Metadiscourse, or metatalk, is a discursive resource used in virtually any text or conversation to organize its content or signal the author's stance toward the content. Despite its prevalence in classroom talk, few have examined the role of metadiscourse and how it assists teachers and students to manage classroom communication of scientific…

This study aims to investigate the effect of suprasegmental phonological training on connected-text reading comprehension of Chinese university students with different English reading proficiency levels. A sample of 160 freshmen was recruited and randomly divided into experimental and control groups, and the experimental group was given a 12-week…

The purpose of the study was to investigate differences in writers' abilities to perceive global text organisation in self-, peer- and teacher/researcher-authored essays. Eight student participants were identified as proficient, middle or developing, based on the levels of paragraph subordination, the average number of T-Units and the number of…

The present study attempts to identify difficulties that Japanese students encounter with metadiscursive nouns in writing second language (L2) argumentation essays. Metadiscursive nouns are abstract and unspecific nouns which can serve as cohesive markers by retrieving their meanings in the text where they occur. Using a selected number of nouns…

Writing is, at times, neglected by both teachers and students. Far too often, courses involve an emphasis on speaking skills and direct grammar instruction. These courses, however, pay little attention to writing skills and, most specifically, academic writing. In fact, while addressing writing, teachers may have different approaches, one of which…

This mixed-methods study explored the effects of employing a genre-based approach (GBA) to descriptive report writing on the understanding of text structure and ideational, interpersonal and textual meanings among Japanese university students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) over a 15-week course divided into three units. Applied within a…

This study investigates the potential of asynchronous video-mediated oral book report assignments to enhance learners' spoken performance and decrease their speaking anxiety. The participants were 42 B1 level preparatory students from the English Language Teaching department who were taking skills-based intensive English education in Turkey. The…

While learners may have access to reference tools during second language (L2) writing, the latest developments in machine translation (MT), such as "Google Translate" requires examination as to how using the tool may factor into the second language learners' writing products. To this end, the purpose of this study was to examine how MT…

This study draws on Legitimation Code Theory (LCT), particularly semantic gravity waving, as a strategy for academic literacies practitioners to conceptualise how knowledge in their field might be organised and presented. Students can be guided to notice meanings related to context-dependency at the discourse and lexico-grammatical levels through…

Despite a cognitive disadvantage when interpreting into one's B language, strategy use and awareness of norms allow interpreters to be resourceful and efficient in achieving communicative goals. There is a need to incorporate strategy training in interpreter education, especially when teaching into-B interpreting. However, strategy taxonomies…

Linking research on task-based collaborative L2 writing and computer-mediated writing, this study investigates the relationship between patterns of collaboration and the linguistic features of texts written during a computer-supported collaborative writing task using Google Docs. Qualitative analyses provide insights into the writing process of…

This study examined the development of text complexity for the past 25 years of reading comprehension passages in the National Matriculation English Test (NMET) in China. Text complexity of 206 reading passages at lexical, syntactic, and discourse levels has been measured longitudinally and compared across the years. The natural language…

Digital storytelling (DST) is one of the areas which has entered the field of foreign language education and has proved to be beneficial in learning different language skills. However, it remains underexplored whether and how DST can affect learners' writing skill and motivation to write. The present study sought to investigate the impact of DST…

Assuming cohesion as a non-structural resource of texture in text, the present study analyzed students' academic essays to establish the role of cohesion in creating text. A survey was also conducted to gauge students' beliefs about their ability to use cohesive devices in writing. The results of the text analysis and the survey were then used to…

Research has painted a pessimistic picture of students' second language (L2) writing skills in secondary education. One innovative tool that may help students foster their L2 proficiency, including writing ability, is in-class debate. Debate is commonly associated with oral communication and argumentation skills. However, debate may also offer…