In her article, Icy Lee (2019, pp. 524-536) discusses the differences between comprehensive written corrective feedback (CWCF) and focused written corrective feedback (FWCF). She argues that teachers should concentrate more on focused feedback, and highlight and correct only a few grammar errors or issues with organisation, for example, instead of…

In her position article, Lee (2019) compellingly argues for focused written corrective feedback (FWCF) and offers clear guidelines for teachers to shift their feedback approach. As English language teaching practitioners in Chinese universities, we share Lee's view against any unthinking adherence to comprehensive written corrective feedback…

The curriculum resources used for teaching secondary mathematics vary considerably from school to school. Some schools base their teaching largely on a single published scheme, while others design their own schemes of learning, curating their resources from a range of (often free) online sources. Both approaches seem problematic from the…

Professor of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) Robert DeKeyser is from the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Maryland. His research builds bridges between the theory of second language acquisition with major concerns in cognitive aspects such as implicit and explicit learning mechanism, age differences, and…

Montessori environments offer concrete learning materials, with controls of error embedded in their design, that support independence, engage the child's interest, and provide individual challenges. Yet, over time, Crystal Dahlmeier has observed changes in some Montessori environments: worksheets taking the place of hands-on work with materials;…

In a recent paper, Anthony Bruton argued that correction receives too much attention and that the debate over it (which he calls "the Truscott debate") is "a rather tedious sterile academic debate" that has harmed the field. He dismissed the case against correction, based on arguments that uncorrected students do not improve, some general…

Intelligent language tutoring systems (ILTS) typically analyze learner input to diagnose learner language properties and provide individualized feedback. Despite a long history of ILTS research, such systems are virtually absent from real-life foreign language teaching (FLT). Taking a step toward more closely linking ILTS research to real-life…

In this paper we argue in favour of teaching English as a second language to the Bengali learners with direct utilisation of English corpora. The proposed strategy is meant to be assisted with computer and is based on data, information, and examples retrieved from the present-day English corpora developed with various text samples composed by…

This paper presents a critical analysis of two recent studies on error correction, Ellis, Sheen, Murakami, and Takashima (2008) and Bitchener (2008) and argues that neither study constitutes evidence for error correction based on discussion of the comparability of participants, design issues, and analysis flaws in both studies. The paper further…

While programs have been established to support secondary level English Learners (ELs) in their transition to institutions of higher education (IHEs), limited attention has been given to how to support adult ELs who struggle with the academic language demands of their college or university content-area courses. Research indicates that many EL…

Using the British "Index to Theses", we found forty-seven Ph.D.s relating to second and foreign language learning and/or teaching defended in English universities in 2006. Objective criteria led us to fourteen theses which had investigated both teaching and learning. Over half of these adopted a process-product research design with the…

Correction and repair as components of an instructional practice that facilitates learning have figured prominently in research on classroom-based second and foreign language learning. Recent studies incorporating a conversation analytic (CA) perspective on second language acquisition (SLA) have also focused on repair and correction. From a CA…

Business professionals and instructors often view writing skills as one of the most important qualifications that employees should possess. However, many business employees, including recent college graduates, have serious writing deficiencies, especially in their ability to use standard English. As a result, American businesses spend billions of…

Critiques a study on instruction, first language influence, and developmental readiness in second language acquisition. Agrees with conclusions of the study but argues that the study itself provided no justification for the conclusion other than what has been evident in research carried out on Quebec francophone school learners of English. The…

To provide some perspective on current issues and challenges concerning the role of grammar in language teaching, methodological trends of the past 25 years are reviewed. A proposal for a decision-making strategy is provided for resolving the controversy regarding how much grammar one should teach to language learners. (VWL)