Debate about the value and the effect of both kinds of corrective feedback, explicit and implicit on second language writing has been prominent in recent years. Second language writing researchers investigate whether written implicit corrective feedback facilitates the acquisition of linguistic features. In contrast, L2 writing researchers generally emphasize the question of whether written corrective feedback helps student writers improve their writing texts and reduces their language errors. Understanding these differences is important because it provides guidelines for English language writing teachers on what are the best way to provide feedback for student writers. A quasi-experimental study was conducted to investigate the effects of implicit corrective feedback on the English writing of international second language learners in a UK educational context. It scrutinizes the application of teacher implicit written feedback in relation to the advancement of the writing skill of second language learners within a short-term period. A case study consisting of a small group of international students received implicit written feedback through codes representing specific types of writing errors. Participants were also interviewed to understand their views regarding teacher implicit written feedback and their reactions towards it. The results of the study revealed that teacher implicit written feedback helped correcting particular type of errors while other errors mandated the intervention of the teacher oral feedback.

Second language (L2) academic writing is one of the most fundamental, yet sophisticated skills for university students to master. It requires the ability to not only create ideas using sentences, but also construct meaningful, logical and comprehensible texts. Thus, understanding students’ attitudes towards L2 writing and exploring the challenges that they experience while composing texts are necessary for L2 teachers and curriculum designers. The overall goal of this study is twofold: (1) to investigate students’ perceptions of the difficulty that they experience while writing academic texts in English and (2) to explore learners’ attitudes towards writing assignments in English. The goal here is to explore these issues using data obtained from 109 Saudi university students. Data were first collected using a questionnaire and then quantitatively analysed. The results show that students tend to perceive academic writing as challenging and adopt a mildly to moderately positive attitude towards writing in English. These findings offer some implications for teachers and curriculum designers to improve the L2 academic writing skills of students.

Vocabulary mastery is essential for second language (L2) students. Several trends in foreign language vocabulary research and pedagogy have emerged during the 21st century. Perhaps the most significant is the technological revolution and the ever-increasing availability of English-language materials on the Internet. Thus, the present study examines the effectiveness of watching video clips with English subtitles in online classrooms to improve L2 students’ vocabulary learning and short- and long-term retention. The study consisted of a one-group, pretest-posttest quasi-experiment in which participants were taught two sets of L2 vocabulary using two methods: the presentation of subtitled clips from animated movies and first language (L1) translation and text-based activities. The participants consisted of 35 female students. The data collection was stratified into four steps: two pretests administered for both vocabulary sets before the interventions, short follow-up tests after both interventions, semi-structured interviews, and two posttests for both vocabulary sets administered at the end of the module. The data was subjected to statistical and thematic analysis. The results indicated that watching movie clips with subtitles had an effective learning result and a positive impact on students’ motivation to learn L2 vocabulary. The integration of multimedia tools and applications through the presentation of video clips with English subtitles had a powerful effect on vocabulary recognition, comprehension and retention. Participants achieved higher scores on the vocabulary posttests from watching movie clips with English subtitles than from learning vocabulary through a traditional teaching method. Therefore, the current study should serve as a foundation for future studies to validate and reference its results.

Teaching reading as a second/foreign language has gained increasing significance in the educational field. Investigating pedagogical methods has become one of the major areas of research in the expanding field of teaching second language (L2) reading comprehension. Many researchers have addressed various pedagogical aspects and issues related to this field. This annotated bibliography is designed for researchers and instructors working on developing modern technological techniques of teaching reading in second/foreign language settings and to provide a solid theoretical and pedagogical background based on many types of data from various angles and contexts. It attempts to provide an overview of and highlight research studies related to teaching L2 reading comprehension through updated digital methods with applications and recommendations based on previous research studies. The sources listed in this annotated bibliography are journal articles arranged alphabetically by author, and for each work there is a brief non-evaluative synopsis of the study’s objectives, instruments of data collection and results.

This article contributes to the existing body of research on academic reading practices in the 21st century, by focusing on on-screen reading in the technological age. The study offers an insight into the nature of on-screen reading and reflects the authentic on-screen academic reading experiences of international postgraduate readers in the UK educational context. This was achieved by investigating participants’ reading comprehension strategies while reading on-screen academic research articles, compared with those employed when engaged in print-based reading. This study also scrutinizes L2 readers’ use of digital affordances and their use of e-resources while comprehending on-screen texts. Case study and interpretive qualitative approaches have been adopted in the present research study. Thematic and content analysis and a constant comparative method (CCM) have been applied to analyze the data. Although new on-screen reading strategies emerged from the data, the results reveal a transfer of print-based reading techniques to on-screen reading. This demonstrates a move from a traditional literacy to a digital one in which readers manipulate the strategies that they are already aware of, and are capable of, in order to read a text on-screen. Surprisingly, readers were much more effective: and employed more strategies and interacted more deeply with the printed text than with the on-screen text. The results from this study have led to the proposal of suggested models for interpreting on-screen L2 academic reading interactions. A number of pedagogical practices are suggested and recommended for preparing L2 readers for further academic study which could be equally applicable and useful for L1 academic reading instructions in the 21st century, including the reshaping of reading skills textbooks to accommodate and meet the needs of reading comprehension practices in the technological age and promoting learners’ digital academic literacy. These practices may be useful to teachers when teaching on-screen reading strategies for specific academic purposes in digital universities.