students LEARN a foreign language, but to explain why they learn a little or almost nothing. This could not be the result of speculation but the result of valid research in our OWN contexts. My invitation to the research and practitioner community is to give ideas on how to share or how to conduct this type of research in order to support one or more theories.

I think if like articles there would be a call for special projects, it may work. Moreover the needed projects should be supported financially. Supervisors also could direct their students to do the needed research topics for their theses. I hope it would be useful.

motivating researchers in different countries to investigate this kind of theory in terms of their specific socio-cultural theory.this theory can provide some commonalities as well as specific features of the in different nations and cultures.

I very much agree with Jane Spiro (Spiro, J. (2013). Changing methodologies in TESOL. Edinburgh University Press.) who writes about a post methods era. It doesn't really make sense to look for THE theory and THE best method. Different methods work in different contexts and with different learners.

Concerning the distinction between EFL and ESL, I think it is hard to draw a distinct border between the two, because there are contexts which are actually a mixture of an EFL and an ESL teaching context. In Scandinavia, for instance, English is widely used in society almost like in immersion contexts (Fenyvesi, in press), because children are watching videos, gaming, chatting and some even talk to foreigners in English through the internet. I am sure there are other similar "hybrid" contexts.

Hello everybody,

I am starting to write a book about the Teaching of English in a FOREIGN CONTEXT. I would appreciate it very much if some of the members of the community of EFL researchers and teachers can share with me published articles related to research in an EFL context, especially those ones related to factors that affect language learning in an EFL context around the world. Thank you.