This article discusses the teachers' role in self-directed learning (SDL) -- a central concept in adult education. We explore the use of Socratic questioning to develop critical thinking, which is the outcome of SDL in problem-based learning (PBL). In particular, we analyse 11 adult learners' reflective journals in relation to a Socratic seminar.…

While important work has been done on assessing classroom texts and investigating classroom discourse, there is little research on teachers doing systemic functional linguistics (SFL) with students for critical ends, especially in the high school arena. This article discusses how instructional use of SFL analytic resources in subject English…

What better place for young little minds who are full of energy and eager to soak up as much information as possible than a notebook for them to collect their new learning and thoughts? What is it about notebooks that makes writing and learning fun? I wanted to experience the magical feeling that notebooks create with my students--hence, the…

This article brings recent debates in literary studies regarding the practice of close reading into conversation with Derek Attridge's idea of "readerly hospitality" (2004) to diagnose the problem of students in undergraduate literary studies programme not completing set reading. We argue that the method of close reading depends on…

Nowhere is the need for handling complexity more pertinent than in addressing environmental issues. Our study explores students' situated constructs of complexity in unfolding discourses on socio-scientific issues. Students' dialogues in two group-work episodes are analysed in detail, with tools from Systemic Functional Linguistics. We identify…

The present paper is supposed to compare and contrast three of these masterpieces written the Renaissance period. The epyllions under study are Christopher Marlowe's "Hero and Leander," Thomas Lodge's "Scylla's Metamorphosis" and Francis Beaumont's "Salmacis and Hermaphroditus." Bush believes that "the influence…

Recent literary practices such as surface reading or the digital humanities have challenged the centrality of close reading in literary studies. Nonetheless, reading literature still involves sustained and productive attentiveness to texts. Fostering this skill, however, can seem increasingly difficult. From paper mills, to SparkNotes, to blogs…

Purpose: Affect is central to the process of teaching and learning. The recent affective turn in literacy education has further underscored its critical potential as an act of resistance against dehumanizing forces that impact students' schooling and life experiences (Dutro, 2019; Leander and Ehret, 2019). This article, taking up the notion of…

This article offers a survey of three reliability theories in writing assessment: positivist, hermeneutic, and rhetorical. Drawing on an interdisciplinary investigation of the notion of "witnessing," this survey emphasizes the kinds of readers and readings each theory of reliability produces and the epistemological grounds on which it…

Introduction: The point of departure for this paper is the twofold analogy (analogy of content, analogy of medium) between printed and electronic books, the aim being to draw attention to the usual perception of their capacities and relationships, to provide a rather detailed analysis of the outcome and sustainability of such analogies and…

This study examines the potential of translation activities as a means for introducing a discourse approach to teaching culture in the beginner-level language classroom. For this purpose, a translation session was implemented to a group of beginner-level learners of Japanese at a UK university. Analysis of classroom interaction and students'…

AP Literature students participated in a series of real-time online discussions to complement the in-class conversations they were having about "The Autobiography of Malcolm X." Thus, the front channel was comprised of the students who were discussing the class text aloud, and the backchannel was the online conversation the rest of the…

The widespread adoption of the Common Core State Standards in the US has prioritized rigorous reading of complex texts. The emphasis on text complexity has led to instructional and assessment materials that constrain critical literacy practices by emphasizing quantitative features of text, such as sentence length, and a static list of text…

Comprehending expository reading material is a challenge for many students. Research has shown that students' expository reading comprehension can improve with the help of text structure instruction. The purpose of this article is to present teachers with a framework for effectively implementing text structure instruction in their classrooms.…

We introduce RESOLV, a theoretical model to account for readers' construction and management of goals during text comprehension and use. RESOLV focuses on readers' experience of their physical, social, and communicative context prior to actually engaging with texts. RESOLV assumes that readers construct two types of mental models prior to reading:…