Novice academic writers, particularly Iranian graduate students (IGSs), upon entering an academic community, are hypothesized to face probable difficulties in practicing rhetorical expectations set by the experienced (EXP) members, hence, not being able to write in a way acceptable to these professionals. To explore the probable rhetorical distance between them, this study investigated the empl...

There is an increasing expectation that academic and clinical nurses will contribute to disciplinary and professional discourses through scholarly writing. However, the difficulties and challenges associated with writing for publication mean that many papers will never be written. This current paper describes an innovative approach developed to support skill development and outcomes in writing ...

The integration of interactive online communication into different educational settings has been widely researched since the emergence of Web 2.0 technology. It has been particularly identified to give EFL students more opportunities to express ideas, enhance their engagement in learning activities and promote their confidence during virtual interactions. These benefits coincide with attributes...

The present interview study was a part of a larger investigation which was chiefly made in 2010. Its purpose is to examine and manage the divergence perceived in the supervisory relationship by doctoral students and their supervisors in terms of the aims and academic views of the doctoral program in EFL research supervision of a Chinese university. Discourse System (DS) proposed by Scollon and ...

The longitudinal effects of repeating a timed writing activity on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students’ second language (L2) writing development were investigated. Data for 46 students in two university classes (23 in each class), each with a different course objective, were collected 30 times in the same way over one year. The students’ compositions were analyzed for fluency, grammatic...

Paraphrasing is an important aspect of language competence; however, EFL learners have long had difficulty paraphrasing in their writing owing to their limited language proficiency. Therefore, automatic paraphrase suggestion systems can be useful for writers. In this paper, we present PREFER 1 , a paraphrase reference tool for helping language learners improve their writing skills. In this pape...

BACKGROUND Expiratory flow limitation (EFL), determined by the negative expiratory pressure (NEP) technique, can exhibit overlapping patterns in COPD, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and non-OSA obesity. We assessed the ability of a quantitative method to assess EFL to discriminate COPD from obese and OSA patients during NEP (-2 to -3 cm H(2)O) testing. METHODS EFL was quantified by measuring t...

Expressing doubt and certainty in academic writings requires a cautious use of hedges and boosters. Despite their importance in academic writing, little is known about how they are used in monolingual and bilingual male and female EFL learners’ academic writings. To shed some lights on the issue, the present study investigated the use of hedges and boosters in research articles written by monol...