The article describes the agentive development of a group of first-year Japanese university students. They first individually wrote their language learning histories to grasp what they had been through in their junior and senior high school English education. They then analyzed the histories in small groups, discussing what motivated and…

This article calls for a rethinking of pure process-based approaches in the teaching of second language writers in the middle school classroom. The author provides evidence from a detailed case study of the writing of a Korean middle school student in a U.S. school setting to make a case for rethinking the efficacy of classic process-based…

This study investigates the written feedback the author gave during her first year as a university English as a second language writing instructor. The article investigates the form (questions, commands, comments) and the themes (organization, content, grammar) of feedback, the use of mitigation, and the treatment of grammar errors. It shows how…

Studies on the human language system have brought to the fore two key aspects. First, the prime function of language is communication. Second, language exists in the social world. The language learning process takes place within the sociocultural context and the relevant macrostructures that influence language use and development. According to the…

This qualitative instrumental case study explores various factors that might influence upper-intermediate-level English as a second language (ESL) students' summarizing from a sociocultural perspective. The study was conducted in a formal classroom setting, during a reading and writing class in the English Language Institute at a university in the…

Although learning objectives are a hallmark of lesson planning, it is rare for these to be shared with learners, even though best practices suggest doing so. This article examines the practice of establishing purpose for English language learners as a means for developing conceptual schemas. Participants in this study were 332 southern California…

The use of definite and indefinite articles in English is well known to be a major point of difficulty for many nonnative English speakers. These difficulties prevail even when the speakers are fluent in most other aspects of English grammar and style. This article investigates the pedagogical and linguistic reasons why article use is such a…

Critical thinking is believed to be an essential skill for 21st century survival and therefore has been widely promoted in education. In Hong Kong, critical thinking is one of nine generic skills to be developed across all subjects, including English. How students do critical thinking in ESL, which is seldom used outside school and yet holds high…

Incidental grammar acquisition involves learners "picking up" a grammatical feature while their primary focus is on some other aspect of language--either message content or another language feature that is taught directly. This article reports a study of children's incidental grammar acquisition of two grammatical features--plural…

Drawing on data from a recent research international research project, this article focuses on the challenges faced by teachers of English to young learners against the backdrop of the global rise of English. A mixed-methods approach was used to obtain the data, including a survey, which was completed by 4,459 teachers worldwide, and case studies,…

This article addresses the question of how far working memory may affect second language (L2) learners' improvement in spoken language during a period of immersion. Research is presented testing the hypothesis that individual differences in working memory (WM) capacity are associated with individual variation in improvements in oral production of…

Interaction between second language (L2) learners in which the primary goal is the communication of meaning rather than the manipulation of language forms is widely regarded as beneficial for L2 learning from a variety of theoretical and pedagogical perspectives. Besides learning opportunities created through interactional feedback, modified…

WeiWei Yang, in her forum piece, raises two main criticisms of the authors' "TQ" article on grammatical complexity: "The study the authors conducted [1] is not capable of answering development-related questions and [2] is mathematically questionable" (Yang, 2013, p. 190). In addition, Yang's article has a third goal that is not explicitly…

Over the last two decades, a growing body of research has shown positive impacts for task planning in task-based instruction (e.g., Ellis, 2005; Foster & Skehan, 1996). However, what learners plan during pretask planning, and whether any specific planning strategies are more beneficial in encouraging learners to attend to linguistic forms and…

This quasiexperimental study examined the effects of different focus-on-form techniques, and the durability of such effects, on adolescent beginners' acquisition of request supportive moves. Three treatments were implemented: (1) the incidental group was exposed to input and involved in meaningful output activities; (2) the implicit group was…