With the recent development of internet and mobile technology, a new kind of e-text communication is emerging. From messenger chatting, mobile texting, to social networking through Twitter or Facebook, e-text communication is becoming a main communication channel, especially for the younger generation. However, there has not been sufficient…

In the field of teaching and learning Chinese as a foreign language (CFL), most studies investigate Chinese character learning strategies in pen-and-paper study by campus-based students. With the increase in distance-learning, and expanding popularity of smartphones and tablets and widespread availability of mobile applications for language…

Supervisors' feedback can be taken as the most powerful pedagogical tool in thesis writing. However, relatively little is known about the type of information supervisors focus on and the language functions supervisors use to communicate with their students. Data collected from eight supervisors' written feedback to students' theses at Bahir Dar…

Responding to children's expressed needs and preferences can improve their self-esteem and motivation for learning. However, some groups of children and young people may find it more difficult to express their needs and preferences. This article reviews the research evidence on methods used to gather the views of children with an autism spectrum…

This short report is a summary of the findings from "Storycraft: The Importance of Narrative and Narrative Skills in Business." This ground-breaking report reveals how prominent business leaders in the United Kingdom view and utilise narrative as an integral part of doing business. Based on extensive interviews with 34 business leaders,…

Even as deficit model science communication falls out of favor, few studies question how written science communication constructs relationships between science and industry. Here, I investigate how textual microprocesses relate scientific research to industry practice in the Washington State wine industry, helping (or hindering) winemakers and…

Spelling skills have been identified as one of the major barriers to written text production in young English writers. By contrast oral language skills and text generation have been found to be less influential in the texts produced by beginning writers. To date, our understanding of the role of spelling skills in transparent orthographies is…

The current study reports on a meta-analysis of the relative effectiveness of interaction in synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) and face-to-face (FTF) contexts. The primary studies included in the analysis were journal articles and dissertations completed between 1990 and 2012 (k = 14). Results demonstrate that interaction in SCMC…

The era of visual communication influences the cognitive strategies of the individual. Education, too, must adjust to these changes, which raises questions regarding the use of visualisation in teaching. In the present study, we examine the impact of visualisation on the ability of high school students to memorise text. In the theoretical part of…

Khoisan languages are spoken by various culturally diverse communities of Southern Africa. These languages also present an important linguistic diversity. Some of Khoisan languages communities are generally under-researched, marginalized and experiencing sustained sociolinguistic forces that threaten them. For those that have been documented,…

Here I present the background to, and a description of, a newly developed database of historical and contemporary lexical data for Australian languages (Chirila), concentrating on the Pama-Nyungan family (the largest family in the country). While the database was initially developed in order to facilitate research on cognate words and…

Automaticity, or instant recognition of combinations of letters as units of language, is essential for proficient reading in any language. The article explores automaticity amongst competent adult first-language readers of isiZulu, and the factors associated with it or its opposite - active decoding. Whilst the transparent spelling patterns of…

As Western schooling continues to expand and reach remote communities, it is imperative to understand rural parents' beliefs about formal education and the ways in which they can support their children's schooling. Sociodemographic changes in rural communities have been connected to shifts in parents' cultural values and practices (Greenfield,…

This paper evaluates the contribution of instructional technology to advanced-level foreign/second language learning (AL2) over the past thirty years. It is shown that the most salient feature of AL2 practice and associated Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) research are their rarity and restricted nature. Based on an analysis of four…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of no planning and online planning on complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) in L2 spoken and written tasks. The study was designed into 2x2 with two independent variables: planning conditions (no planning and online planning) and task modality (speaking and writing). First, 80 Korean EFL…