Empowering educators: leveraging the Nominal Group Technique to optimize strategies for enhancing MA and PhD English language students’ educational development

This qualitative study aims to employ the Nominal Group Technique to empower educators by identifying and prioritizing pedagogical strategies that optimize the educational development of MA and PhD English language students, grounded in established educational theories such as those of Vygotsky, Bruner and Bandura. A panel of nine experienced university professors and English language experts, all holding doctoral degrees, participated in ten structured NGT sessions to identify, discuss, and prioritize strategies based on expert consensus. To recruit these specialists, a targeted non-random sampling method, along with a snowball sampling technique, was employed. This applied research project followed a structured five-stage design and implementation process, spanning ten sessions over approximately 16 hours. The necessity and significance of this research lie in its potential to optimize the use of available resources, including faculty expertise, instructional practices, and institutional learning supports. The primary goal is to improve students’ skills and capabilities, particularly in English language proficiency, thereby enhancing educational quality through innovative, theory-informed approaches. Ultimately, the study yielded 14 essential strategies. The most highly prioritized factor was ‘aspirations for future career,’ while ‘providing both verbal and non-verbal encouragement’ received the lowest ranking among the final strategies, though it remained meaningful within the expert consensus. These findings can inform strategic improvements in postgraduate language education and educator development.