This research investigated how the bug tracker database of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) Moodle is developed as an application of crowd work. The bug tracker is used by software developers, who write and maintain Moodle's code, but also by a wider public world of ordinary Moodle users who can report bugs. Despite many studies of the…

A growing emphasis on computational thinking worldwide necessitates student proficiency in creating algorithms. Focusing on the use of counterexamples for developing student-invented algorithms, I reanalyze two pieces of data from previously published research, pertaining to two different cases of students' algorithmatizing activity. In both…

This study embarks on the question in the title with the construct of epistemological status, which pertains to the solver's satisfaction with the way and the degree to which their solution had fulfilled their intellectual and psychological needs in a particular problem situation. The construct is used to hypothesize that a solver's decision to…

The idea that task-based learning can be facilitated through negotiated interaction has been a major object of research amongst scholars interested in task-based language teaching for at least 30 years. In this article, I focus largely on one particular type of negotiation--the negotiation of form (hereafter NoF). My purpose is not to cast doubt…

We report on an exploratory study comparing the performance as online tutors of two groups of beginner eleven-year-old students of English in Colombia and Spanish in New Zealand. The native speaker students of the foreign language the others were learning corrected paragraphs written by their peers. The feedback provided by each group of tutors…

This study investigates the occurrence of corrective feedback and uptake in child ESOL classes. Transcripts of 8.1 hours of lessons in 6 ESOL classes in a New Zealand primary school were analysed to explore the relationship between errors, feedback, and uptake. The results revealed that there was a clear preference for recasts and explicit…

This paper examines dynamism in students' situational willingness to communicate (WTC) within a second language classroom. This longitudinal study involved twelve English as a Second Language (ESL) participants who enrolled in an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programme in New Zealand for five months. Based on data from classroom…

This article presents the results of a study examining the effectiveness of written corrective feedback (CF) on the simple past tense and the impact beliefs may have on students' uptake of the feedback they receive. A seven-week study was carried out with 42 advanced EFL learners in Vientiane, Laos. Students' beliefs about written CF were first…

The effectiveness of different types of written corrective feedback has been investigated over the last twenty years but it is still not possible to make firm conclusions about which options are the most beneficial to ESL learners. This article first provides an overview of the currently available research findings and then presents the results of…

One of the critical factors contributing to the effectiveness of human tutoring is the conversational aspect of the instruction. Our goal is to develop a general model for supporting dialogues with menu-based input that could be used in both well- and ill-defined instructional tasks. We have previously studied how human tutors provide additional…

This study was designed to explore children's understanding of formative assessment and its effects on their learning, in order to establish what learners perceive as important to help them improve their learning. The study found that children have a good understanding of the concepts of feedback, and can articulate clearly the elements most…

Investigations into the most effective ways to provide ESL learners with written corrective feedback have often been overly comprehensive in the range of error categories examined. As a result, clear conclusions about the efficacy of such feedback have not been possible. On the other hand, oral corrective feedback studies have produced clear,…

The call for longitudinal evidence on the efficacy of written corrective feedback (WCF) for ESL (English as a second language) writers has been made repeatedly since Truscott (1996) claimed that it is ineffective, harmful, and should therefore be abandoned. This article discusses some of the theoretical issues raised against the practice, outlines…

The extent to which ESL learners benefit from written corrective feedback has been debated at length since Truscott (1996) mounted a case for its abolition. Ten years later, the debate continues, not only because little attention has been given to testing its efficacy over time but also because studies that have investigated the issue have not…

Although many second language learners still study in a traditional, face-to-face classroom, an increasing number of students now participate in virtual classrooms and communicate online. Regardless of the mode of communication, interaction and focus on form can be considered important components of the learning environment. This paper reports on…