Workplace learning circumscribes processes leading to the development of competencies and skills through daily work. It is of increasing importance for many modern enterprises, which consider themselves as being learning organisations, to make use of the potential of their employees in order to be competitive within global markets. Dealing with…

This article examines whether there is any difference between the effect of oral and written corrective feedback (CF) on learners' accurate use of English articles. To this end, the current research presents the results of a quasi-experimental study with a pretest, immediate-posttest, delayed-posttest design, using 12 intact intermediate…

This paper deals with the implementation of an "online pedagogical assistant" in a blended learning device for English for Special Purposes (ESP) students in a French university (UPMC, Paris VI). As it is now, it comprises a customized website designed to serve as a guide through the development of the students' work. The architecture of…

This large mixed methods study investigated the effects of the introductory second language acquisition (SLA) course on the beliefs of pre-service teachers (n = 381) enrolled over a three-year period at a state university in California. Pre- to post-course paired sample t-tests that were run on 23 beliefs statements from a widely used survey…

Learning from worked examples is an effective learning method in well-structured domains. Can its effectiveness be further enhanced when errors are included? This was tested by determining whether a combination of correct and incorrect solutions in worked examples enhances learning outcomes in comparison to correct solutions only, and whether a…

This study investigated the effects of repeated readings on the reading abilities of 4, third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade English language learners (ELLs) with specific learning disabilities (SLD). A multiple baseline probe design across subjects was used to explore the effects of repeated readings on four dependent variables: reading fluency…

In this article, we present an approach to the automatic correction of preposition errors in L2 English. Our system, based on a maximum entropy classifier, achieves average precision of 42% and recall of 35% on this task. The discussion of results obtained on correct and incorrect data aims to establish what characteristics of L2 writing prove…

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of feedback on writing accuracy over time and examine the relevance of the students' mother tongue to the feedback effect. To this end, the study compared two groups of Iranian English majors (N = 56) over a period of four months: one with indirect grammar feedback and the other with…

This study was an expanded replication of an earlier endeavor (Shermis, Burstein, & Bliss, 2004) to document the writing outcomes associated with automated essay scoring. The focus of the current study was on determining whether exposure to multiple writing prompts facilitated writing production variables (Essay Score, Essay Length, and Number…

When the errors in an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model are heteroscedastic, hypothesis tests involving the regression coefficients can have Type I error rates that are far from the nominal significance level. Asymptotically, this problem can be rectified with the use of a heteroscedasticity-consistent covariance matrix (HCCM)…

The extent to which ESL learners benefit from written corrective feedback has been debated at length since Truscott (1996) mounted a case for its abolition. Ten years later, the debate continues, not only because little attention has been given to testing its efficacy over time but also because studies that have investigated the issue have not…

Synchronous Computer-mediated communication (CMC) creates affordable learning conditions to support both meaning-oriented communication and focus-on-form reflection that play an essential role in the development of language competence. This paper reports how corrective feedback was negotiated through expert-to-novice collaborative efforts and…

This study investigates the performance of a spell checker designed for native writers on misspellings made by second language (L2) learners. It addresses two research questions: 1) What is the correction rate of a generic spell checker for L2 misspellings? 2) What factors influence the correction rate of a generic spell checker for L2…

This article reviews the corpus of research on feedback, with a focus on formative feedback--defined as information communicated to the learner that is intended to modify his or her thinking or behavior to improve learning. According to researchers, formative feedback should be nonevaluative, supportive, timely, and specific. Formative feedback is…

This book is about playing with mathematics, teaching: (1) How to multiply and divide large numbers mentally; (2) Making addition and subtraction easy; (3) Tricks for understanding fractions and decimals; and (4) How to quickly check answers for each calculation. Described as a foolproof way to do multiplication, division, factoring estimating,…