Feedback to the test taker is a defining characteristic of diagnostic language testing (Alderson, 2005). This article reports on a study that investigated how much and in what ways students at a Taiwan university perceived the feedback to be useful on an online multiple-choice diagnostic English grammar test, both in general and by students of…

This paper reports on the development of a prototype tool which shows how learners can be helped to reflect upon the accuracy of their writing. Analysis of samples of freely written texts by intermediate and advanced learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) showed evidence of weakness in the use of tense and aspect. Computational discourse…

What helps us determine whether a word is a noun or a verb, without conscious awareness? We report on cues in the way individual English words are spelled, and, for the first time, identify their neural correlates via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We used a lexical decision task with trisyllabic nouns and verbs containing…

Individuals with Broca's aphasia often present with deficits in their ability to comprehend non-canonical sentences. This has been contrastingly characterized as a systematic loss of specific grammatical abilities or as individual variability in the dynamics between processing load and resource availability. The present study investigated sentence…

This paper provides a basic introduction to the genre-based literacy research undertaken over the past three decades by educators and functional linguists in Australia and their innovative contributions to literacy pedagogy and curriculum. It focuses on the concept of genre, its place within the model of language and context developed as systemic…

In this commentary, Lardiere's discussion of features is compared with the use of features in constraint-based theories, and it is argued that constraint-based theories might offer a more elegant account of second language acquisition (SLA). Further evidence is reported to question the accuracy of Chierchia's (1998) Nominal Mapping Parameter.…

This paper makes an attempt to highlight the significance of Chomskyan concepts of linguistic and cognitivism in restructuring educational ideals and directions regarding learning in Educational Psychology. His specific views on educational aspects are the need of the hour in education scenario especially in the context of globalization. This…

The article focuses on using creative play in the developmental writing classroom to enhance student engagement. Theories that support the use of play in the classroom are briefly described. Several teaching techniques are shared, including developing metaphors as part of teaching a grammar unit, acting out readings from novels, and using poetry…

Transfer has been discussed from different points of view since the advent of Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis [13], [8]. Mishina-Mori [19] has defied transfer as merging grammatical properties from one language to another. The effect of transfer from a first language (L1) to a second language (L2) or a third language (L3) has been viewed…

The role of grammar instruction in an ESL/EFL context has been for decades a major issue for students and teachers alike. Researchers have debated whether grammar should be taught in the classroom and students, for their part, have generally looked upon grammar instruction as a necessary evil at best, and an avoidable burden at worst. The paper…

Many EFL teachers spend a lot of time marking students' written assignments and correcting their spelling, grammatical, punctuation, organization and idea generation errors in detail. The more students make mistakes, the more meticulously they mark and correct mistakes. Despite meticulous error correction, students continue to make the same…

This study investigated differences in the structure of stories created by children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and their comparison peers. Children created one story without pictorial cues and one with pictorial cues available. Without cues, children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder told fewer stories based on a…

Authority in the classroom is an important concept to teachers everywhere. The act of teaching continuously engages them in the negotiation and construction of an identity that is accepted as authoritative by their students. Identity and authority, however, are in conflict in the context of NNSTs ["non-native" speaker teachers] of English (and…

As part of a larger project focused on transforming mathematics education for Aboriginal students in Atlantic Canada, this paper reports on the role of the Mi'kmaw language in mathematics teaching. Examining how mathematical concepts are described in Mi'kmaq gives insight into ways of thinking. Shifting classroom discussions to reflect Mi'kmaw…

This descriptive observational study aimed at exploring the form-focused instruction (FFI) interventions used by four French and four English as-a-second-language high school teachers to draw their students' attention to form. With the help of an Intervention-on-Form(s)-Observation Scheme (IFOS) developed and tested for this purpose, each FFI…