We congratulate the researchers of the Inter-University Research Laboratory of Modern Technologies of Teaching Foreign Languages and Cultures on the fruitful scholarly collaboration that has resulted in a new joint publication.
The Laboratory and the Department of English Philology and Linguodidactics are pleased to announce the publication of the article "Developing Pre-Service EFL Teachers' Speaking and Critical Thinking Skills with E-Cases" in Analele Universității „Ovidius" Constanța. Seria Filologie, Vol. XXXVII, 1/2026, a journal indexed in SCOPUS, CEEOL and other international databases.
The article is co-authored by Hanna Podosynnikova, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Head of the Department of English Philology and Linguodidactics and Head of the Inter-University Research Laboratory of Modern Technologies of Teaching Foreign Languages and Cultures, Sumy State Pedagogical University; Bohdana Saliuk, Ph.D. in Philology (Comparative Literary Studies), Associate Professor and Member of the Laboratory, Berdiansk State Pedagogical University; and Vlada Homolia, M.A. student and Member of the Laboratory, Sumy State Pedagogical University.
The publication results from the authors' participation in the international conference "Innovative Trends in Teaching Language for Specific Purposes in the Context of the Current Social Instability" (INNO-LSP 2025) and was selected for the volume following the peer-review process.
The study addresses the theoretical background of e-case-based instruction in the context of developing pre-service EFL teachers' speaking skills and critical thinking competencies, and proposes a framework for the methodological application of the e-case typology in pre-service teacher education. It draws on the classification of e-cases proposed by Podosynnikova and Homolia, which distinguishes three types of e-cases according to the extent of student engagement in solving the case, and examines each type in terms of its structure, critical thinking components, and alignment with the four-level hierarchy of dialogical speaking skills formation proposed by Nikolaieva.
The empirical component comprises a questionnaire-based survey conducted with 36 practising teachers and 27 pre-service English teachers at Ukrainian pedagogical universities. The findings indicate strong attitudinal support for critical-thinking-integrated oral tasks across both groups, alongside structural barriers that impede their systematic implementation. Drawing on the theoretical and empirical findings, the article presents one fully worked interactive e-case of the solution-generation type, developed as a classroom-synchronous web application for pre-service EFL teacher education.
The authors express their sincere gratitude to the organisers of INNO-LSP 2025 and to the editorial board of the Annals of Ovidius University of Constanța for the opportunity to present and publish this research. Joint projects of this kind confirm the value of the inter-university cooperation on which the Laboratory's work is founded.
Full text of the article: https://litere.univ-ovidius.ro/Anale/2026-volumul-1/sectiunea3/18.pdf