This paper reports an investigation into how the prompt may influence the discourse of group oral tests. The group oral test, in which three or four participants are rated on their ability to discuss a prompt, is a format for assessing the spoken ability of language learners. In this study, 141 Japanese university students were videoed in 41 group…

Despite the growing popularity of paired format speaking assessments, the effects of pre-task planning time on performance in these formats are not yet well understood. For example, some studies have revealed the benefits of planning but others have not. Using a multifaceted approach including analysis of the process of speaking performance, the…

Taking an effective authorial stance in research argumentation has been designated as both vitally important and challenging. The study investigated English as a foreign language (EFL) doctoral students' conceptions of authorial stance, the role of domains in affecting their conceptions, and the ties of the conceptions to the participants'…

This paper studies the situated meaning given to a so-called "welcome" service for international students at a Catalan university. The official business of the service is to offer support with bureaucratic procedures and information about available services, including those for learning Catalan. However, the complex range of overlapping…

With the rise in popularity of microblogging, we must consider whether such social networking can be harnessed to bring benefits and outcomes to the professional development of teachers. Recent research shows us that Twitter is becoming more and more popular in classrooms, and has documented benefits in educational outcomes. This paper discusses…

In this article, we discuss how our analysis of several popular culture artifacts featuring "super" women characters (superheroes and supernatural) provided the foundation for a media discussion group for female college students with learning exceptionalities. We explore the use of popular culture in discussion groups as well as discuss…

Most often the topic of creating presence in online education is viewed from the student perspective (Oztok & Brett, 2011). The purpose of this mixed methods research was to look at the creation of teaching presence from the vantage point of a "lone ranger" instructor (Anderson, 2004). Based on data collected from student grades,…

Consultation is a key means of service delivery in many psychological services. However, the "process" of consultation is little explored in Educational Psychology literature, particularly in the United Kingdom (UK). This paper focuses on a small-scale qualitative research study of psychological consultation provided by educational…

Much research has examined how different patterns of social interaction shape language learners' interactional roles (e.g., collaborative, dominant, passive) in peer-to-peer conversations. However, little or no research has investigated the co-construction of such roles in multiparty, online task-based dialogues within the framework of discursive…

Expert system technologies are varieties of artificial intelligence (AI) approaches in which decision-making knowledge is codified and modeled. This design case has the challenging task of characterizing this set of technologies during a particularly important period in its development (1984-1991), with an emphasis on a particular system that was…

The language of advertisements aims at precise, clear, pointed, and arresting communication. Like all communicative endeavours, in advertising, getting the message across is of prime importance. However, the use of language in advertising is of a particular character because the advertiser cannot afford to be delinquent or uncritical. The aim of…

In this article, the author analyses scripts written by incarcerated girls in playwriting and performance workshops conducted in regional youth detention centres and performed by formerly incarcerated girls in a programme called "Girl Time" in an urban American southeastern city. Through a close reading and analysis of characters, plots…

"Invictus" is a movie which is adapted from a true story of how the South African President, Nelson Mandela, tried to unite South Africa by supporting the national rugby team, Springbok, which used to be the symbol of Apartheid. His relation with other characters in this movie is reflected from the address forms and the choice is…

In an attempt to explore an environment for language learning that tandem learning via real-time chat affords to foreign language learners and how language learners respond to those affordances, this study examined learner interaction in online Korean-English Tandem Learning with focus on how tandem learners engaged in peer assistance and how they…

The structure of Biblical Hebrew (BH) verse remains an open question today despite the extensive amount of investigation that the question has inspired. Much headway has been made in terms of describing the features and devices that find expression in BH verse, but little has been done to make a compelling and consistent distinction between BH…