The positive effects of dynamic written corrective feedback (DWCF) on linguistic accuracy are well-documented (Evans et al., 2010). However, studies on DWCF without exception have adopted a pretest--posttest research design; therefore, they were unable to explore the dynamics of development (Larsen-Freeman, 2006). In addition, all previous DWCF…

"How can teachers help students improve their second language (L2) speaking accuracy?" This is a question that most L2 educators ask themselves every day. Although L2 writing is a popular topic among Second Language Acquisition (SLA) researchers, the consideration that L2 writing has the potential to act as a scaffold for L2 speaking…

The aims of the current project included to (a) describe the use of connectives in written language samples by fifth grade students, (b) examine differences in connective use between groups who differed in English proficiency and exceptionalities, and (c) examine the predictive relationship between connective measures and writing quality ratings.…

Previous research has explored how L2 students with one specific level of English proficiency engage with teacher written corrective feedback (WCF) underpinned by a tripartite dimensional construct of student engagement in the context of Chinese public universities. Yet, scant attention has been paid to how students of differing proficiency levels…

Students always need sincere and kind guidance from the teachers. Hence, a true customer orientation is instrumental in teaching English as it is always good to understand the students' needs to improve their performance. This paper addresses the requirement to understand the students' needs and then teach accordingly to improve the quality of the…

The purpose of this research was to identify the common errors made in English writing by Malaysian Chinese primary year 6 ESL students and to determine the extent of the influence of the first language, Mandarin in ESL writing. The Mandarin language uses a logographic writing system while the English language is written in alphabetic scripts. The…

In the present study, we examined the relation of knowledge of semantic radicals to students' language proficiency and word reading for adult Chinese-as-a-foreign language students. Ninety-seven college students rated their proficiency in speaking, listening, reading, and writing in Chinese, and were administered measures of receptive and…

In school, deaf and hard of hearing students (d/hh) are often exposed to American Sign Language (ASL) while also developing literacy skills in English. ASL does not have a written form, but is a fully accessible language to the d/hh through which it is possible to mediate understanding, draw on prior experiences, and engage critical thinking and…

This volume is a collection of selected refereed papers presented at the Association of Teachers of Japanese Annual Spring Conference held at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa in March of 2011. It not only covers several important topics on teaching and learning spoken and written Japanese and culture in and beyond classroom settings, but also…

Aiming at the requirements of the maritime English correspondence, the language characteristics of the maritime English correspondence are analyzed in this article, and the factors influencing the written skills of the maritime English correspondence are discussed, and the principles of "7C" including the courtesy, the consideration, the…

One of the major innovations of the "TOEFL iBT"® test is the incorporation of integrated tasks complementing the independent tasks to which examinees respond. In addition, examinees must produce discourse in both modes (speech and writing). The validity argument for the TOEFL iBT includes the claim that examinees vary their discourse in…

The relationship between interpretation and stylistics in translation criticism is discussed. In a four-level model for translation criticism, zero-level translations reflect no semiostylistic techniques; levels one and two demonstrate elementary and sophisticated linguistic-stylistic procedures; and the highest level translations reflect the…

Ten objective measures of writing proficiency were used to evaluate advanced ESL students' compositions. Only those objective measures taking the absence of errors into account discriminated among holistic evaluations of the compositions by experienced ESL teachers. (PMJ)

The controversial oral English Bagrut examination is seen as a means to prepare students for their written Bagrut exam, specifically to encourage the active use of the English language. (LB)

The question of whether students perform linguistically differently when writing under examination conditions than when writing term essays is addressed in this working paper. The study was prompted by the feeling by many students that their linguistic performance deteriorates in examination conditions and that this deterioration makes a…