Search

The paper draws on two drama series in Asia and demonstrates that studying issues related to gender roles and equality through popular historical Asian drama series is both challenging and fruitful. The present study not only illustrates the complexity involved in studying gender roles and gender equality, but also suggests several teaching pedagogies. Looking at gender roles and equality from a historical perspective and employing a comparative analysis of the past and present can help students assess whether gender roles and equality have remained the same or evolved in the Asian context. Critical literacy enables the broadening of perspectives when taking into consideration the gender roles adopted by the various characters to survive in the complex world. Critical literacy, pedagogies of affect as well as pedagogies of invitation and transformation can be utilized to examine how performing assigned gender roles can result in favouritism, which may in turn lead to atrocities. The implications of the study may be applicable to contexts outside Asia.

This paper reports a case study of 20 university peer tutor-tutee dyads which engaged in online synchronous peer tutoring using MENTOR, a mobile application developed to support peer tutoring. Despite years of research, peer tutoring still attracts significant attention and an emerging area of research is online peer tutoring. This study aimed to contribute to research on mobile peer tutoring, which is still in its infancy stage. Underpinned by Vygotskian social-cultural learning and Wertsch's notion of mediated actions by tools, a qualitative analysis of the recorded tutees’ mobile phone screen during the peer tutoring sessions was conducted. Our findings show three different types of peer tutor-tutee social cognitive interactions, with varying degrees of tutees showing agency in seeking clarifications. While most tutees demonstrated some level of agency in seeking clarifications, fewer tutees showed agency in co-annotating on the canvas space. The findings also illuminate how the participants leveraged the canvas tools provided by MENTOR to create a shared understanding and cognitive convergence. Implications for practice or policy: University teachers could engage students in peer tutoring using mobile applications Peer tutors could engage tutees by asking questions or pause for clarifications Tutees could play an active role in seeking clarifications or offer their ideas Mobile peer tutoring participants could leverage features of the technology to create a shared understanding

Responding to a recent call for interdisciplinary research into ‘night studies’, the present study attempts to put the nighttime at the centre of the sociolinguistic enquiry, seeking to explore how...

Academic enculturation, or the socialisation into a target academic community, is a crucial event in the trajectory development of aspiring scholars. It is a protracted process subject to the inter...

The growing emphasis on emerging technologies in education has required in-service teachers to develop more technological knowledge. However, little is known about the application of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) on subject matter knowledge in language teaching. This qualitative study examined five writing teachers’ implementation of instructional objectives, instructional strategies, and technologies to teach writing as well as their assessment of learning using the TPACK-Writing perspective. Lesson observations were conducted for each teacher. Adopting a case study design, the observation transcripts were analyzed with a focus on the teachers’ execution of the instructional objectives, instructional strategies, and technologies to teach writing as well as their assessment of learning. The results showed that the complex nature of writing pedagogy with TPACK-Writing as a construct was mediated by cultural factors such as an examination-oriented system and teacher-centered pedagogy. The results also suggested that the application of TPACK-Writing should involve a student-centered approach rather than a teacher-centered approach, which implies the need for teachers to acquire a high level of knowledge of learners and the instructional context to promote effective pedagogy.

In the past decade, research has yielded mixed results regarding the relationship between task complexity and writing quality. Some studies have suggested that an increase in task complexity results in the improvement of syntactic complexity, accuracy and fluency. Other studies have demonstrated partial improvement in fluency, accuracy, syntactic complexity, or lexical complexity. This study examines the impact of task structure on writing quality among English-as-a-second-language (ESL) young learners. The analysis is based on 236 ESL fourth-grade pupils’ narrative compositions. Using the Limited Attention Capacity Model and the Cognitive Hypothesis, the analysis revealed that Primary Four pupils wrote significantly longer and syntactically more complex texts in structured tasks, and they scored higher in lexical variety in unstructured tasks. The accuracy of writing did not vary significantly based on task structure. The study provides new empirical evidence for the argument that task structure affects ESL young learners’ writing performance in terms of syntactic complexity, fluency, and lexical variety. The findings contribute new knowledge to the field of second language writing. In particular, how task structures influence writing quality and how such knowledge can inform writing pedagogy and the evaluation of students’ written work.

Most of the existing studies on academic writing were conducted in ESL/EFL university settings. Further research targeted at other educational settings such as primary schools, for students in diff...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of pair interaction on the process and product of collaborative writing through analysing Language Related Episodes (LREs) and students’ writ...

The existing literature shows issues pertinent to students’ inappropriate textual borrowing behaviors require further examination. Our study aims to address two questions: What are the reasons why postgraduate students’ misuse their dissertation sources? How do the dissertation supervisors react to students’ inappropriate source use, if any? In this situated qualitative study (Atkinson, 2005), we used data collected through in-depth email interviews with two applied linguistics postgraduate students and their dissertation supervisors. Regarding the analytical process, the researchers condensed the provisional themes through techniques suggested by grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). The results reveal that causes for postgraduate students’ misuse of sources include students' lack of access to literature, poor literature-searching and documenting skills, and lack of instructional support on using literature. Supervisors have neither identified nor addressed the source misuse in their feedback given to students. This finding suggests the university's regulating culture/pedagogical support and cross-culturally variant perception of plagiarism are crucial to our understanding of textual plagiarism among postgraduate students. The commonly suggested language proficiency may not be perceived as a cause of plagiarism in the current study. The discussion includes implication for a need to provide students with a disciplinary appropriate way of citing sources.

Besides enhancing Persian academic reading, in an English only research world, Persian academic stakeholders have to master English and/or Persian academic writing to disseminate findings globally to members of different disciplinary communities through Persian and English language as a lingua franca. This chapter uses the method of qualitative meta-synthesis of 40 empirical studies specifically on academic writing in Persian in refereed journals, book chapters, and conference proceedings published during the period of 2005–2020. An inductive approach to thematic analysis synthesizes (a) the theoretical models for researching Academic Persian in academic writing and (b) the similarities and differences between academic writers from Persian and English for different disciplines. Theoretically and pedagogically, the findings from the comparisons and the systematic content analysis following Sandelowski et al. (Res Nurs Health 20:365–371. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1098-240X(199708)20:4 3.0.CO;2-E, 1997) contribute to our understanding of styles and genres specific to academic writing for Academic Persian, in terms of theoretical models for research as well as conventions or expectations of different disciplines in academic writing for Academic Persian.

Despite the burgeoning trend of transnationalism over the past few decades and how it affects education in general and language teaching and learning in particular, critical reviews that examine how the issues of transnational mobility influence TESOL teacher education remain scarce. In order to bridge this gap and answer the call for more studies on the impacts of transnational experiences on education, in this chapter, we provide an evaluation of a total of 85 research documents published between 1998 and 2018, including journal articles, book chapters, and books, to zero in on issues at the intersection of transnationalism and TESOL teacher education. The chapter starts with a brief overview of the notion of transnationalism and situates TESOL teacher education in the context of transnationalism. To inform future research, it moves on to summarize the theoretical and conceptual foundations as well as methodologies that have guided empirical research in the field. Following that is a discussion of the implications of transnationalism for TESOL teacher education in terms of curriculum design and pedagogical innovations. The chapter concludes with a proposal of potential directions for research that are relatively unexplored. It is hoped that interested future researchers can find some guidance and insights in this critical review and outlook.

The use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) in the classroom is common nowadays. The bulk of literature produced so far has done little in informing us the factors that facilitate the role of CMC in language writing, and the nature of the interaction that takes place via CMC in a systematic manner. This paper examines what empirical research has found out about the factors that facilitate the use of CMC in second/ foreign language writing instruction and learning, and the nature of interaction that takes place via CMC in an educational context. 60 peer-reviewed published primary studies from 2007-2017 were reviewed. The key findings are as follows. First, instructor support plays a critical role in ensuring the successful implementation of a CMC tool in the classroom. Second, the affordances of CMC in enhancing the writer’s identity and the presence of an audience can increase learners’ motivation to write. Third, both asynchronous and synchronous CMC have shown to be beneficial, and the provision of training can further enhance the effectiveness of peer reviews. Last, the participatory patterns of CMC in writing are influenced by factors such as task type, personal goals, native-speaker status, and self-perceived competencies. Pedagogical implications are suggested.

While the last decade has witnessed a growing body of research on student motivation in second language acquisition, research about the impact of writing instructors' motivational strategies on student motivation has remained underexplored. In order to fill this important gap, this study, guided by motivational strategy framework, investigates the effect of writing instructors' motivational strategies on student motivation. Participants were 344 first-year undergraduate students taking a writing course at a university in Singapore. Classroom observation schemes, student surveys, and surveys with writing instructors were collected. Findings show that the more the writing instructors reported using strategies in generating students' initial motivation in the classroom, the more the students reported having positive attitude and improved selfconfidence in the writing course. This study contributes new knowledge to the field by relating writing instructors' motivational strategies to students' positive attitude in learning, the feeling of success in written assignments, and their self-confidence.

This article examines how writer’s voice is constructed in argumentative essays written at the pre-university level. The study focusses on the student writers’ control over evaluative resources that influence the realization of voice in the high-scoring and low-scoring scripts. Using the APPRAISAL system in Systemic Functional Linguistics, the study shows how voice is construed through APPRAISAL theory in the high-scoring and low-scoring general paper essays, respectively. The differences between the two categories of essays can be seen in the application of ENGAGEMENT, ATTITUDE, and GRADUATION resources. Findings indicated that the high scoring essays used richer ENGAGEMENT and ATTITUDE resources to accomplish more mature and sophisticated argumentative voices. These opportunities to make full use of the APPRAISAL resources were missed by the low-scoring students in their argumentative writing. The findings are pedagogically useful for writing teachers who find the notion of voice too abstract to teach but accept its significance in producing a good essay.

This study explores voice from an APPRAISAL theory perspective. It aims to investigate how published research writers deploy ATTITUDE and GRADUATION resources to review existing literature in the field . T he study is based on a corpus of literature reviews (LRs) from 204 research articles (RAs) in computer networks and communications (CNC) and second language writing (SLW). Findings show that 1) writers demonstrate a strong preference to express their attitude through APPRECIATION rather than AFFECT and JUDG EMENT resources; 2) more FORCE than FOCUS resources are used to upgrade attitudinal meanings realized through ATTITUDE resources or to evoke APPRECIATION; and 3) one - way ANOVAs and post hoc tests have detected significant differences in the use of AFFECT a nd JUDGEMENT resources and in two sub - categories of FORCE and FOCUS resources. The study contribute s to new knowledge by relating ATTITUDE and GRADUATION resources to the construction of voice in the disciplines of CNC and SLW .

Much research has been conducted to investigate the quality of writing and high-level revisions in word processing-assisted and pen-and-paper writing modes. Studies that address cognitive aspects, such as experience and comfort with computers, by which students compose essays during writing assessments have remained relatively unexplored. To fill this gap, the present study investigates the impact of writing using computers versus traditional writing with pen-and-paper based on 366 undergraduate students in Singapore. It analyses the students’ thinking processes, the quality of their written work, and their perceptions of working with computers. The results indicate that the students demonstrated a positive attitude towards working with computers. Furthermore, the computer-delivered writing mode has a positive impact on their quality of writing in both technical aspects (content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics) and global aspects (setting macro rhetorical goal and ordering information in achieving the macro rhetorical goal). On the other hand, the results show that there was no significant difference between the paper and computer writing modes in their effects during the planning stage of writing in-class reflections. The study contributes to writing research by encouraging teachers to give students an option of delivery modes, beyond traditional pen-and-paper, for their writing assessments.

Giving written feedback to students is an important part of writing instruction. However, few studies have been conducted to investigate current trends of written corrective feedback in the secondary and university contexts. To identify and evaluate the current state of empirical evidence, we conducted a qualitative synthesis of published research that examined written corrective feedback in both English-as-the-first-language and English-as-the second/foreign-language settings. Four claims emerged in our analyses of 68 empirical studies published in journals from 2006-2016. Each claim is supported by empirical evidence. The claims are: (1) Individual differences play a part in the effectiveness of written corrective feedback; (2) Students’ and teachers’ perceptions affect the effectiveness of written corrective feedback; (3) Giving corrective feedback through technology is beneficial to students; and (4) Written corrective feedback is more effective when it is used concurrently with collaborative tasks. This meta-synthesis study sheds light on the written corrective practice of English Language teachers across different pedagogical settings and the factors that may affect student engagement in teacher written feedback. Keywords: written corrective feedback, secondary school, university

With academic writing now viewed as an important part of English language instruction, research studies have seen an increased emphasis on the question of how innovations in writing instruction impact students’ writing outputs. Using the method of qualitative metasynthesis, this study provides an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of 60 empirical studies published during the period of 2005–2016 that examine this question. Several constructs pertaining to the domain of innovations in writing instruction from primary, secondary, and higher education have been identified. Based on this research review, we explicate the impetus of, lessons learned from, and future directions of innovations in writing instruction in China.

The purpose of the study is to examine how Swale's (1990) Create-a-research-space model can be used to explain the structure of an introductory chapter of a Master's thesis in soft sciences disciplines. The most important finding is that applied linguistics and education management theses seem to indicate a high student's presence and high frequency of using non-integral citation, while instructional design and technology student writers show both low authorial presence and low frequency of using non-integral citation. Implications of the research findings and practice in second language writing education will be discussed.

This paper presents a critical review on studies that compared the effects of word processing-assisted writing and pen-and-paper writing on the quality of writing and higher level revisions. I argue that, the mixed results can be attributed to flaws in the research design, including forcing students who were skilled in writing with computers to compose with pen and paper during the data collection, using thinking-aloud protocols for evaluation, and failing to state the time limit for and the venue of conducting the writing task. I conclude by suggesting directions for future research.

This paper presents a critical review on writing teacher training research and a reflection of best current practices and desirable directions for future writing teacher training. I argue that, currently, the focus has been placed on preparing writing teachers to teach aspects like vocabulary and grammar of academic prose, genre, written corrective feedback, and writing assessment. Such studies tend to emphasize on the written outputs, and ignore the writing teachers’ attitude to teaching, their educator identity, and their professional development as writing teachers. I conclude by suggesting opportunities that await these writing teacher training research programs in the future.

This research investigates how elementary teachers mediate the learning of writing through a socio-cognitive approach. The study reveals how in effective instructions for writing development, teachers can build narrative knowledge in a socio-cognitive approach through these types of instructional scaffolding: explicit outcomes and expectations, modelling, bridging, contextualizing, schema building, re-presenting text and developing metacognition. The study also illustrates through examples, the use of the instructional scaffolding functions by two teachers mediating between students&rsquo, current knowledge levels in writing in English and the requisite expert understandings of the narrative genre in actual classroom practice. The adapted instructional scaffolding functions proposed in this article enrich the field of learning and teaching of writing by providing a means for teachers to mediate the learning of writing. The study also highlights the value of qualitative interpretive approaches in contributing to the domain of pedagogical approaches in writing for elementary students.

This research studies the first attempts by applied linguistics doctoral students in Hong Kong to publish their work in a refereed journal in English. Interviews were conducted with students to learn about their experience in the publication process. The interview data indicate that the applied linguistics doctoral students adopted specific strategies in tackling difficulties that arose in their publication efforts. The strategies included selecting areas of study which they were familiar with for their research, reading articles in past issues of targeted journals, and seeking assistance from their dissertation supervisors. All the interviewees received comprehensive comments and criticism from the reviewers and editors of English language journals, while an absence of comments was a characteristic of Chinese language journals. The doctoral students in this study felt that reviewers and editors of English language journals were sympathetic toward non-native English speaking writers with regard to their problems in grammar, language usage, and writing style. Some suggestions are made for informed teaching in EFL contexts and to better prepare applied linguistics doctoral students for effective writing for publication.

With academic writing viewed as an important aspect of language instruction, there is an increasing interest on how writing education could be improved to better accommodate the needs of multilingual learners. To evaluate the empirical evidence from published research studies, we conducted a systematic synthesis of the published research that has examined innovations in English-as-a-foreign language writing instruction in China, in contexts including tertiary, secondary, and elementary schools. General claims emerged across our analyses of 56 empirical studies published in the SSCI journals in English from 2005-2015. Each claim is supported by empirical evidence: (1) corpus-based approaches are useful in analyzing students’ writing; (2) students’ affective and cognitive factors may influence the outcome of writing instruction; (3) training may help teachers improve confidence in teaching writing; (4) differences may appear between assessment-oriented teacher feedback and non-assessment-oriented teacher feedback; (5) assessment for learning influences student learning of writing; (6) instruction may help writers acquire skills and knowledge of writing for publication; (7) technology-enabled instruction can help students in their writing process; and (8) novel and authentic writing tasks can promote students’ critical thinking ability.