Although research about group interactions during second or foreign language (L2 or EFL) collaborative writing has proliferated in the last few decades, little is known about the role of psychological factors, like learners' knowledge about collaborative writing, in affecting students' patterns of interaction and learning in collaborative writing.…

Although research about the effectiveness of second or foreign language collaborative writing for jointly written products has proliferated in the last few decades, there has been less examination of whether and how pre-task preparation could maximize the language learning opportunities that collaborative writing can afford learners. Informed by…

This is a longitudinal case study using a mixed-methods research design to track how two Korean university students improved their English writing competence over one year with the aid of automated writing evaluation (AWE) program, Criterion. The participants wrote essays outside of class every month for one year, submitting first and later second…

The aim of the genre-based pedagogy is to focus on students' academic needs and enable them to read and write successfully (Martin, 1993, 2009). Therefore, it is imperative for teachers to understand the range of written genres and other writing skills that students need to use in their academic studies. This study has aimed to design an…

One of the key topics on any Modern Languages Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) course in the United Kingdom is the hotly debated issue of target language (TL) use. When and why do teachers use the TL in delivering lessons and when and why do they code switch into the learners' language? Does their practice change over time? Does it…

There is ample theoretical justification for incorporating reflection exercises as a tool for preparing students for life beyond university, yet the utility of such exercises needs to be documented if resources are to be devoted to their implementation. This study describes the implementation and evaluates the effectiveness of a reflection…

This action research study examines the effect of self-evaluation on grammatical range and grammar accuracy on the English speaking performance of 27 foreign language university and pre-university students enrolled in three different language centers, in three different cities in Colombia. Participants were asked to record themselves answering…

This pilot study aims at integrating a socio-pragmatic concept, Cooperative Principles, into an experimental writing project on the genres of comparison and contrast. It reports on a six-week study of five undergraduates voluntarily recruited in a university located in central Taiwan. In surveying their writing momentum before and after the…

The purpose of this research was to examine the effectiveness of the dialectical journal as a tool for teaching critical thinking skills, and to assess middle school teachers' perception of critical thinking. Two groups of middle school students were split into one control and one experimental group. Both groups took a critical thinking test…