The aim of the Foundation Year of university is to prepare students for their undergraduate study. Part of this preparation is enculturation into ways of speaking. Undergraduate study involves small group interaction in which students are expected to use educational dialogue to co-construct conceptual understanding and engage in critical thinking.…

Feedback practices for students' speaking activities in an online environment are very different from those on-site. This study investigated online feedback practices for speaking skills in a Sino-UK joint-venture university, as well as teachers and students' perceptions of the practices. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with four…

Maastricht University (UM) has a distinct global perspective and a strong focus on innovation. UM offers an array of PhD courses to distance and campus based students who have access to elective, credit bearing modules and the language needs of these students are catered for by the Language Centre. Many PhD candidates choose to take an academic…

Before arriving in a host country, international students may be motivated to complete some institutional requirements online. Many studies address computer-assisted instruction for second-language students, but few focus on fully online English for Academic Purposes (EAP) writing courses. This comparative case study, grounded in action research,…