Learner corpus research has expanded from focusing primarily on English as a second language (L2) to include languages such as L2 Spanish, reflecting the growing importance of corpus linguistics in second language acquisition (SLA) research. In this context, and because prompts are the means by which learner corpora gather their texts, it has…

Several barriers hinder students from producing clear and impactful written work. Writing assignments are often given on an individual basis, similar to homework, and without any assistance. Students in a classroom context have access to both their classmates and the teacher while they are working in groups or pairs as part of their assignments.…

This exploratory study sheds new light on students' perceptions of online feedback types for a complex writing task, summary writing from spoken input in a foreign language (L2), and investigates how these correlate with their actual learning to write. Students tend to favour clear-cut, instructivist rather than constructivist feedback, and guided…

Using textual analysis and interviews with student writers, this study aims to provide an insight into second language students' use of direct quotations in their MA theses by comparing direct quotations in high-rated and low-rated Master's theses, and by exploring student writers' own motivations to quote directly from sources. The corpus…

The purpose of the conference presentation upon which this paper is inspired was to present an innovative approach to motivate students to write in a second language during a first-year Spanish class. Usually, students comply with writing exercises that convey basic thoughts, due to constrained vocabulary and limited knowledge of grammatical…

This study investigates whether L2 instruction on the Spanish aspectual system containing a recognition task of the learners' L1 (Dutch) aspectual system helps the learner to understand and interiorise the L2 system. Second year Dutch university students (N = 20) took part in the experiment. In weekly groups of two to four, the students received…

Ease or difficulty of learning simplified and complex Chinese characters is examined in terms of recognition and reproduction. Empirical observations and careful studies of errors in learning situations lead to the conclusion that complex characters are harder to learn. Teaching of Chinese characters therefore should proceed from simplified to…

Presents an in-class writing exercise that is designed to stimulate creativity and promote sophistication of style in the advanced conversation and composition German language class. (GLR)

(Text is in French.)

This workbook accompanies the "Chinese (Cantonese) as a Second Language Reader." It contains a variety of exercises such as reading, translation, arranging words in order by number of strokes, changing from singular to plural, answering questions, copying, changing verbs to participle forms, and making statements negative or…

This booklet is a collection of Mullah Nasruddin tales that are commonly enjoyed in Afghanistan. These tales have been adapted to form a course in controlled composition for students studying English as a foreign language. After reading each tale the student is asked to carry out certain tasks. In addition to the simplest task, copying the passage…

Argues in favor of teaching writing in the FL class. The following specifics are discussed: 1) When should writing begin? 2) When should written work occur in a largely oral lesson? 3) How is writing introduced? 4) Which written exercises are worth doing? 5) When can creative writing begin? 6) Writing as a response to reality. (KM)

This booklet was designed for use with the textbook "Beginning Chinese," by John De Francis. It contains 23 charts, each illustrating a number of characters. The strokes of each character are numbered to indicate sequence, and small arrows indicate the direction of each stroke. (PMP)

Discusses the theoretical foundation for sentence combining exercises for intermediate and advanced students in English as a second language (ESL) composition classes. A description is given of a three-stage sequencing of exercises, each successive stage corresponding to a less-controlled level within Paulston's framework of mechical, meaningful,…

The occurrence of misleading cognates in the English compositions of students whose first language is Spanish can lead to a significant failure of communication between non-Spanish-speaking teachers and their students. Such a failure can produce attitudinal changes in both teacher and student that are potentially destructive to the learning…