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There is a general belief that software must be able to easily do things that humans find difficult. Since finding sources for plagiarism in a text is not an easy task, there is a widespread expectation that it must be simple for software to determine if a text is plagiarized or not. Software cannot determine plagiarism, but it can work as a support tool for identifying some text similarity that may constitute plagiarism. But how well do the various systems work? This paper reports on a collaborative test of 15 web-based text-matching systems that can be used when plagiarism is suspected. It was conducted by researchers from seven countries using test material in eight different languages, evaluating the effectiveness of the systems on single-source and multi-source documents. A usability examination was also performed. The sobering results show that although some systems can indeed help identify some plagiarized content, they clearly do not find all plagiarism and at times also identify nonplagiarized material as problematic.

Writing is one of the most difficult and neglected skills for EFL learners. Gamification, the use of game elements to increase user experience and interest in non-game content, can be used to deal with writing anxiety which is considered as a hindering affective factor in successful language learning. Within this scope, this study aims to investigate the effect of the online gamification tool ‘Edmodo’ on EFL learners’ writing anxiety levels. The experimental design, one of the quantitative methods, was preferred. Data were collected through a background questionnaire and the Second Language Writing Anxiety Scale, involving 22 items scored on a five-point Likert response scale. Data were analysed with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences software. The results showed that the students who completed the activities and who were graded through Edmodo had significantly lower anxiety levels than the students using the traditional pen and paper. Keywords: Gamification, foreign language, writing, anxiety.

Smartphones have been an indispensable part of our lives and function in all fields of life effectively. Mobile applications, which are one of the core components of smartphones, are the main agent in integration of smartphones into education. After the mobile applications started to be used for educational purposes, a radical change took place in the nature of education. With the contribution of mobile applications, education has turned out to be more individualized, ubiquitous, learner-centred and, disquietly, uncontrolled. Language learning is highly affected by this prevalent impact of the mobile applications and vocabulary applications have taken the lead in number in application markets. This study aimed to find out the effectiveness of mobile applications on contextual and literal vocabulary instruction. 84 university freshman students were chosen as the participants of the study. The participants were divided into two groups as literal and contextual vocabulary instruction group, 42 in each. A four-week training session was administered to both groups using the particular vocabulary apps that comply with the necessity of the groups. The data obtained were analysed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 15. Consequently, it was found out that both groups showed improvements in their post-test scores, but literal instruction group outperformed the contextual instruction group. Along with this finding, some recommendations were made for further studies.

Listening skills have been a great concern for both researchers and teachers trying to promote communicative competence. The purpose of this study is to find out to what extend listening is important in gaining communicative competence. 100 university level preparatory class students were chosen as subjects of the study. Students took formal listening and speaking classes for one term and at the end of the term they took a written exam for listening class and an oral exam for speaking class. The data obtained from the exam results were analyzed and interpreted.