A reading-writing initiative began in 2011-12 at the University of Toronto as a partnership between an East Asian Studies (EAS) department and an English Language Learning (ELL) Program. In this institution, students are expected to enter into scholarly discussions in their first year essays, yet many (both native English speakers and non-native…

This article examines the phenomenon of graphic novels generally, and in particular, their utility in second-language contexts via the example of the graphic adaptation of Klaus Kordoris "Der erste Fruhling." This text lends itself especially to bridging thematic gaps in 20th-century German literature courses, as well as the "language/literature…

This article examines how adult learners were socialized by one another in the context of content materials in conjunction with the teacher's participation. Based on the premise that second language learning is experiential and emergent and using discourse analysis of students' asynchronous electronic postings and writing assignments together with…

This study brings together previous research on writing processes and Spanish heritage language (SHL) learners to obtain a clearer picture of these learners' writing behaviors in English and Spanish. Following a cognitive-oriented framework, the study explores planning time, execution time, monitoring time, accuracy, and fluency. Twelve SHL…

This article argues that teacher-education programs often promote surface conceptions of inclusivity that limit preservice teachers' ability to understand and build upon the lived experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse youth. Conventional wisdom implies that teachers of color are native informants of these lived experiences; however,…

There are many websites today that offer free machine translations and although beginning students of German are not always proficient enough to judge the quality of these translations or to fully understand certain translation results, they use these services nonetheless for their assignments. The problem for the educator is to distinguish…

The use of social technologies, such as wikis and chats, has brought a renewed attention to L2 collaborative writing. Yet, a question that still remains to be answered is the extent to which learners' writing is enhanced when using these tools. By analyzing learners' individual and collaborative writing, this study (a) explores L2 learners'…

As the field of second language writing embraces the authenticity and meaningfulness of connecting writing with other skills, language teachers and testers require greater understanding of how writers respond to as well as compose for integrated tasks. Research on integrated tasks is critical in highlighting how integration impacts students and…

This pilot study examines the role of metacognitive awareness as a motivational strategy in second language learning. The paper begins by exploring metacognitive strategies within the general language learning strategy framework, and then zooming in upon "interest enhancement" as a particular strategy that influences motivation and…

The qualitative study reported in this article explored the use of technology for language learning in a third-year French class at a public university in the Midwest of the USA. To address the need for a more holistic study of technology for language learning (Basharina, 2007; Thorne, 2003), an Activity Theory framework was employed to…

Using textual analysis and interviews with student writers, this study aims to provide an insight into second language students' use of direct quotations in their MA theses by comparing direct quotations in high-rated and low-rated Master's theses, and by exploring student writers' own motivations to quote directly from sources. The corpus…

Using technology to develop a collaborative-reflective teaching practice in a world language education methods course block for teaching certification creates unique opportunities for world language education undergraduates to learn to develop synthecultural competence for education. Such a program allows undergraduates to expand their capacity to…

Previous studies have drawn some results concerning the way in which second language (L2) students use their first language (L1) when producing texts in their L2. Therefore, this study examines the influence L1 written structure has on L2 written structure when students are asked to carry out assignments in the L2. To answer this question, twenty…

This study attempted to discover learners' perceptions on the use of blogs for EFL (English as a foreign language) learning. Participants were 49 first-year university students from Southern Taiwan and were divided into ten groups in the study. Students in a group read the articles posted in the teacher's blog and collaboratively wrote group…

The paper investigates the semantic area of Epistemic Modality in Modern Greek, by means of a corpus-based research. A comparative, quantitative study was performed between written corpora (informal letter-writing) of non-native informants with various language backgrounds and Greek native speakers. A number of epistemic markers were selected for…