This study takes a dynamic approach to investigating engagement, examining fluctuations in cognitive-affective variables at regular time intervals during online collaborative second language (L2) writing tasks. Using online conference software and online editing software, 16 university students who use English as an L2, completed two collaborative…

The various possibilities that social media offers to language learners and teachers have long been recognized by researchers within the field of language instruction, and many studies have been carried out in an attempt to address and unpack its potential contributions. This paper aims to review such research on the use of mainstream social media…

This study explores one teacher's forays into multiliteracies practices and multimodal pedagogies in teaching a language other than English in an international school in Hong Kong. Using the Action Learning Circle as a guiding framework, this study analysed a Chinese language teacher's one-year self-initiated exploration of multiliteracies and…

This study investigated how one type of learner-generated information and content, i.e. inter-group peer online feedback, provided on a wiki writing assignment for an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course, could contribute to student L2 writing. Using a mixed method approach, more than 1000 entries of online peer comments were collected,…

This study examines the question of how the feedback of peers and teachers on a collaboratively written student text, mediated by track changes and commenting functions in Microsoft (MS) Word, can act as a form of socialization into an academic or professional discipline. It focusses on a collaboratively written legal memorandum, authored by…

Writing at the doctoral level presents many challenges for second language writers. This paper reports on a longitudinal study investigating English as a second language (ESL) doctoral students' writing problems and the strategies they developed to meet these challenges. Eight students were interviewed four times over a two-year period during…

This paper is an attempt to explore the interaction discourse of second language undergraduate learners in the online peer review process of a writing classroom in Hong Kong. Specifically, the writer sought to investigate the types of online discourse learners have in the peer discussions on their writing, and to examine the role of explicit…

This paper investigates authentic writing through the use of wikis by Year 7 ESL learners in a secondary school in Hong Kong. The wikis were used as a collaborative writing platform to produce--with minimal input and support from their teachers--wiki content that describes the different facilities and features of their school. Over a period of two…