This study aimed to investigate the lexical competence of English-major EFL students. The learner corpus comprised 552 pieces of writing by sophomore English majors during five academic years between 2017 and 2021, containing 190,506words in total. The results from Vocab Profile program showed that these students used words contained in the…

Critical thinking (CT) is a 21st-century skill critical in education and learning. Second language teaching has focused on language form, and there needs to be a shift from form-focused instruction to a function-focused paradigm, where students simultaneously practice language learning and deal with real-world issues in authentic contexts…

Effective communication and academic writing in English hinge on a solid grasp of grammar, with pronouns representing a pivotal aspect. However, non-native, particularly English as a second language (ESL) students, often find difficulties in employing pronouns effectively, especially in reference to their antecedents within sentences. The current…

Paraphrasing is a signature practice of constructing intertextual discourse in academic writing. It is a story retelling technique commonly employed by academic writing classes to tackle plagiarism. However, teaching and learning of paraphrasing tend to place a very heavy emphasis on literal meanings of source messages and faithful reproductions…

The online discussion forum (ODF) is one of the many online interactive tools used for educational purposes. This paper discusses a study in a Malaysian university that examined the ODF interactions of students completing an assignment on paraphrasing. A class of 43 English as a Second Language (ESL) students enrolled in a writing course were…

The main objective of this study was to investigate theories and practices of writing. To achieve this objective, qualitative data were collected using qualitative content (document) analysis, observation, and interview. The participants of the study were selected from North Shoa Zone Preparatory Schools. Five sections for observation and ten…

This study explores the views, perceptions and suggestions of teacher trainees regarding L1 use in foreign language classes and search for their awareness of the issue. A qualitative research design was employed. The data were gathered by means of 5 open-ended questions. The findings revealed that most of the participants preferred mostly target…

The present empirical study scrutinizes the use of short stories via computer technologies in teaching and learning English language. The objective of the study is two-fold: to examine how short stories could be used through computer programs in teaching and learning English and to collect data about students' perceptions of this technique via…

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…

Using conversation analysis as a methodological and analytical framework, this study presents a sequential analysis of disagreement episodes in small group interactions in an advanced academic writing class. Closer scrutiny of the sequences reveals that in order to bring disagreements to a close, participants make use of an array of interactional…

Over the past decade aspects pertinent to the area of feedback have been extensively explored by researchers. While some of the studies show positive effects of peer review, others discuss its problematic areas. In spite of the controversies the new ways of integrating peer feedback in ESL classrooms are being explored. Researchers show an…