Dialogue journals have been used in a wide range of educational settings for quite some time. These written conversations between teachers and students are especially well suited for the ESL classroom. This article describes how many of the conditions known to foster second language acquisition are inherent in the dialogue journal. Traditionally,…

Recent communicative language teaching reforms in China have focused on the creative use of English in classroom activities. In response to these reforms, many students have chosen to use English names in classroom, online, and professional contexts, particularly with foreign teachers. Based at a university closely linked to national teaching…

The increasing use of innovative blended learning strategies which incorporate online discussion into the classroom requires the examination of asynchronous, computer mediated communication (ACMC) to fully understand the learners' total engagement and the contribution of such ICT tools to student learning. This study analysed students' online…

As Japanese uses three writing systems (hiragana, katakana, and the ideograms known as kanji), and as materials in the target language include all three, it is a major challenge to learn to read and write quickly. This paper focuses on interactive multi-media methods of teaching Japanese reading which foster learner autonomy. As little has been…

Most vocabulary teaching literature advises learners to keep vocabulary notebooks to help promote vocabulary acquisition as well as learner autonomy. Yet, there have been few studies of the vocabulary notebooks kept by students studying English as a foreign language. This study examined the vocabulary notebooks kept by 124 first year English…

This study examined the relationship between the metalinguistic reflections produced by French-speaking elementary school students and their actual learning of ESL. Using a before-after design, data was collected at the beginning (Time 1) and at the end (Time 2) of a 3-month period during which the participants kept a metalinguistic journal.…

The primary aim of this study was to assess the impact of a curricular intervention on study-abroad students' use of language- and culture-learning strategies and on their acquisition of requests and apologies. The intervention consisted of a brief face-to-face orientation to learning speech acts, a self-study guidebook on language and culture…

This What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) report examines the effect of "Instructional Conversations and Literature Logs" used in combination. The goal of "Instructional Conversations" is to help English language learners develop reading comprehension ability along with English language proficiency. "Instructional…

A discussion of diary studies, research on second language learning and teaching that uses student journals about the learning experience, defines the method, reviews a number of such studies, and examines the pros and cons of this approach. It is noted that diary studies are first-person case study research, a form of empirical (data-based)…

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which preservice teachers participating in a semester of urban immersion would evidence a change in attitudes toward urban teaching based on their experiences in the program. The experiences of 22 program participants were examined to qualify potential change. Study methodology…