Software can facilitate English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students' self-correction of their free-form writing by detecting errors; this article examines the proportion of errors which software can detect. A corpus of 13,644 words of written English was created, comprising 90 compositions written by Spanish-speaking students at levels A2-B2…

Although corrective feedback (CF) has received much interest in the second language acquisition literature, relatively little research has investigated the relationship between CF and learner affect in concrete practice situations. The present study investigates learners' affective states and practice behaviour in a novel context: oral grammar…

This study investigated the effects of two modes of corrective feedback, namely, face-to-face recasts and computer-mediated recasts during video-conferencing on Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' second language (L2) development. Moreover, the accuracy of the learners' interpretations of recasts in the two modalities was…

Research shows that computer-generated corrective feedback can promote second language development, but there is no consensus about which type is the most effective. The scale is tipped in favor of more explicit feedback that provides metalinguistic explanations, but counterevidence indicates that minimally explicit feedback of the…

A Web-based form-focused intelligent computer-assisted language learning (ICALL) tutoring system equipped with a process-oriented corrective feedback function was developed to investigate the extent to which such a program may serve as a viable method of teaching grammar to Korean secondary and elementary students. The present study was also…

Expressing causal relations plays a central role in academic writing. While it is important that writing instructors assess and provide feedback on learners' causal discourse, it could be a very time-consuming task. In this respect, automated writing evaluation (AWE) tools may be helpful. However, to date, there have been no AWE tools capable of…

The optimal timing of feedback on formative assessments is an open question, with the cognitive processing window theory (Doughty, 2001) underlying the interaction approach suggesting that immediate feedback may be most beneficial for language acquisition (e.g., Gass, 2010; Polio, 2012) and two educational psychology hypotheses conversely…

The error-correction program "Criterion" provides students with an immediate essay feedback using tools that can analyze and review writing automatically. This feedback covers grammar, usage, mechanics, style, organization, and development. With its diagnostic tools for scoring essays and offering relevant feedback, the error-correction…

Input exposure is essential for nonprimary language learning, but the importance of explicit instruction and corrective feedback continues to be debated. If instruction is required, how might it be optimized in terms of its nature and timing? In this study, 65 Spanish-English bilinguals were introduced to Latin through an interactive computer…

In contrast to standardised assessment, dynamic assessment (DA) simultaneously combines teaching and assessment activities. The key difference between standardised and dynamic approaches lies in the fact that, in the latter, an expert is allowed to provide assistance to a novice during the assessment process. Mediation, whether in the form of…

Research addressing the effectiveness of feedback for learning has focused on many dimensions of feedback, including the timing (Kulik & Kulik, 1988), type (Mory, 2004), and amount of available information (Dempsey et. al, 1993). Much of the feedback research in education has tacitly assumed that the available information is perceived, and any…

This study attempts to reconcile viewpoints on the role of errors in the design of computer-based training (CBT) systems. From one perspective, errors are detrimental to learning; from another, they can be beneficial. The results of an experiment are presented and discussed. When a CBT system is designed to allow learners to correct their own…

Pedagogical features and implementation of a UNIX-based management system (UNIEM) designed to support the instructor in teaching English as a second language using a network of workstations are described. The application discussed here is for teaching English composition to students at the University of Aizu (Japan). UNIEM is constructed to assist…