This study aimed to investigate the lexical competence of English-major EFL students. The learner corpus comprised 552 pieces of writing by sophomore English majors during five academic years between 2017 and 2021, containing 190,506words in total. The results from Vocab Profile program showed that these students used words contained in the…

This paper reports on a desktop review study of undergraduate and postgraduate English studies (both English literature and English language) module offerings (n = 48) of 24 English departments at 17 South African higher education institutions (HEIs) conducted in 2017. The review focused on the presence and purpose of the term, decolonisation, in…

In the last 15 years, writing center scholars have increasingly called for more evidence to validate writing centers' practices. Work by Paula Gillespie (2002), Neal Lerner (2009), and Isabelle Thompson et al. (2009) underscore this need. Missing from these discussions, however, is a thorough understanding of the past and current research…

Discusses the state of English studies, focusing on the literary canon, literature and other disciplines, the function of theory, and the politics of literature. (MM)

Argues that literary history and estimations of literary value are inseparable and that their connection has import for debate on the contents of the literary canon. Suggests possible requirements for developing a feminist theory and practice of evaluation. (SR)

Describes instructional and departmental forces creating the following problems for undergraduate creative writing teachers: (1) they hold an uneasy position in the English department hierarchy; (2) courses are radically different from creative writing courses in either high school or graduate school; and (3) instruction has lagged behind…

Power relations between professors and graduate students are fluid, in many ways under continuous negotiation. This is especially true in electronically mediated interchanges. Although a professor's power and authority far from disappear in a MOO (multi-user object-oriented domain) session, the power and influence of the students rise to challenge…

Adequate grading of student compositions in large classes makes inordinate demands on the English teacher's time. To convince administrators to reduce teaching loads, teachers need familiarity with research supporting the instructional advantages of smaller classes and closer attention, and with opposing research. (An extensive annotated research…

Explores and puts to rest the misconceptions that faculty members from English as well as other disciplines hold about teaching writing. Makes suggestions that may help English teachers who want to establish an institution-wide program of writing gain the cooperation of other departments. (HTH)

Describes program proposals submitted by college English departments to the National Endowment for the Humanities and recommends that future programs provide for building relationships between higher education and the public, commerce, and elementary/secondary schools. (AEA)

Literature anthologies are part of the furniture of English departments. Like the putty or gunmetal-gray file cabinet that one might have gotten new or used, they are not a showpiece of academic decor, but it would be hard to imagine work spaces without them. Indeed, they are omnipresent, amassed on the shelves of campus bookstores, weighing down…

The phenomenon of the graduate assistant grew out of the turn of the century need for larger teaching staffs. A debate was formed that still influences the way teachers are prepared for today's freshman composition courses. This debate arose from philosophical and methodological differences in English departments, which at that time emphasized a…

Explores differences between college English and foreign-language departments' treatment of literature and culture education, making a case for enhancing foreign language pedagogy's transmission of culture and literature through restructured academic territories, reorganization of authority, and redistribution of resources. (19 references) (CB)

Discusses the relationship between research in writing (i.e., research in "composition" or "rhetoric and composition") and English departments. Attempts to clarify writing research, asserting that English departments do not understand or approve of this type of research. (MM)

Presents the findings of the Modern Language Association's survey of the changes from 1990 to 1994 in faculty size in doctorate-granting departments of modern language. (HB)