This study modeled the effects of essay length and language features on the rated quality of second language (L2) expository and argumentative essays composed by Chinese university students. Latent variables were writing quality captured by essay scores, and lexical sophistication, syntactic complexity and cohesion, each of which was measured by…

Previous research has shown that students employ intuitive thinking when understanding scientific concepts. Three types of intuitive thinking--essentialist, teleological, and anthropic thinking--are used in biology learning and can lead to misconceptions. However, it is unknown how commonly these types of intuitive thinking, or cognitive…

Language is not static. It flows like a river in response to the riverbank and the rocks that border and run beneath it. In the same way, glossaries are dynamic expressions of current language usage. Developmental education and learning assistance have changed dramatically in recent years, and so must also the language used to describe and define…

Through surveys and focus group conversations, we studied students' experiences with instruction in writing-intensive (WI) courses at our urban R1 university and their awareness of and attitudes about linguistic diversity. Specifically, we have explored discrepancies between students' experiences with languaging, language judgment, and our…

Gender-fair language makes women and people of other genders, their interests, and achievements more visible. However, critics argue that gender-fair language impairs the comprehensibility and aesthetic appeal of texts. This study tests these assumptions specifically concerning the gender asterisk, a form of gender-fair language that makes people…

Objective: This exploratory study examined campus attitudes toward vaccines to guide subsequent development of context-relevant interventions for increasing vaccine acceptance and uptake. Participants: We gathered ethnographic data on a convenience sample of campus community members (students, faculty, staff) at a public university over six weeks…

This study investigates the subjectivities of tertiary students in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR) of the People's Republic of China. Specifically, we investigate self-reported language practices and attitudes in relation to identities in a language ecology with three prominent languages (Zhuang, Standard Chinese [Putonghua], and…

Given that approximately 5% of the U.S. population is currently attending college, research is needed to better understand the language that college students use to describe alcohol recovery regardless of their current drinking behavior. College student perceptions of alcohol recovery are important, given that students may experience an alcohol…

Background: The debate on using concrete versus abstract materials in learning mathematics has been longstanding. For decades, research has focused on the physical characteristics of materials when defining them as concrete or abstract. Aims: This study extends the field by proposing a two-dimensional classification, which defines materials as…

With the proliferation of easy-to-use generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, students in college composition courses can and do take advantage of such technology to assist with essay writing. While a growing body of research does not see using these tools as a problem in itself, institutional, departmental, and instructor policies about generative…

Eyetracking studies have shown that readers reread ironic phrases when resolving their meaning. Moreover, it has been shown that the timecourse of processing ironic meaning is affected by reader's working memory capacity (WMC). Irony is a context-dependent phenomenon but using traditional eye-movement measures it is difficult to analyze processing…

Pinoylish (Philippine English) has made a mark in the literature, although research on the perspectives of university students on Pinoylish is still scarce. As a result, a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design was undertaken to investigate the awareness and notions of 761 university students in Northern Luzon, Philippines. The results…

Asian international students have long constituted the largest portion of the international student body in the United States (U.S.), a trend that persists despite the hurdles presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. These students play an essential role in stimulating the U.S. economy, facilitating cross-cultural exchange, and nurturing international…

Research has shown that speakers of different languages may differ in their cognitive and perceptual processing of reality. A common denominator of this line of investigation has been its reliance on the sensory domain of vision. The aim of our study was to extend the scope to a new sense-taste. Using as a starting point crosslinguistic…

This study employs an open-ended questionnaire survey and online semi-structured interviews to explore English name adoption, use, and attitudes of tertiary students in China. The findings show that more than half of the students report having an English name and nearly half of the students choose their own English names. Students mainly use their…