There is widespread concern about declining literacy skills in recent young Japanese. The present study investigated how higher-level reading and writing proficiencies are underpinned by basic literacy skills in Japanese adolescents. From a large database of the most popular literacy exams in Japan, we retrospectively analyzed word- and text-level…

This study aims to examine whether differences exist in the factors influencing the difficulty of scoring English summaries and determining scores based on the raters' attributes, and to collect candid opinions, considerations, and tentative suggestions for future improvements to the analytic rubric of summary writing for English learners. In this…

This study aimed to elucidate the organization and developmental sequences of macro-structure elements in the written narratives of 44 students in Japan, aged 7-11 years and attending the same school, who were deaf or hard of hearing (DHH). A high-point analysis of oral paper puppet play storylines revealed that the students were able to develop…

Second language (L2) writing is a subfield within the field of applied linguistics concerned with applying knowledge and insights from linguistics, psychology, and education to develop teaching approaches for those who need to acquire L2 writing skills for academic or work purposes (Belcher, 2012). Much research on L2 writers over the past five…

Writing is the result of our desire to express our feelings, thoughts, dreams, and ourselves. In today's education, with the penetration of technology into our lives, what we express not only on paper but also on the screen is within the scope of writing skills. Writing is a language skill that requires high-level mental skills such as producing a…

This study investigated how well second language (L2) readers of English use context to identify proper names as such. It represents a first step in exploring a widely held assumption that L2 readers of English can easily identify proper names by their form and function. The study isolates the issue of function to investigate whether context alone…

Aural vocabulary knowledge (AVK) of high-frequency words is critical for second language listening comprehension. However, learners of English as a foreign language (EFL), despite considerable periods of language study, often do not have the AVK needed for basic communicative competence. A mixed methods approach is applied to determine whether…

Like all school textbooks, geography textbooks are authored. Almost all textbook research in and beyond geography has neglected their authors. This questionnaire-based multinational research project investigated the perceptions of 71 primary and secondary school geography textbook authors from seven countries in five continents. Though not…

The study examined the impact of a first language's summarizing skill and second language vocabulary size on summary performances in a second language. A total of 40 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners from a Japanese university with a mixed level of English language proficiency were asked to write a summary in English (i.e., their…

Why is it important to discuss writing instruction at the global level? When a refugee student enters the English classroom, it may be helpful to know the philosophy and practice of writing instruction in other parts of the world to help better understand this new student. To better understand the views of writing instructional practices across…

This volume features current, innovative, and effective ways of developing instructional materials for diverse English Language Teaching (ELT) contexts. It is divided into four sections, each featuring pedagogical materials designed for specific groups of learners. The sections focus on materials for general English, ESP and EAP, CLIL, and ELT…

The various possibilities that social media offers to language learners and teachers have long been recognized by researchers within the field of language instruction, and many studies have been carried out in an attempt to address and unpack its potential contributions. This paper aims to review such research on the use of mainstream social media…

In this pilot study, two second year writing classes at a university in Japan completed two group writing tasks using Microsoft Word and Google Docs. After both tasks were completed, the students (N=45) completed a short survey containing Likert scale items about their preferences when writing under the different conditions. Willing individuals…

While the use of automated writing evaluation software has received much attention in CALL literature, as Frankenberg-Garcia (2019) notes, empirical research on predictive text and intelligent writing assistants is lacking. Thus, this study addressed this gap in the literature by examining the impact of Grammarly, an intelligent writing assistant…

This paper reports on results of empirical research investigating written summaries of first-year Japanese university students, their task representations of summary writing, and the relationships between their representations and task performance. Data for this study were obtained by asking 108 students to read an English text and write a summary…