This study used a mixed methods research design to investigate use of Web-based lexicographic tools during real-time second language (L2) writing activity in an English as a foreign language university context and the impact of their use on writing quality. Participants included 22 adult Japanese EFL learners, elementary to advanced language…

Over the past two decades, the Involvement Load Hypothesis (ILH) has become a popular buzzword in the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Although applications of the ILH can improve students' learning of productive vocabulary, this effect appears to be transitory. Students' learning of productive vocabulary often fades over time, as shown…

The use of technology such as online software has been examined in English as a foreign language (EFL) writing contexts. However, few studies have incorporated context-aware ubiquitous technology into EFL writing instruction. To develop multimodal and digital literacy of target EFL undergraduates in this pilot project, the researchers designed and…

Our study explored EFL writing skills in relation to self-experience in an authentic learning context with the help of a mobile application. Two authentic writing activities ('Tell your story' and 'Describe your context') were designed and compared to see if they resulted in significant differences in EFL writing performance and writing behavior.…

Web-based collaborative writing (CW) has been widely used in the field of English as a foreign language (EFL) during the last decade. Previous studies have mainly focused on how online platforms have facilitated the CW process for EFL learners, how web-based CW has shown progress in EFL learners' writing development, and how EFL learners in groups…

Prior research has shown that EFL learners who wrote collaboratively with partners using wikis improved the content quality and language accuracy of their L2 individual writing more than students who wrote individually. Drawing on the dataset from Hsu and Lo's study, the current study explores the nature of the students' collaborative dialogue…

In order to obtain qualifications to teach English as a foreign language (TEFL), teacher candidates often need to commit themselves to writing a master's (MA) thesis. In efforts to shed light on how MA thesis supervisors can support supervisees in the writing process, drawing on the theoretical framework of language socialisation, this article…

Computer-mediated collaborative writing has been increasingly implemented in L2 contexts due to wider awareness of affordances and benefits of Web 2.0 technologies. A systematic review of empirical studies over the recent decade is called forth in order to arouse broadened knowledge and provide new insights in this promising area. This study…

Although it remains controversial, machine translation (MT) has gained popularity both inside and outside of the classroom. Despite the growing number of students using MT, little is known about its use as a pedagogical tool in the EFL classroom. The present study investigated the role of MT as a CALL tool in EFL writing. Most studies on MT as a…

This study investigates the impact on extemporaneous English-language first drafts by using Google Translate (GT) in three different tasks assigned to Chinese sophomore, junior, and senior students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) majoring in English. Students wrote first in Chinese (Step 1), then drafted corresponding texts in English (Step…

Although the effectiveness of computer-mediated collaborative writing (CMCW) is confirmed by many recent studies, only a few have investigated whether linguistic knowledge and writing skills learned through collaboration can be internalized and transferred to individual writing. This study uses a pre-and post-test design to investigate the impact…

Few studies have investigated how metacognitive processes foster the application of genre knowledge to students' academic writing. This is largely due to its internal and unobservable characteristics. To bridge this gap, an online writing system based on metacognition, involving the stages of planning, monitoring, evaluating, and revising, was…

A number of studies have suggested the possible benefits of using concordancers in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing. To date, however, there is still limited understanding of how EFL writers may make use of such tools along with dictionaries when engaging in a writing task. To better understand the question, this study investigated a…

Recognizing that graduate students seldom have the opportunity to participate collaboratively, either in providing or receiving feedback to improve their academic writing skills, this study reports on the design of a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) system used to investigate how graduate students transform and construct their…

Blog use may offer instructors a helpful tool for teaching writing at the tertiary level in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) classrooms. This article reports on a quasi-experimental study regarding the effect of blog-centered writing instruction on students' writing performance. Fifty intermediate English students at a Turkish…