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Research Bites: A Metacognitive Listening Approach
Article Vandergrift, L., & Tafaghodtari, M. H. (2010). Teaching L2 learners how to listen does make a difference: An empirical study. Language Learning, 60(2), 470-497. [Link] Twitter Summary...
View ArticleThe Teacher Wears Prada
(Sorry about the lame title!) Have you ever worn a Halloween mask? A mask somehow changes your personality. It allows you an extra layer of reality to hide behind and therefore gives you the ability to...
View ArticleResearch Bites: There is No Best Method – Why?
Article Prabhu, N. S. (1990). There is no best method—why?. Tesol Quarterly, 24(2), 161-176. [link] Twitter Summary Prabhu: there is no best method. Besides, understanding learning and teaching,...
View ArticleResearch Bites: Learning Connotation through Data-Driven Learning (DDL)
Article Mansoory, N., & Jafarpour, M. (2014). Teaching semantic prosody of English verbs through the DDL approach and its effect on learners’ vocabulary choice appropriateness in a Persian EFL...
View ArticleResearch Bites: Grammar Beyond the Sentence
Article Granger, S. (1999). Uses of tenses by advanced EFL learners: evidence from an error-tagged computer corpus. Language and Computers, 26, 191-202. [link] Twitter Summary Granger (’99) says that...
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Research Bites: Making Language Noticeable
Article Seong, M. (2009). Strategies making language features noticeable in English language teaching. Journal of Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics, 13(1), 113-126. [link] Thanks to Dayle...
View ArticleResearch Bites: Skill Acquisition Theory and Language Learning
Article DeKeyser, R. M. (1998). Beyond focus on form: Cognitive perspectives on learning and practicing second language grammar. In C. Doughty & J. Williams (Eds.), Focus on form in classroom...
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Research Bites: Mind over Language
[Unlike most of the Research Bites articles, this one is not so short. It's more of a research meal than a research bite. But, the research it contains, and its applications, are interesting so bear...
View ArticleResearch Bites: WTF: What The Font? – Typography and ELT, part 2
In my last blog post, I looked into the claim that certain fonts can hinder or heighten the impact materials have on learning. Most people see this debate an argument about which font is more...
View ArticleResearch Bites: WTF: What The Font? – Typography and ELT, part 3
In my last blog post, I summarized some research that showed that cognitive disfluency in terms of difficult to read fonts can enhance the learning process. This work had originally been done on...
View ArticleResearch Bites: Watch Out Washback!
High-stakes testing policies, such as those in the USA related to No Child Left Behind and the Common Core, have left a stale taste in the mouths of many educators, parents, and students. The problem...
View ArticleResearch Bites: Explicit vs Implicit Grammar Instruction
Grammar is a divisive word. If you admit you teach grammar, you could be shunned in certain ELT circles. And even for those circles that do accept grammar, the debate still rages about whether it...
View ArticleResearch Bites: Coursebooks and EAP, part 1
I was more than happy to participate in “The Great Coursebook Debate” of 2015, chiming in with my own thoughts that not all coursebooks are equal (or equally bad), especially in EAP. It was my view...
View ArticleResearch Bites: Coursebooks and EAP, part 2
In my previous post, I summarized a 2005 study that analyzed EAP coursebooks from anti-coursebook and corpus-based perspectives, arguing that most coursebooks (at the time) were under-researched, did...
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Principled Washback – IELTS and Academic Reading
In a previous post, I looked at research that analyzed the IELTS writing tasks in juxtaposition with university writing tasks. In this post, I will summarize similar research on academic reading tasks,...
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Research Bites: Reading, Pronunciation, and the Phonological Loop
(Thanks to Gianfranco Conti for making me aware of this article.) In “Phonology in Second Language Reading: Not an Optional Extra”, Walter (2008) argues that the ability to distinguish and create the...
View ArticleResearch Bites: ELF and EAP
Björkman, B. (2011). English as a lingua franca in higher education: Implications for EAP. Ibérica: Revista de la Asociación Europea de Lenguas para Fines Específicos (AELFE), (22), 79-100. [link]...
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Principled Washback: Integrating Test Prep to Foster Academic Skills
(This post is a companion to the presentation I gave at the 2016 Toronto TESOL Conference. To download my presentation click here. To download my handout, click here.) DEFINITIONS washback (n.) the...
View ArticleResearch Bites: The Relevance of the Academic Vocabulary List (AVL)
Durrant, P. (2016). To what extent is the Academic Vocabulary List relevant to university student writing?. English for Specific Purposes, 43, 49–61. Durrant compares the Academic Vocabulary List (AVL,...
View ArticleResearch Bites: A Socioliterate Approach (SA) to Writing
Johns, A. M. (1999). Opening our doors: Applying socioliterate approaches (SA) to language minority classrooms. In P. K. Matsuda, M. Cox, J. Jordan, & C. Ortmeier-Hooper (Eds.), Second-language...
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