Changes in today’s required skills for the world and job market necessitate a shift in EFL (English as a Foreign-Language) instruction. Proficiency in English is a crucial tool for developing social networking and communication skills; therefore, quality EFL pedagogy should target communication and authentic language production over traditional aims like accuracy or comprehension. However, teachers often cling to traditional concepts of English teaching that fail to meet the current expectations. This study shows a conceptual change in EFL instruction among a group of practicing teachers.

In a 60-hour professional-development course, we introduced 15 English teachers to the Attentive-Teaching approach (Schur, 2019) by modelling its practice in the course. Attentive-Teaching emphasizes connecting the study material to the personal world of the learner. When Attentive-Teaching is applied in EFL, it promotes communication and authentic language production as learners express their unique views. Thus, this approach addresses deeper learning as it combines mastery, creativity, and identity (Mehta & Fine, 2019).

Examination of participants' products from the first and last lessons, alongside recorded group-discussions and responses to pre- and post-course questionnaires, revealed a conceptual change in teachers' perceptions of EFL instruction. The teachers increased their emphasis on communication goals and authentic student engagement in learning. They viewed their roles more holistically, emphasizing the social aspects of education, and have come to view the classroom as a space for mediation. Thus, the application of Attentive Teaching allowed us to observe a conceptual change such that English teaching is a more equitable practice, where all learners are required to express their personal view regardless of their English level.

By targeting English teaching as a core concept, the conceptual change observed in the PD course enabled teachers to relate their teaching to real-world goals and see themselves as making a difference through education.

One of the aims of UFC's PIBID Letras Inglês Subproject is to introduce undergraduates majoring in English or Portuguese and English into the daily life of public schools, providing them with opportunities to create and take part in innovative methodological and technological experiments and teaching practices. There are three partner schools that act as co-educational centres for teachers in initial training: EEM Adauto Bezerra, IFCE Fortaleza and EMTI Maria da Hora, each receiving groups of eight scholarship students, who are supervised by English teachers at the school, as well as the Sub-Project coordinator. In this context, this study aims to present the intervention actions, such as: the MH News, which focused on the creative production of texts in English; the Movies Club, which addressed the different forms of language through audiovisuals; and the Theatre Club, which valued artistic oral expression to improve English practice and pronunciation. As a methodology, we started with an overview of the actions, according to the specific objectives of each one, analysed the materials created and the scholars' own accounts of their experiences, triangulating this data. As a result, we can see advances in English learning in the partner schools in an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary way as a result of PIBID's actions, given its potential to transform through didactic dynamics and the reimagining of academic practices. We have seen advances in the quality of English teacher training at UFC and the valorisation of teaching careers in basic education.

Focusing on how a world of possibilities is opened up by language learners themselves, imagination has been regarded as an elusive but indispensable element in second language (L2) education. It also remains uncertain how to harness the power of imagination to prepare L2 English learners for participating in the increasingly fluid, digitalized, and globalized world with greater creativity and productivity. Recognizing such a pressing need, this presentation draws upon a recent mixed-method study that has examined the complex relationship between imagination and informal digital learning of English (IDLE) in the Chinese university EFL (English as a foreign language) context. It starts by theorizing imagination from a psychological perspective and a sociocultural lens respectively by building on notions of international posture (Yashima 2002), the ideal L2 self (Dörnyei 2009), and imagined communities (Norton 2001). It proceeds with the methodological details by showcasing how the quantitative questionnaire data and qualitative interview data were collected from 401 participants from a tier-one university in South China. Then three major findings will be highlighted including 1) students’ international posture can positively influence their participation in IDLE; 2) the ideal L2 self can positively predict participants’ involvement in IDLE and also partially mediate the influence of international posture on IDLE; 3) wielding the power of imagination to invest in IDLE is bound up with EFL learners agentive negotiation of their context-specific learning conditions as well as material and symbolic access to the digital wilds. Finally, this presentation elaborates on how learner-driven strategies (e.g., becoming an ethnographer of IDLE, see Dressman & Lee, 2021) may facilitate and sustain EFL learners’ engagement with IDLE by enabling them to imagine and participate in an English-mediated globalized future.