This preliminary study examined the effect of proficiency and study abroad experience on L2 learners' ability to produce routines. Participants were 64 Japanese students in an English-medium university in Japan. They were divided into three groups: Group 1 had lower proficiency with no study abroad experience, Group 2 had higher proficiency but no…

The study on which this article is based investigated reasons for learning a foreign language at university in a predominantly English-speaking environment (the UK). It examined the relative importance of motivational variables as theorised in the field of second language (L2) motivation, and the effect of first language (L1) and linguistic…

This study investigates the effects of instruction (input plus focused metapragmatic noticing) on the oral production of conventional expressions, particularly those conventional expressions which perform specific pragmatic functions in English. Using a pre-test-instruction-post-test design we tested 36 university-level students in six intact…

Although learning advisors are often qualified teachers, the skills they apply, such as those discussed by Kelly (1996), require a significant shift in approach regarding interaction with students. As teachers reorient themselves to advising, their role changes quite markedly from teaching language to advising on learning (Mozzon-McPherson, 2001).…

The literature on formulaic language lacks sufficient research on how L2 learners make progress in native-like formulaicity of their target language. This study analyzed the use of formulaic sequences (FSs) by 56 Chinese university English majors in their prepared monologues at the beginning and end of a three-year period and compared the student…

This empirical study investigates the beliefs of teachers and students regarding strategies for learning and teaching Chinese tones, which constitute a crucial feature of the spoken language and often cause problems for learners. Two online questionnaires that listed 11 Chinese tone learning strategies and 7 tone teaching strategies were…

Different meanings of a verb are associated with different argument structures (subcategorization), which in this study are sentential complements (SC) and direct object (DO) arguments. Interaction between verbal meaning and argument structure is investigated at the production level using polysemous verbs in the absence (Norming Experiment) and…

This paper reports on a small-scale study into the effects of uncoded correction (writing the correct forms above each error) and coded annotations (writing symbols that encourage learners to self-correct) on Colombian university-level EFL learners' written work. The study finds that while both coded annotations and uncoded correction appear to…

One problem common to many Oral Communication (OC) classrooms in universities in Japan and other countries is that English major students often lack the impetus to proactively develop their oral language proficiency. In this paper, we present our investigation into whether regular self-, peer-, and teacher-assessment would promote the use of…

Punctuation is a surprisingly underexplored area of second language writing and learning. The small body of published literature about punctuation tends to look at ways in which punctuation can be taught. Little is known, except anecdotally, about how English as a second language (ESL) students actually feel about using English punctuation,…

This study investigated the effects of using two types of written advance organizers, key sentences and key vocabulary, on the improvement of EFL learners' listening comprehension. 108 second year university students at the higher and lower listening proficiency levels were randomly assigned to one control group and two experimental groups. Prior…

This study investigated English-language writing instruction in Jordan at three levels, namely primary and secondary state schools, a private school, and a state university. To address this issue, the researchers used tape-recorded interviews and class observations as primary tools of collecting data for the study. It turned out that a host of…

This article reports on a multiple-case study designed to investigate factors influencing willingness to communicate (WTC) in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom in China. Four university students participated in this study; data were collected through semi-structured interviews, learning journals recorded by the students, and…

This study examines the second language (L2) written and oral performance of three groups of Spanish-speaking university students after being exposed to English in different contexts. One group of learners was spending some time abroad (Erasmus students in the UK), and two groups were following classroom instruction in two different types of…

For some language educators, communicative-style language teaching, by definition, entails viewing the use of the learners' first language (L1) as counterproductive to the learning process or as an unfortunate but sometimes necessary recourse. However, recent research has shown that L1 use can serve important cognitive, communicative, and social…