This paper reports on findings from a study that examined students' online asynchronous discussions in five online courses on qualitative research methods. Online asynchronous discussion data from 22 students in 5 courses over a period of two years were analyzed iteratively, revealing two themes: (1) patterns of writing in students' posts that…

COVID-19 pandemic has affected the health of people all over the world. Hong Kong closed schools for face-to-face instruction to minimize spread in February 2020. Schools started teaching via Zoom, a service that offers video conferencing, online meetings, chat, and mobile collaboration. That same month, The Chinese University of Hong Kong…

Verbal praise is frequently used as motivation by teachers in class and truly effective verbal praise plays an important role in maintaining classroom order and stimulating positive student behavior. In this study, students from three classes of X Primary School of Jiangxi Province were interviewed and 328 verbal praise expressions collected. The…

The current study explored how the participation in multimodal videoconferencing sessions affected one of the affective factors: willingness to communicate (WTC) in second language learning. Participants from the experimental group took part in three 30-minute communication tasks via videoconferencing that included interactions in textual, audio,…

This study aims at exploring the forms, benefits and obstacles of distance education during COVID-19 pandemic. The study adopted the cross-sectional research approach. A sample of 377 university students were conveniently recruited during the second semester of the academic year 2020/2021. The researchers developed a valid and reliable…

What happened when a global pandemic shut down schools in March of 2020, causing an after-school graphic novel book club to be all but forgotten? Magic happened, when led by a determined instructional literacy coach and a local university professor. Undaunted, they decided to adapt the graphic novel book club into a synchronous virtual experience…

Some crises, such as those brought on or exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, are wicked problems--large, complex problems with no immediate answer. As such, they make rich centerpieces for learning with respect to public deliberation and issue-based dialogue. This essay reflects on an experimental, transdisciplinary health and science communication…

The online environment poses a number of challenges, including creating opportunities for students to interact and get to know each other. I propose adding online discussions that can allow students to explore the real-world implications of biochemistry to provide course context, build the classroom community, diversify student assessment, and…

It is well established that gesture facilitates learning, but understanding the best way to harness gesture and "how" gesture helps learners are still open questions. Here, we consider one of the properties that may make gesture a powerful teaching tool: its temporal alignment with spoken language. Previous work shows that the…

Background & Aims: Speech-language pathology services are frequently accessed by families of children who have suspected or diagnosed autism. This is expected given that social communication differences are a core feature of autism. This review looked broadly at the state of research in the field of speech-language pathology and preschool…

Soft skills, the interpersonal skills that demonstrate the ability to work with others, are essential for job attainment and advancement. However, as noted in current research and as echoed by employers, a significant soft skills gap exists in communication (oral and written), teamwork, and critical thinking that can prevent workers from advancing…

Compensatory strategies play an important role in second language (L2) processing because of limited language knowledge and ensuing anxiety and could help assure understanding and void communication breakdown. Previous studies about compensatory strategies largely adopt laboratory settings and neglect the strategies in authentic oral…

This chapter discusses a form of intergroup dialogue, that is dialogue as a method of communication that can be used to explore shared issues between groups from diverse backgrounds, dialogue that highlights the importance of people's lived experiences. For language learners, this kind of dialogue is an opportunity to communicate about themselves…

This paper describes the work of teachers from United States and Belize, who took the opportunity that COVID's challenges presented to collaborate in building professional development for teachers in both locations. Leveraging both technology and relationships, educators representing a variety of skill sets, schools, and positions in Belize and in…

Engagement in online classes can promote student success but can be met with challenges associated with students feeling isolated from their peers, their instructors, or the course when learning online. Building opportunities for student interaction is one way to combat this isolation. A common activity in online courses that allows for student…