This article focuses upon the Japanese government's decision in 2009 to direct an 'English-only' strategy for English language education in senior high schools from 2013. In the "Course of Study 2009," and more recently again in the "Course of Study 2018," the Japanese government implicitly blames the local grammar-translation…

This article studies students' use of sentence variety in an ESL writing course. The study includes three sentence features: (a) sentence types, (b) sentence combining, and (c) sentence patterns. Although sentence variety is part of the curriculum, the actual use of sentence structures has not been measured so far. By understanding students' use…

The aim of grammar teaching in foreign language learning process is to teach the foreign language itself rather than the formal features of the language by ensuring the use of target language. However, German grammar courses in Turkey provide intensive training on grammar subjects. The textbooks also contain a very detailed list of grammatical…

Our study examines written corrective feedback generated by two online grammar checkers (GCs), Grammarly and Virtual Writing Tutor, and by the grammar checking function of Microsoft Word. We tested the technology on a wide range of grammatical error types from two sources: a set of authentic ESL compositions and a series of simple sentences we…

In the past decade (2007-2017), research on written corrective feedback (WCF) has been proliferating in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) and English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) contexts, and new developments in this field of research are evident. To synthesize the latest advancement in WCF research, a systematic review of recent literature on…

Different pedagogies employed in English language teaching (ELT) show varying degrees of use of first language (L1) and second language (L2). The choice is between teaching L2 through L2, teaching L2 through L1, or teaching using a mix of the two. Communicative language teaching (CLT) is a second language teaching approach that aims to create…

Globalisation has a great influence on the emergence of English as a lingua franca (ELF), particularly in tourism contexts. This paper reports on a piece of research that investigated variants and coinage in spoken ELF interactions between Thai locals and foreign tourists on Koh Lanta, Krabi. The nature of tourism encounters was brief and…

Writing and writing clearly is a highly complex activity that requires the coordination of several processes and subprocesses for it to be effective and purposeful. Across those demands, syntax and the ability to express ideas with clarity can significantly affect a writer's ability to communicate (Berninger, Nagy, & Beers, 2011) and the…

This study investigated the effect that the salience of an L2 form has on learner noticing and production of the form. The study also explored the effects that task type (output vs. input) has on form noticing and production. The study targeted three Arabic forms: a low salient form (the future tense) and two salient ones (time telling and time…

This article reports on a study investigating the second language (L2) acquisition of the plural and human features in Mandarin Chinese by adult Korean speakers. Both plural and human features are represented in Korean and Chinese, but assembled in different ways. Forty-eight L2 learners at beginner, intermediate, and advanced Chinese proficiency…

This study aims to establish whether any correlation exists between (1) students' reading habits, (2) knowledge of grammar, (3) creative thinking, and (4) academic writing. This study assessed 69 students from the English Department at the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education Sciences (FKIP), Bengkulu University, Indonesia, with them being…

The present study compares native and nonnative processing of Spanish active and passive sentences. The nonnative speakers were tested before and after receiving processing instruction on the Spanish passive. The native speakers were tested once and provide a baseline for comparisons. We measured accuracy and response time to select the correct…

This study investigates the effect of blended learning on the development of clause combining as an aspect of the acquisition of written discourse by Jordanians who are learning English as a foreign language. Sixty participants majoring in English language at the University of Jordan took part in this study. The participants were divided into…

Adopting the interactional linguistic framework, the study aimed at exploring the range and frequency of interactional functions of yes/no tokens used by Thai university students of A2 proficiency in their English conversation, and contrasting their use with that of English native speakers (ENSs). The data was derived from 83, two-three party…

This study examines the variable occurrence of preposition duplication in contexts of coordination in Spanish (e.g., "Fui con mi madre y (con) mi padre"). We build on previous research on this variable morphosyntactic phenomenon (namely, prepositions in contexts of coordination) by expanding the type of data and the independent variables…