Writing ability is an essential skill for college students to improve their school performance and complete their academic writing tasks. Proficient English writing skills are also highly advantageous for their future career prospects and personal growth. However, many English learners face difficulties in various aspects of English writing. The…

Background/purpose: This study investigated the short-term and long-term impact of collaborative writing on lower-proficiency English as a foreign language (EFL) students in Saudi Arabia. It investigated whether co-authoring enhanced the writing standard, which areas effectively evolved and how effectively the students retained their writing…

Usage-based theories hold that mental representation of language is shaped by a lifetime of usage. Both input to which first language (L1) and second language (L2) users are exposed and their own language production affect their construction learning and entrenchment. The present study investigates L2 users' knowledge of two…

This paper explores how Chinese ESL students utilize generative aritificial intelligence (gen AI) in their writing processes, focusing on the stages of writing, specific methods of use, and language practices. The study was performed in an English-medium instruction (EMI) environment at a Sino-American university in China. Data were collected…

Metaphors are known to present both opportunities and challenges for second language learners, but relatively little is known about learners' awareness of them. To investigate this, we analyzed 72 argumentative essays written in English by a group of 37 intermediate Chinese university students of English. We identified metaphors using an…

It has been widely recognised that plurilingual pedagogy offers many benefits both for language learning and learning in general. However, in contexts where the linguistic profile of students is diverse, it can still be challenging for teachers to view working with the language resources of their students as feasible. In this article, we discuss…

Research in metadiscourse has foregrounded the multiple ways in which writers build a relationship with readers through internal discourse. Yet, few studies consider the relationship between the texts writers create and the metalinguistic thinking which informs their decision-making as writers. This paper draws on data from a larger study which…

Language borrowing from sources is a phenomenon used by developing writers as they are learning academic language, though there is much to be learned about how younger students borrow from sources. This study explores student writing, from a sample of 166 diverse middle graders, across topics to determine patterns in borrowing from instructional…

Emergent bilingual students in the U.S. often attend English-medium schools where their bilingual language resources are ignored and dismissed. Research suggests this is harmful for students, but little empirical work has examined how teachers in English-dominant schools can support students' biliteracy. To address this problem, this qualitative…

This experimental study, and partial replication of Sun and Hu (2020), examined how and to what extent direct (i.e., hands-on corpus use) or indirect (i.e., hands-off corpus use) online data-driven learning (DDL) modules were able to assist Chinese writers from an English as a foreign language (EFL) context in using more appropriate hedging (i.e.,…

This study examined the forms and functions of reformulation markers (RMs) in the three disciplines of philosophy, economics, and biology to see whether there is any disciplinary variation regarding these linguistic devices and their functions in essays written by undergraduate students. To this purpose, two corpora of university students' essays…

This study investigates the use of DO, HAVE, MAKE, GIVE and TAKE in light verb constructions (LVCs) and their corresponding simplex verb forms in British L1 and Malaysian L2 students' writing. The students' essay sub-corpus of the International Corpus of English (ICE) of Great Britain (ICE-GB) and Malaysia (ICE-Malaysia) formed the data of this…

From the perspective of complexity theory and based on Robinson's Cognition Hypothesis and the Triadic Componential Framework, this paper investigated the effect of manipulating task complexity along resource-dispersing dimension on L2 written performance. The results showed that: 1) Significant interactive effects were found between the two…

While a wealth of research shows the social and academic benefits of bilingualism and multilingualism, the education of bi/multilingual learners often focuses on transitioning students to English. Based on this fact, the first aim of this article is to highlight translanguaging as a model that challenges monoglossic language ideologies. The second…

The study investigates the effects of bilingualism and biliteracy on thought organisation, and syntactic complexity in the written production in a group of fifty 11-year-old children (M = 10.7) enrolled in 5th and 6th grades in a bilingual school in the south of Brazil. The children's home and community language is Portuguese, and they have been…