Discusses how students learning to write in a second language need to be aware of text genres. Claims that transforming texts from one genre to another, using information and ideas in the source text to create new texts for different audiences and purposes, helps students to become aware of and take into account genre-related features such as…

Examined a possible link between computer-generated feedback and changes in writing strategies of English-as-a-foreign-language business-writing students in Taiwan. Numerous detailed analyses were carried out using computer software that measured students' writing, including time spent on a document, amount of editing of a document, specific…

Compares advantages and disadvantages of most types of modern dictionaries from teachers' and researchers' as well as students' points of view. Shows that if clear distinctions are made between learning, test-taking, reading for pleasure, or extensive reading, each type dictionary can be used by itself or in combination with another dictionary,…

Observed Israeli students taking notes in a first language while listening to lectures in English-as-a-foreign-language given by the law faculty. Questions addressed include these: (1) Why did the students translate the lecture into Hebrew while taking their notes?; (2) What did they gain and lose by doing this?; (3) How good was their…

Based on English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students' documented preference for error correction and the need for word usage and sentence grammar to become automatic, this article describes the rationale and procedures for using reformulation as composition feedback. The procedures are aimed at improving sentence level grammar. Discusses survey…

Attempts to clarify relationship between metacognition and English-as-a-Second-Language writing performance by posing the following questions: (1) Does each component of the metacognitive model--personal, task, and strategy--have an equivalent effect upon writing performance of ESL students?; (2) Do these three components impact performance…

Discusses issues surrounding the phenomena of local or "Nativized" varieties of English, developments that take place characteristically in ex-colonial territories where forms of ex-colonial language evolved and developed in own right independently of metropolitan sources. Discusses acceptability of different varieties, code switching, and the…

Little research has been conducted to determine what roles the first and second languages play in the reading strategies of L2 readers or how these roles vary at different proficiency levels. this study attempts to address these two issues. Eleven active speakers of Japanese, at two proficiency levels, were asked to think aloud--in the language of…

Reports on an attempt to compare two data-collecting instruments, Think-aloud Protocols and strategies questionnaires, applied to capture reading/writing strategies. Subjects were immigrant speakers of linguistically different heritage languages, Russian and Amharic first languages, and thus represented two ethnic groups, who went through the…

Reports a study of academic and non-academic demands as perceived by a group of Australian non- native English speaking students in the first semester of postgraduate studies. Relates relevant research to participants' responses to a questionnaire and in follow-up interviews about academic difficulties, such as the use of first language and the…

Explores the contradiction between communicative theory and practice in beginning and intermediate English-as-Second-or-Other-Language (ESOL) materials and compares this situation with that prevailing in early first language literacy instruction. Proposes that ESOL teachers create and use materials that are primarily designed to appeal to adult…

Findings of research at the University of East Anglia show that contemporary teachers will need to develop techniques for reflecting on their work and becoming involved with theory construction. Any resulting description should be non-judgmental in character. Examples of the kind of work that is done with groups of trainee teachers and future…

Examined learner perceptions of a "package" of salient dimensions of an ideal computer-supported language learning environment. Analytic and systemic analyses of learner perceptions indicated that learners perceive their learning environments in unexpected ways and that the technology has an impact on these perceptions in that it allows the…

Discusses the conception and inception of TESL-EJ, a new refereed journal in the English-as-a-Second-Language area with a particularly wide mandate. Special attention is paid to the properties of electronic journals, how these bear on ESL, and how TESL-EJ could interact with its discipline to construct new ways of developing academic discourse.…

Outlines some of the basic access, database, and search tools available on the Internet. Includes a list of reference books, manuals, and online electronic papers about the Internet. (Author/JL)