Purpose: This paper aims to problematise practice and contribute to new understandings of professional and workplace learning. Practice is a concept which has been largely taken for granted and under-theorised in workplace learning and education research. Practice has usually been co-located with classifiers, such as legal practice, vocational…

To address the low literacy achievement of minority students, the sociocultural movement of the New Literacy Studies (NLS) encourages us to expand on current understandings of literacy. Instead of thinking of literacy as a neutral set of skills transferable from one setting to another, NLS researchers encourage us to contextualize literacy within…

Feedback plays a fundamental role in writing development. The present study seeks to investigate the impact of teacher's written feedback on the writing performance of Iranian undergraduates. The subjects were 400 students majoring in the fields of English language translation and English language literature in four universities, namely Shahaid…

This case study explores how Swedish upper secondary students communicate in English as part of second language learning, in a blog shared with Thai students. Grounded in a sociocultural perspective on learning, the notions of Goffman's "frame shifting" and Bakhtin's concept of "carnival" are employed to analyse two specific…

Language exchange refers to a learning partnership between two learners with different native languages who collaborate to help each other improve their proficiency in the other's language. The purpose of this study is to examine the ways in which language-exchange participants activate learner agency to construct opportunities for learning in…

The role of world languages in the internationalization of college campuses in the United States (U.S.) has become a recurring theme of discussions in academic, government, and private sectors. Topics have ranged from the lack of a common definition of internationalization to a review of college curricula. Klee (2009) and Bettencourt (2011) have…

This study investigates the extent to which Japanese learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) are able to offer mediation to their peers while engaging in pair work, and whether that mediation is sensitive to the needs of their partner. Grounded in sociocultural theory, the study assesses the extent to which the study participants identify…

Integrative model of special translation training considers the understanding of a foreign text as the key stage of the given activity, which is to large extent stipulated by characteristics of both the source text sender and the translation text recipient. Interdisciplinary approach permitted to involve maximum number of determining factors to…

This project investigated vocabulary learning from a sociocultural perspective--in particular, the way in which lexical knowledge was mediated in Spanish second language (L2) learners' and native speakers' (NSs') interactions. Nine students who were enrolled in an advanced conversation course completed an oral portfolio assignment consisting of…

While there is a body of research concerning the education of students with migrant or refugee backgrounds, little of this research focuses on primary school-aged children. In order to address this gap, the current paper utilises data gained from an ethnographic study to consider the challenges and opportunities associated with diverse classrooms…

In experimental disciplinary fields such as medicine, the writing up of a research paper in English may represent a major hurdle, especially for inexperienced writers and users of EAL (English as an Additional Language), mainly due to a lack of familiarity with international discourse conventions. Despite the efforts of many EAP (English for…

The present study examined the effects of languaging by asking four pairs of Chinese university English as a foreign language (EFL) students to rewrite a story from a different perspective through three stages (composing--comparing- revising). Multiple sources of data were collected, including pair discussions, co-constructed writings, individual…

By offering a close reading and interpretation of one conversation between four Year 8 pupils about Robert Swindell's "Stone Cold," I aim to address questions of what might count as knowledge in English and to suggest how it might develop not only out of the qualities of a text, but from particular social relations and a set of pedagogic…

From the recruitment of international students and the establishment of cross-border research partnerships to study abroad programs, internationalization is viewed as a necessary means to prepare students for thoughtful action in a globalized world. In particular, studying abroad is regarded as a powerful vehicle for increasing students' global…

Coteaching offers a model for the school-placement element of pre-service science teacher education, based on its demonstrated positive impacts on lessening classroom anxiety, supporting inquiry-based science teaching, improving students' attitudes, and addressing diversity effectively in science classrooms. Coteaching between pre-service and…