Research into second language acquisition (SLA) has shown that individual difference (ID) variables can be strong predictors of language achievement (e.g., Dornyei, 2003; Skehan, 2003). Traditionally, this research conceptualized ID variables as static and monolithic variables (e.g., Dornyei, 2010). More recently scholars have questioned this…

Writing in an L2 presents particular challenges (e.g., acculturating into new conventions) but also opportunities (e.g., the Joseph Conrad phenomenon, Scovel, 1988). In general, writing plays diverse roles in social, professional, and academic contexts and can significantly influence a writer's life experiences. Neither L1 nor L2 writers…

This Educational Leadership Portfolio (ELP) sought to address the challenge of optimizing handwriting instructional practices and assessment methods for teaching Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) at St. Andrew's School (SAS). SAS is an Episcopal, co-educational boarding school in Middletown, Delaware. With 18 years of experience as the primary…

This study investigated how English language writers in a Chinese university were able to paraphrase following instruction with an online module. Participants were separated into two groups: Group A (Individuals) and Group B (Dyads). They were then trained and assessed in their ability to complete paraphrasing tasks with a pre and posttest.…

This dissertation explored Beninese English teachers' prior experience in writing in English and its implications for teaching writing in English in the Benin Republic. Grounded in a social constructionist paradigm, this dissertation used a qualitative research approach with initial survey, autobiographical narrative essay, and interviews to…

Writing in English as a second or additional language has become an important skill that can be applied in many areas of human activity. As we become a society within which written text is an important instrument that helps create new ideas, services, and products, English text is often used as a preferred mode of communication. Traditionally…

Writing centers, an established, U.S.-rooted writing pedagogy, have spread across the globe, serving various populations in different countries. With Chinese universities' exciting endeavors to implement writing centers in their local contexts, little is known as to whether and how the writing center approach serves Chinese EFL students' specific…

Distance learning has become an attractive pathway for stakeholders in the field of higher education. It promotes affordability, convenience, and accessibility for many students who wish to pursue post-secondary education (Allen & Seaman, 2008; Travers, 2016). Therefore, many non-traditional students gravitate towards fully online programs at…

Writer identity has gradually become a focus in writing scholarship in recent years. From a social constructivist lens, writer identity is not optional; it resides in all texts. And it is a construct that does not exist in a vacuum, but is shaped by the sociocultural and academic context, and simultaneously individual writers agentively select…

In university-level composition courses, assignment prompts are fundamental in shaping students' understanding of major writing projects. Aiming to be instructive and descriptive while also clear and concise, instructors use a series of moves (Swales, 1990) and modals in writing assignment prompts to express requirements, suggestions, and…

Digital multimodal projects (DMPs) are both common and popular. Adolescents and young adults compose digitally and multimodally in their daily lives, and digital multimodal composition projects are incorporated in K-12 (Smith, 2017, 2018) and university settings (Balaman, 2018; Dzekoe, 2017), including writing programs (Blakely, 2016; Ericsson et…

The purpose of my dissertation study was to explore the experiences and perceptions of English language instructors about the use of multimodal digital technologies in the teaching of academic writing. Writing academically in English as a second language (L2) is complex and multilayered for international students, and multimodal digital literacy…

The discipline of curriculum studies has long understood curriculum to be more than just the official documents and materials created by experts. The reality of curriculum is much richer than that, taking into account what is intended, enacted, experienced, learned and more by numerous stakeholders, including both teachers and students…

This dissertation considers how English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instructors can reimagine notions of academic writing by exploiting multimodal texts in ways that invite students' fuller language repertoires into the classroom. Using ethnographic data collected during the Spring 2022 semester of a college EAP class, this study argues that a…

Articulating ideas in writing based on English conventions may be one of the biggest challenges for English as a foreign language students, which makes corrective feedback (CF) an indispensable part in writing practice. In terms of providing CF, researchers have claimed that indirect CF has a number of advantages for the improvement of students'…