Purpose: This case study aims to demonstrate that lean principles and practices utilized in industry can be successfully applied to improve higher education administrative processes through an innovative and engaging learning experience involving undergraduate students. Design/methodology/approach: This is a first-hand account by the instructor of…

The defining feature of immersion language learning is the omnipresent pressure to communicate in the second language (L2), even as incipient skills are being acquired. This study uses the focused essay technique to investigate ambivalence about communicating among adolescent French immersion students (12-14 years of age). Students described…

Collocations are one of the most important elements in language proficiency but the effect of error correction feedback of collocations has not been thoroughly examined. Some researchers report the usefulness and importance of error correction (Hyland, 1990; Bartram & Walton, 1991; Ferris, 1999; Chandler, 2003), while others showed that error…

Corrective feedback has been discussed mainly in second language acquisition contexts, but less has been done concerning corrective feedback in foreign language settings. In this descriptive study, conducted at a Mexican university, our aims were to identify the perceptions of instructors of English as a foreign language about corrective feedback…

The purpose of this action research project report was to increase reading fluency for 38 third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students. The teacher researches collected data from a Parent Survey (n=26), Student Survey (n=38), Teacher Survey (n=12), and Teacher Interviews (n=4) for a total of 80 participants. Data was collected from September 8, 2011…

In this paper, both a cognitive and a sociocultural theoretical perspective are used to bring together findings from two studies that investigated the effects of instruction designed to enhance the potentially positive effect of peer interaction on L2 development. Despite differences between the studies' learning contexts, participants' age, and…

This article is based on a survey on the attitudes towards the error correction by their teachers in the process of teaching and learning and it is intended to improve the language teachers' understanding of the nature of error correction. Based on the analysis, the article expounds some principles and techniques that can be applied in the process…

Repair strategies are the ways in which students resolve conversational problems in speaking, hearing and understanding. While there is a plethora of research on college and adult students' repair strategies usage, limited research has been done on the repair strategies usage of elementary school students, more specifically, English as a Second…

In society, expertise bestows directive power--the authority to tell others what to do and how to do it, or simply to do it for them. In a school system that still operates on an authoritarian model, the author's expertise as a writer and teacher gives her directive prerogative when responding to student writing. Traditionally, teachers have used…

Wikipedia is a reliable encyclopedia with over seven million articles in several languages all contributed and maintained by volunteers. To learn more about what drives people to devote their time and expertise to building and maintaining this remarkable resource, surveys with Likert-scaled items measuring different types of motivations were…

Drawing on an interview-based study of the beliefs, practices, and experiences of 16 proofreaders of student writing at undergraduate and/or graduate level in a university setting, this paper focuses on the ethical concerns informants associate with the proofreading act. "Proofreading" is defined for the purposes of this research as "third-party…

A substantial number of studies have examined the effects of grammar correction on second language (L2) written errors. However, most of the existing research has involved unidirectional written feedback. This classroom-based study examined the effects of oral negotiation in addressing L2 written errors. Data were collected in two intermediate…

This study investigates the use of writing portfolios in improving the accuracy of French immersion students' written French. It emerged from regularly observed notable and repeated errors in many of the author's students' writing (entitled fossilized errors due their resistance to correction). This study reaffirms that students of French…

This paper presents a comparative analysis of corrective feedback provided by participants in an eTandem interaction between university students in Japan and Australia who were learning each other's language. Corrective feedback provided to tandem partners during interaction via text-based Synchronous Computer Mediated Communication (SCMC) is…

University programs often require preservice music educators to complete some small- or large-group instruction before beginning student teaching. One of the tools used to deepen these preservice teaching experiences and consequently the pedagogical knowledge for these teachers is to have them reflect on their teaching episodes. Video reflection…