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…

In his article in an "American Annals of the Deaf" special issue that also includes the present article, Grushkin (EJ1174123) divides his discussion of a written sign system into three basic parts. The first presents arguments against the development of a written form of American Sign Language; the second provides a rationale…

As the first Huayu dictionary published by the Commercial Press, "A Dictionary of Global Huayu" (Chinese Language) did a pioneer work in many aspects. It did expand the influence of Chinese and provided Chinese speaker abroad a valuable reference book for study and communication. Nevertheless, there are still some demerits. First of all,…

In this commentary, we build on Xinying Yin and Gayle Buck's discussion by exploring the cultural practices which are integral to formative assessment, when it is viewed as a sociocultural practice. First we discuss the role of assessment and in particular oral and written formative assessments in both western and Samoan cultures, building on the…

In this article, we take up and expand upon a number of issues of linguistic theory raised in Ursula Ritzau's recent article "Learner language and polylanguaging: how language students' ideologies relate to their written language use" published in the "Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism". The present critique is…

This essay on three recent books by outstanding scholars--"La raison scolaire" by Bernard Lahire, "Histoire de l'enseignement du francais du XVII[superscript e] au XX[superscript e] siecle" by Andre Chervel, and "L'ecole et la lecture obligatoire" by Anne-Marie Chartier--offers the opportunity to acquaint readers with…

Michael Rosen, writer, performer, broadcaster and teacher, has been teaching in universities since 1994. He has an MA in Children's Literature from Reading University and a PhD from the University of North London. The father of five children, he discusses in this article his views on Genre Theory, and how he believes it has slipped between the…

In this paper, we argue that second language (L2) reading research, which has been informed by studies involving first language (L1) alphabetic English reading, may be less relevant to L2 readers with non-alphabetic reading backgrounds, such as Chinese readers with an L1 logographic (Chinese character) learning history. We provide both…

This paper responds to Michael Rosen's blog entries, "How Genre Theory Saved the World", arguing that genre theory in the tradition of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) has made an important contribution to language and literacy pedagogy. It emerged in the Australian context in about 1980 and was initially developed in response to…

A subcommittee of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Executive Committee wrote the "NCTE Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing" in 2004. In over a decade since, the everyday experience of writing in people's lives has expanded dramatically. Increasingly, handheld devices are important instruments for people's writing,…

Our article describing the characteristics of gifted students with a specific learning disability (SLD) in written language was criticized for emphasizing an ability achievement discrepancy as an indication of a written language disability and for not ruling out alternative explanations for the observed difficulties. The three primary alternative…

This article presents the argument that consideration of non-European and nonalphabetic writing makes possible new understandings of literacy and, in addition, that contemporary literacy forms and practices can be fully understood only by expanding our historical perspective. The field of literacy research remains largely unaware of the multimodal…

Grammars of signed languages tend to be based on grammars established for written languages, particularly the written language in use in the surrounding hearing community of a sign language. Such grammars presuppose categories of discrete elements which are combined into various sorts of structures. Recent analyses of signed languages go beyond…

"Voice" is no longer a hot term in composition journals. Yet it continues to deserve scholarly attention, in part because it is still often referred to in classrooms and seems applicable to new forms of electronic communication. At the same time, we should avoid taking an either/or stand on the usefulness of "voice" as a term. This is a case where…