There are a number of functions paragraphs play in discourse studies. For example, it encourages a writer to give adequate focus to the various aspects of his or her message; and it facilitates the identification of one idea in an essay to another idea. Some classical second language writers (for example: Stern, 1976; Halliday & Hasan, 1976;…

English is widely recognized as an international language for education communication, which has led to the development of several English for Academic Purposes (EAP) subjects for Thai students learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL), especially in specialized school programs. The primary objective of these EAP subjects is to prepare Thai…

The syntactic complexities of English sentence structures induced the Indonesian students' sentence-level accuracies blurred. Reciprocally, the meanings conveyed are left hanging. The readers are increasingly at sixes and sevens. The Sentence Crimes were, therefore, the major essences of diagnosing the students' sentence-level inaccuracies in this…

This report discusses AERO's 2022 analysis of student writing data -- the most extensive investigation into this area ever conducted in Australia. AERO's researchers analysed more than 10 million NAPLAN writing results, spanning 2011 to 2021, and 366 samples of students' NAPLAN writing. Overall, our research suggests that students' writing skills…

In 2022 Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) researchers analysed more than 10 million NAPLAN writing results, spanning 2011 to 2021, and 366 samples of students' NAPLAN writing. Overall, the research suggests that students' writing skills have declined over 7 years (2011 to 2018), with many high school students significantly behind…

The benefits for students of English as a second language of reading abstracts are considered, and the functions and types of abstracts are reviewed. In addition, the results of a survey of Ben Gurion University (Israel) lecturers regarding their reading habits and use of abstracts are briefly addressed. It is suggested that when abstracts are…

A study investigating the influence of certain features of cohesion and coherence on Israeli college students' difficulty in reading English expository texts examined the reader's ability to understand sequences of propositions and familiarity with markers of cohesion. Three methods were used to investigate the problem: application of a…

A survey of 34 professors teaching English as a second language in 20 Japanese universities elicited information about common errors in student writing. In open-ended questions, respondents identified 40 student error types, which were grouped into 18 categories. The most common problem category was sentence development, and other high-frequency…