This instructional intervention investigated the potential for the text reconstruction task "dictogloss" to facilitate the learning of English verb-noun collocations, for example 'carry a risk'. Research has shown that learners have difficulties in using such collocations, but few useful instructional techniques are on offer.…

The traditional division of conditionals into four main types (zero, first, second, and third) has long been called into question. Unfortunately, the awareness that this description does not reflect conditional patterns in actual usage has not generally been reflected in EFL coursebooks. This article re-examines the arguments for a description of…

In making decisions regarding the focus for grammar teaching, ESL instructors may take into consideration errors that appear to result from the influence of their students' first language(s) (L1). There is also evidence from language acquisition research suggesting that for some grammatical features, learners of different L1 backgrounds may face…

Discusses four problems common to English as a second language students: (1) the use of "they" as a sex-neutral, third person singular pronoun; (2) the use of "I wish"; (3) how stress affects meaning; and (4)word pairs ending in "ate," in which the noun and verb have different pronunciations. (EKN)

Presents contrasting views on the sequencing of verbal-complement structures. The first article has been reviewed by the editorial panel and accepted for publication; the second is a commissioned response, to which the author of the original author is invited to reply. (Author/VWL)