In experimental disciplinary fields such as medicine, the writing up of a research paper in English may represent a major hurdle, especially for inexperienced writers and users of EAL (English as an Additional Language), mainly due to a lack of familiarity with international discourse conventions. Despite the efforts of many EAP (English for…

Much research shows that students do not transfer learning well from one class to the next. This study was designed to investigate if students were transferring rhetorical strategies from their disciplinary courses to advanced writing courses. The findings suggest that business majors not only transferred rhetorical knowledge from their other…

This article introduces a new course in the Virginia Community College System English Curriculum, "English 114: Scientific Writing." The article briefly reviews the concept of "science rhetoric," then discusses the intended audience and purpose of the course, and explains the basic goals of the course in relation to the…

This essay is designed to connect specific communication skills desired by employers in industry to basic course concepts. While communication is often identified as one of the most important skills for graduates seeking employment, this broad view makes it nearly impossible for basic course directors and instructors to design their pedagogy to…

This study takes a dynamic view of transfer as reusing and reshaping previous knowledge in new writing contexts to investigate how novice Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) writers draw on knowledge across languages to construct L1 and L2 texts. We analyzed L1 English and L2 Japanese argumentation essays by the same JFL writers (N = 19) and L1…

In "Cinema Paradiso" (Tomatore, 1988), Salvatore's love of movies came from spending his earlier, young life inside a cinema with the fatherly projectionist Alfredo, now blind and bitter. Alfredo is right. Life is much harder, yes, yet still very much "like in the movies" filled with frustrated actions, performed inside blind…

Student-centered learning (SCL) identifies students as the owners of their learning. While SCL is increasingly discussed in K-12 and higher education, researchers and practitioners lack current and comprehensive framework to design, develop, and implement SCL. We examine the implications of theory and research-based evidence to inform those who…

Drawing on qualitative data from 31 interviews with teachers and students in higher education in the UK, this article demonstrates the extent to which students, when compelled to write reflectively for assessment purposes, perform their reflective writing for at least one of three audiences: their assessment criteria, their teachers, and a general…

This collaborative project explores the affordances of a translation assignment in the context of a learner-centered pedagogy that places composition students' movement among languages and cultures as both a site for inquiry and subject of analysis. The translation assignment asks students to translate scholarly articles or culture stories from…

Drama is a relatively unexplored tool in academic science education. This paper addresses in what way the use of drama may allow science students to deepen their understanding of recent developments in the emerging and controversial field of neuro-enhancement, by means of a case study approach. First, we emphasise the congruency between drama and…

In light of systematic evidence that extroverts are disadvantaged in the classroom, we examined whether an online environment assignment that builds on extroverts' character strengths can increase their overall course satisfaction. Based on previous studies demonstrating that extroverts are energized by feedback from outsiders, we asked 180…

Metadiscourse is a prevalent linguistic resource that helps writers to manage the flow of the propositional contents and to direct their stance towards their contents and readers. Its dominance in persuasive writings has motivated this study which is to examine the occurrences and forms of metadiscourse use in the writing of both the high (HEP)…

Part art and part science, a good video can be an incredibly powerful tool to connect with audiences. Video presents a tantalizing way for institutions to share compelling stories and connect with their constituents. Paired with the power of other tools, it can help reach new audiences and also more fully engage those people who already know an…

The proliferation of online simulation games across the globe in many different languages offers Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) researchers an opportunity to examine how language learning occurs in such virtual environments. While there has recently been an increase in the number of exploratory studies involving learning experiences of…

The emergence of the Internet, social media, and digital technologies in the twenty-first century accelerated an evolution in journalism and communication that fit under the broad term of convergence. That evolution changed the relationship between news producers and consumers. It broke down the geographical boundaries in defining our communities,…