Building on Jack Richard's interest in vocabulary, this paper looks at the importance of morphology (how words are formed) in language learning and teaching. It describes why knowledge of morphology is important, and how it affects vocabulary learning. It provides clear guidelines on what word parts to focus on, how much time to spend on word…

Contrastive rhetoric (CR) has made great contributions to our understanding of L2 writing. Nevertheless, CR has endured countless criticisms over the years, resulting in "reimagined" forms attempting to address many of these criticisms. In doing so, these forms have shaped CR into a collection of complex ideologies that have…

The basic form of the superlative suffix in German is -"st (kleinst"-), with some adjectives requiring a longer form, -"est (lautest"-). While the superlative has long been a topic in teaching materials, the accuracy of textbook treatments continues to be less than satisfactory. The difficulty arises in characterizing the…

The use of the infinitive was summarized and illustrated from various examples, on the basis of the writer's teaching experience, and extensive review of different English grammar books, reference books, magazines, newspapers, books, and English dictionaries, in order for English language learners (whose native language is not English) to further…

In this paper, the role and nature of language and language development will be discussed. Research and theory in second language acquisition has demonstrated that (i) language is an abstract, implicit and complex system. Input (ii) plays a key role in language development; despite the fact that some knowledge of language is innate (iii). Overall,…

Teaching and learning of technical terms constitute a major problem for ESP instructors and students. To help the students learn, retain, apply and relate technical terms, a multiple-associations instructional approach that focuses on connecting the printed form of the technical term with its pronunciation (the hidden sounds, double and silent…

Singapore's language-in-education policies have always prescribed that only a standard variety of English be allowed in teaching and learning. This view of upholding a standard has been pervasive not only in education but also throughout Singapore's society. In this article, we review Singapore's language policy, emphasizing the functional…

This paper aims to provide information about teacher corrective feedback that would be helpful for EFL students' writing improvement. It focuses on feedback provided to correct grammatical errors made by student writers as the author finds that this type of errors can obstruct the effectiveness of students' pieces of writing and may result in…

This paper presents an argument for how second language acquisition (SLA) research should be carried out if a researcher is genuinely interested in learner grammar (i.e., knowledge of language), its acquisition and use. SLA research has expanded greatly over many years and currently spans many subfields, but researchers share one main goal: to…

Recent research on disciplinary literacy has called for a paradigm shift among secondary content teachers from perceiving themselves as disciplinary content transmitters to disciplinary literacy teachers who model and engage students in reading, writing, inquiring, and doing like experts within each discipline. How do content teachers incorporate…

As students move through the grades, content area learning becomes increasingly significant for reading, writing, and speaking tasks. One research-evidenced approach to actively engaging adolescent learners in acquiring, remembering, and using academic vocabulary in reading, writing and speaking tasks across disciplines is multisensory structured…

There is no doubt that pair/group work is an integral part of language learning because it not only provides a unique opportunity for students to improve an array of skills such as critical thinking and problem solving, but also enables them to experience a diversity of personalities and perspectives. Frequent exposure to a wide range of…

British Columbia (BC), Canada, is home to 34 Indigenous languages, all of them classified as endangered. Considerable work is underway by First Nation communities to revitalize their languages. Linguists classify many of the languages of BC as polysynthetic, meaning that words are composed of many morphemes, or units of meaning. While strong…

Educators can take advantage of Latino English learners' linguistic backgrounds by teaching Spanish-English cognate vocabulary using the Children's Choices picture books. Cognates are words that have identical or nearly identical spellings and meanings in two languages because of their Latin and Greek origins. Students can learn to recognize…

This article aims to show how the findings from written corrective feedback (WCF) research can be applied in practice. One particular kind of WCF--focused WCF--is brought into the spotlight. The article first summarizes major findings from focused WCF research to reveal the potential advantages of correcting a few preselected language items…