Analyzing writing styles of non-native speakers is a challenging task. In this paper, we analyze the comments written in the discussion pages of the English Wikipedia. Using learning algorithms, we are able to detect native speakers’ writing style with an accuracy of 74%. Given the diversity of the English Wikipedia users and the large number of languages they speak, we measure the similarities...

As an indispensable and most difficult part of language acquisition, the importance of English writing has been intensified by the economic globalization and internet revolution due to the special role of English as a universal language (Warshauer, 2000). However, writing teaching and learning has been long perplexing language teachers and learners even in the first language. Therefore many stu...

The Center, established in 1987, initially focused on the teaching and learning of literature. In March 1996, the Center expanded its focus to include the teaching and learning of English, both as a subject in its own right and as it is learned in other content areas. ABSTRACT Despite substantial research on children's literacy performance outside school, relatively few studies have examined th...

Writing well in English is a challenge for non-native English speakers. When readers are unable to comprehend what they read they just give up reading and fail to get to the content. In this paper we describe problems encountered in the English writing of scientific abstracts by Brazilian Portuguese speakers. We collected and analyzed a corpus of 115 abstracts in which we identified specific la...

ESL Assistant is a prototype web-based writing-assistance tool that is being developed for English Language Learners. The system focuses on types of errors that are typically made by non-native writers of American English. A freely-available prototype was deployed in June 2008. User data from this system are manually evaluated to identify writing domain and measure system accuracy. Combining th...

Can you identify a single colleague who has not had a manuscript returned with the comment ‘‘needs to be reviewed by a native English speaker’’? Many researchers receive this response even after translation or revision by an official translator or a native English-speaking coauthor. Over the past four years, while conducting my doctoral, and now my postdoctoral, work here in Brazil, I have been...

This study aimed at investigating the effect of Preview, Question, Read, Summarize (PQRS) Strategy on EFL students’ writing ability by considering their working memory capacity (WMC) levels. It involved Indonesian English as a foreign language (EFL) students of English Department in Universitas Negeri Malang, one of the leading universities in Indonesia. This study applied a quasi-experimental ...

in iranian language learning contexts, writing in english is an important challenge for learners, since it is usually treated as a secondary skill and is led to the periphery of language classes, due to its time-consuming nature. computer technology and namely the free online environments available in the world wide web (www) offer possibilities for moving beyond such confinements. asynchronous...