This article reports on a study that was primarily aimed at investigating the effects of simultaneous use of careful online planning and task repetition on accuracy, complexity, and fluency in the oral production of learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). The effects of four planning and task repetition conditions (i.e. careful online…

Informed by the narrative inquiry approach (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990), this qualitative study examined preservice teachers' narratives to investigate what they think, know, and believe in teaching English learners. Beyond just telling stories, narrative structures and meanings were examined with the goal of gaining insight of the preservice…

This is a collaborative writing project that is ideally suited for introducing longer narrative writing to second-year students. It involves collaborative learning, group dynamics and extended narrative writing. In the "Rockgruppe-Semesterprojekt", groups of students form fictional rock bands, develop tour itineraries through the German-speaking…

We examined recalled narratives of boys with fragile X syndrome with autism spectrum disorder (FXS-ASD; N = 28) and without ASD (FXS-O; N = 29), and compared them to those of boys with Down syndrome (N = 33) and typically developing (TD) boys (N = 39). Narratives were scored for mentions of macrostructural story grammar elements (introduction,…

For students with visual impairments, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become an important means through which they can learn and access learning materials at various levels of education. However, their learning experiences in using such form of technologies have been rarely documented, thus suggests society's lack of…

Research Findings: This study aimed to explain age and cultural differences in the narrative development of 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old Korean and Taiwanese children. The participants comprised 140 children of middle-class, two-parent families, half from each cultural group. Children were individually interviewed about their experience of visiting…

In this semi-autobiographical essay I explore the representation and performance of imaginative inquiry practices in educational inquiry and other disciplines, with particular reference to "thought experiments" in the natural sciences and comparable practices in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. I share a number of experiences…

Many films are based on novels. However, each of them uses different ways to tell the similar stories. The paper discusses the differences from several aspects in terms of their nature, ways of narration, as well as the effect they bring about. It mainly focuses on the special benefits of using films in English language teaching. Finally, a sample…

Narrative is said to be an important way that humans come to understand their world as it is and as it can be. If this is true, then literary narrative must possess significant value since it has historically and cross-culturally received much attention and appreciation. This study gives an account of the cognitive value of literature in terms of…

Storytelling is a wonderful way to share the rich emotions of life. It allows adults to connect with children in personal and powerful ways, building a sense of trust and community between the performer and the audience. In this article, the author offers an approach to learning and sharing stories. The author also provides twenty-two…

This project examined the words selected for instruction from fourth-grade English/Language Arts (ELA) and science programs with the goal of describing the unique words in these two text types. Seven features of the words were established: (a) length, (b) frequency, (c) frequency of a word's morphological family, (d) familiarity, (e) dispersion…

Two experiments examined whether text quality is related to online management of the writing processes. Experiment 1 focused on the relationship between online management and text quality in narrative and argumentative texts. Experiment 2 investigated how this relationship might be affected by a goal emphasizing text quality. In both experiments,…

Changes in global patterns of residence mean that preschool teachers welcome immigrant children and families into preschools in increasing numbers. Many teachers report both anticipation and apprehension about having immigrant children in the classroom. Apprehension is related to concerns about a lack of enough knowledge about languages and…

Previous studies on the effect of planning on language production have revealed that planning does have a positive effect on language performance in terms of fluency, complexity, and accuracy. The present study was an attempt to investigate the effects of pre-task, on-line, and both pre-task and on-line planning on fluency, accuracy, and…

A multiple-baseline design across subjects was used to investigate the effects of word prediction and text-to-speech alone and in combination on four narrative composition-writing skills (writing fluency, syntax, spelling accuracy, and overall organization) of six fifth-grade Hispanic boys with specific learning disabilities (SLD). Participants…