• Educational Technology International
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.71-94
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• 2011

How can an automated essay scoring (AES) program, which provides feedback for essays, be a formative tool for improving ESL writing? In spite of the increasing demands for English writing proficiency, English writing instruction has not been effective for teaching and learning because of a lack of timely and accurate feedback. In this context, AES as a possible solution has been gaining the attention of educators and scholars in ESL/EFL writing education because it can provide consistent and prompt feedback for student writers. This experimental study examined the impact of different types of feedback for a college ESL writing program using the Criterion AES system. The results reveal the positive impact of AES in a college-level ESL course and differences between the teacher's feedback and the AES feedback. The findings suggest that AES can be effectively integrated into ESL writing instruction as a formative assessment tool.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.33-45
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• 2022

This study aims to investigate effects of scaffolding on writing apprehension and media literacy in engineering freshmen's synchronous online writing course, and the relationships between the two variables. 'Scaffolding' is in-time support provided by a teacher/tutor or competent peer that enables students to meaningfully gain skills at problem solving process. Also, it is one of the most frequently mentioned concepts in education as well as one of the more necessary teaching strategies in an online writing course. In this study, provided treatments for the experiment were supportive scaffolding for domain-specific knowledge and reflective scaffolding for meta-cognitive knowledge. Participants were 102 engineering undergraduate students, who were assigned to two experimental groups by scaffolding types. A process-based writing course in online learning environment was conducted for 8 weeks. The writing tasks were given according to writing process. The findings were that, firstly, there were statistically significant writing apprehension's reduction and self-expression's improvement through the scaffolding provided in writing class. Secondly, writing apprehension's reduction and self-expression's improvement were significant in supportive scaffolding group. Thirdly, media literacy predicted writing apprehension. The practical implications of these findings are discussed herein, with particular attention on ways for writing apprehension's reduction as well as media literacy's enhancement.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.33 no.7
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• pp.1329-1342
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• 2013

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between the change of beginning teachers' beliefs about a lesson and that of teaching practice and argument-based inquiry using science writing. Participants were three science teachers (A, B, and C) from different middle schools. Classroom observation and interview data were collected and transcribed for analysis. A Summary Writing test was also administered to examine whether there was an improvement in students' learning. The results indicated that the interaction between the teachers and their students developed, which is concluded as an improvement in the teaching practice. Teacher A and B also reported that teacher-student interaction had improved. Teacher A and C came to understand that argument-based inquiry using science writing classes constituted learner-centered instruction. The result from the Summary Writing Test showed the impact of the changes in teaching practice and in teachers' awareness of students' learning as well as produced meaningfully higher scores than compared groups on the rhetorical structure of all the specific areas in teacher A's school and on the scientific concept at B and C's schools.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.227-251
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• 2007

The development and use of computer mediated communications (CMC) as a tool for teaching and learning English has grown considerably in recent years. The purpose of this study is to investigate factors related to learners' participation, achievement, and satisfaction in EFL classes using web-based bulletin boards. The total number of 77 university students participated in this study. Three domains and eight independent variables investigated in this study were a learner-related domain (attitudes toward CMC, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, attitudes toward writing), an interaction-related domain (student-student interaction, teacher-student interaction), and an environmental domain (physical support and design of the web site). In order to determine interrelation of variables correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis were used. The results of this study showed that the factors predicting a learner's participation were instrumental motivation, attitudes toward writing, and teacher-student interaction. The factors explaining a learner's achievement were learner's participation and attitudes toward writing, and the factors predicting a learner's satisfaction were integrative motivation, student-student interaction, teacher-student interaction, physical support and learner's participation.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.207-227
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• 2011

This paper investigates how two different modes of feedback (selective vs. comprehensive) affect selected students' writing development in terms of three different types of measurement (accuracy, fluency, and complexity). 139 university students participated in the study, and 278 writing samples were analyzed. The results of the study indicate that participants who received selective feedback wrote more accurately and fluently than their counterparts. However, in terms of complexity, both selective and comprehensive groups showed no sign of improvement in semester-based investigations. The results of this study support Skehan's (2009) theory of trade-off effects, suggesting that 'natural' tension exists between accuracy and complexity when resources are limited. Moreover, this finding contrasts with the theory of Cognition Hypothesis, which proposes that task complexity will be associated with increases in complexity and accuracy. In the study, selected participants (N=21) strongly nominated their error sources as unfamiliarity toward using key words, usage, transition, and sentence types. This study not only contributes to the accumulation of our current knowledge in the related area of theory, but offers educational implications for those who are dealing with intermediate-level students when deciding what particular teaching content should constitute a priority within a limited instructional period.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.378-388
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• 2010

This study aimed at categorizing preservice teachers' reflections and understanding their characteristics in reflective journal writing after microteaching. Thirty-two preservice elementary teachers joined in this study. As results, three patterns were categorized: Reflection with practice, Reflection to be practice, Reflection with suspension of judgment. 'Reflection with practice' changed the topology of science class in active. 'Reflection to be practice' had clear focus in reflection and suggested orientations to succeed in the next teaching. 'Reflection with suspension of judgment' made something fall into abeyance, because it couldn't provide an orientation for teaching. After discussing these results, implications toward preservice teacher education were explored.

• Asia Pacific Journal of Corpus Research
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-21
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• 2024

This study aimed to identify target lexical bundles (e.g., on the other hand, at the same time) for argumentative essay writing and rank them in order of teaching priority for Japanese learners. Despite significant functional roles of lexical bundles in academic writing, the inclusion of lexical bundles in argumentative writing had been underexplored. Since argumentative writing skills help undergraduate students prepare for their academic careers (e.g., writing papers), the lexical bundles under this genre deserve more attention. This study first extracted 78 target bundles from L1 argumentative essay corpora (International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English: ICNALE and Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays: LOCNESS). The study then classified the bundles according to their discourse functions and semantic transparency to estimate the learnability for Japanese learners in L2 compatible corpora with the ICNALE. The results showed that learners had difficulty using the bundles with referential functions (e.g., in the form of) and semantic opaqueness (e.g., when it comes to), suggesting that the bundles in these two categories should be prioritized among the 78 bundles.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.291-315
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• 2010

The present study examined the role of dialogue journaling in Korean students' English writing development. Thirteen Korean middle school students participated in a five-week dialogue journal writing program. The participants' English writing skills before and after their dialogue journaling were compared in terms of holistic and analytical scores of their English essays. The study also examined the changes in the participants' language use, as manifested in their dialogue journals. The results indicated the positive influence of dialogue journal writing on the participants' English writing skills in the areas of content and lexical fluency. As for the linguistic evidence that related dialogue journaling to English writing development, the three patterns of change in language use emerged from the participants' dialogue journals: a) raised awareness on grammar conventions, b) raised awareness on discourse conventions, and c) increased depth and richness in idea development. There were also three unhelpful factors associated with little improvement of English writing: a) lack in basic writing skills, b) repetitive use of identical sentence patterns, and c) lack in grammatical and lexical awareness. Overall, the results suggested that dialogue journaling could facilitate Korean students' English writing development when it creates authentic communicative interactions between the teacher and students.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.145-162
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• 1998

This study investigated the effect of teaching mathematical communication in mathematics learning. Cooperative learning, mathematics pin pals, and writing a mathematics diary were used to teach how to communicate mathematically. The experimental group was assigned to cooperate in class, to write a mathematics diary at the end of each class, and to exchange the mathematics pen pals once a week. The control group was taught by the traditional teaching method. The results were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The learning achievement between the two groups was performed with pretests and posttests. And after this study, mathematics pen pals, video protocol and open-ended test were analyzed. The results of this study are the following: 1. There were little differences in learning achievement test between the group taught through communication and those not. And there were little differences in the results of achievement test between the two groups-high and low level classes.2. Cooperative learning, writing a mathematics diary and mathematics pen pals were effective as methods of teaching communication mathematically. The analysis of mathematics pen pals which is to investigate student's writing abilities showed that pen pal partners were improved in QCAI communication levels. There was a significant difference between the two groups in open-ended test. This means that communication learning has an effect on the tests for mathematical thought, reasoning, and creative thought. The analysis of video protocol showed that four students in a cooperative group were improved in their speaking and listening abilities.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.788-800
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate the elementary school teachers' perception of science writing. In this study, 10 elementary school teachers who have taught in the 3rd or 4th grade science lesson in 2010 were selected. Researchers constructed interview guide in three parts including the teachers' understanding of science writing, the status of science writing teaching and the difficulties of science writing in their classes. For the investigation, semi-structured in-depth interviews with 10 elementary school teachers were conducted individually. The results showed that the elementary school teachers were unfamiliar with the word ‘science writing’ and considered science writing as a writing using science learning contents. Also, they think that teaching science writing in their science lessons was not needed and didn't assess and provide detailed feedback with the students' written works. Most teachers needed teaching materials and assessment tools for science writing. To develop elementary teachers' understanding of the value and use of writing for learning in science, they will need to participate in science writing programs for in-service teachers and various teaching materials and assessment tools should also be developed.