This article, based on an action research study performed at a Colombian middle-sized private university, proposes specific strategies to provide feedback to English as a foreign language learners and uses a Web 2.0 tool called "screencasting." The findings of the study suggest that the use of coded, written, and oral feedback is widely…

Under task-based learning (TBL) framework, language learners engage in purposeful, problem-oriented, and outcome-driven tasks that are comparable to traditional teaching methods which focus only on the correctness of grammar. In this study, the author employs Jane Willis' TBL framework and examines its effects on the improvement of EFL learners'…

The effective design and use of Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE) tools in developing English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' writing skill and learner autonomy have remained great challenges for system designers, developers, and EFL instructors compared with that of the pencil-paper writing in the context of regular teacher-fronted…

Many scholars have conducted research into ways to improve EFL learners' writing proficiency by seeking to address several problems related to achieving this goal (Darani, 2014; Lu, 2013; Thomas, Thomas, & Moltow, 2015; Wang, 2013). However, the issues of learner identity in written communication and the role of the language EFL writers use as…

Writing an essay is a very important skill for students to master, but a difficult task for them to overcome. It is particularly true for English as Second Language (ESL) students in China. It would be very useful if students could receive timely and effective feedback about their writing. Automatic essay feedback generation is a challenging task,…

Integration of technology in task-based language teaching (TBLT) has long been a source of attraction for language teachers (Pierson, 2015). In the case of developing countries, such as Pakistan, mobile phones are the modern form of technology commonly available at low cost to individuals as well as institutions. The present descriptive case study…

Report writing is an important employability skill for Engineers and Technologists, and this case study describes how a Technology degree module took a novel approach to developing students' report writing skills. Students learned how to use a criterion-referenced critical evaluation framework for reports and other technological documents. They…

Within Asian EFL contexts such as South Korea, large class sizes, poor sources of input and an overreliance on the Grammar-Translation Method may negatively impact semantic and pragmatic development of writing content. Since formulaic language is imbued with syntactic, semantic and pragmatic linguistic features, it represents an ideal means to…

Many college students struggle with the literacy skills needed to be successful in higher education (Bettinger & Long, 2009; Snyder, Tan, & Hoffman, 2004). The difficulties emerge within students' capabilities in reading and writing. Students must be taught the skills needed to be successful to complete the tasks assigned in college classes and in…

This study designed and developed a Chinese character handwriting diagnosis and remedial instruction (CHDRI) system to improve Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learners' ability to write Chinese characters. The CFL learners were given two tests based on the CHDRI system. One test focused on Chinese character handwriting to diagnose the CFL…

This study examined introductory journalism writing courses and compared hybrid (part online/part classroom) versus online grammar instruction. The hybrid structure allowed for grammar topics to be taught online, with a pretest following, and then reviewing missed/difficult pretest concepts in class prior to a posttest. The quasi-experimental…

There is general agreement in the literature that international students are more likely to plagiarise compared to their native speaker peers and, in many instances, plagiarism is unintentional. In this article we describe the effectiveness of an academic writing development programme embedded into a Biological Sciences Taught Masters course…

This study investigates the relationships between individual learner characteristics and gain in writing performance as measured by a standardized writing assessment in a sample of community college academic English as a Second Language (ESL) students in the United States. The ethnically and linguistically diverse convenience sample included 76…

The purpose of this study was to examine the intersection between and among creativity, cognition, composition, and community. Researchers studied hundreds of adult students from several California community colleges and private universities by means of surveys, observations, and interviews to augment an extensive historical literature review.…

This article investigates the effects of blogging as an approach to journal writing in the EFL writing classroom by means of a 16-week comparative experiment involving two groups of EFL college students. The experimental group (EG) was required to blog daily while the control group (CG) was asked to do so using traditional pen-and-paper methods.…