Prompted by calls for research on technology-focused professional development, this article investigates how learning communities influence secondary English teachers' use of digital tools. Findings from this year-long study in the United States indicate that the ways in which technology is integrated within the English curriculum are still very…

The language shortcuts used in text messages are becoming evident in students' academic writing assignments. This qualitative study sought to determine if the use of the shortcuts has an adverse impact on developmental students' spelling and grammar skills. This research was based on the constructivist theory, which rationalizes that students use…

Investigated in the current study were gaps between secondary schools and higher education in English curriculum and in general areas, as perceived by South Texas secondary school English teachers. Qualitative analysis yielded seven themes concerning the gaps and six themes concerning suggested initiatives and services. Findings from the study…

The study investigated the importance of two elements in the process of syllabus design (ends / means specifications, program implementation) in the faculty of Islamic and Arabic studies, Nile Valley University, designed in 1995. Results indicate that the ends/means specifications stage is used to present the general aims and the objective of each…

Mississippi Delta Community College (MDCC), one of the oldest community colleges in the country, is located in Sunflower County, Mississippi, which was home to both the infamous White Citizens Council and civil rights heroine Fannie Lou Hamer. It serves one of the poorest areas of the country; the unemployment rate in the district is higher than…

One class of 4th year English major students who are part of the Bachelor of Education programme at Udon Thani Rajabhat University volunteered to participate in a project designed to increase their writing fluency whilst exposing them to different people and cultures in Southeast Asia. A secondary objective was to give an enjoyable task based…

Current theoretical conversations in the field of Rhetoric and Composition, particularly conversations related to first-year curricular design, are increasingly concerned with the issue of "teaching for transfer." While developing successful transfer pedagogy is a challenging undertaking, one that may require writing instructors to…

This paper puts higher agricultural English education how to serve for "Sannong" construction as priority, combining the actual market demand, based on teaching reform in the past few years, tries to explore English nurturing model and curriculum system for real delivery the agriculture-related qualified foreign language professionals.…

Different theories try to explain why some students are more successful than the others. Phenomenologists (Mc Combs, 1989) study self concepts of the students and find such students prone to achieve more. Attributional Theorists (Dweck, 1986; Weiner, 2005) focus on personal outcome such as effort or ability. Metacognitive theorists (Pressley,…

Discussions of English department identity and mission more often center on the undergraduate major curriculum than on classes for general-studies and other non-major students. In such courses, though, educators have an opportunity to touch the intellectual lives of far more people than they do in courses for majors. The author argues in this…

While discussion about the nature and function of the PhD has flourished for years in the broad context of English studies (Bérubé; Lunsford et al.; Nelson) and for more than a decade now in rhetoric and composition (Brown, Meyer, and Enos; North; Young and Steinberg), the Master's degree has attracted scant attention. No doubt this traces to a…

This study explores students' experiences of learning and teaching on the QTS primary four year degree. The participants were in their second year and had just begun their English curriculum module. The study aims to explore responses to two different teaching styles--one leaning towards a transmissional mode of delivery and the other more…

The ACT National Curriculum Survey is a one-of-a-kind nationwide survey of educational practices and expectations conducted by ACT every 3 to 5 years. ACT surveys thousands of middle school/junior high school, secondary, and postsecondary teachers in English/writing, reading (including English language arts and social studies teachers),…

The author reviews the relationship between "literature" and pop culture, arguing that both are part of an intellectual continuum, and that to attempt to extol one and demonise the other is not only based on false and simplistic premises, it is exclusive and destructive. She reminds us that "All education is based on assumptions…

Having celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2005, the Advanced Placement (AP) program has received quite a bit of attention in the past few years due mainly to its exponential growth in popularity. While much of this attention has been positive, a significant amount of criticism has attacked the assumptions of the AP program, aligning it with…