Narrative writing is a skill that all primary (elementary) school pupils in Singapore are required to develop in their learning of the English language. However, this is an area in which not all pupils excel. This study investigates if the use of blogging and scaffolding can improve pupils’ narrative writing. Data were gathered from 36 primary five (grade five) pupils through pre-post writing t...

the present study was conducted to compare the effect of individual and group pre-task planning on efl learners’ accuracy and complexity in speaking. to fulfill the purpose of the study, 60 intermediate female learners at the first grade of high school were chosen by means of a sample preliminary english test (pet) and randomly divided into two experimental groups of 30 students; the individual...

This paper discusses two types of knowledge that are generated by cultural anthropology, narrative knowledge and scientific knowledge. The argument of this article is that narrative knowledge an older form of knowledge that dates to the time when the brain was evolving its capacity for cultural communication, and that scientific knowledge is more recent and depends on writing and other more ela...

Interactive storytelling is an interesting cross-disciplinary area that has importance in research as well as entertainment. In this paper we explore a new area of interactive storytelling that blurs the line between traditional interactive fiction and collaborative writing. We present a system where the user and computer take turns in writing sentences of a fictional narrative. Sentences contr...

This study was an attempt to investigate the comparative impact of concept map and mind map instruc- tion on EFL learners’ descriptive and narrative writing. To fulfill this purpose, 60 intermediate EFL learners were selected from among a total number of 100 through their performance on a pretest, i.e., a piloted sample Cambridge Preliminary English Test (PET). T...

Designing appropriate materials and activities to enhance vocabulary learning is one of the primary goals of language courses. Among the claims about efficient pedagogical tasks is the Involvement Load Hypothesis (Laufer & Hulstijn, 2001) according to which vocabulary development is contingent on the amount of cognitive process a task involves. Building on the previous research on this hypothes...

the study aimed at investigating whether the retention of vocabulary acquired incidentally is dependent upon the amount of task-induced involvement. immediate and delayed retention of twenty unfamiliar words was examined in three learning tasks( listening comprehension + group discussion, listening comprehension + dictionary checking + summary writing in l1, and listening comprehension + dictio...

BACKGROUND Empathy has been re-discovered as a desirable quality in doctors. A number of approaches using the medical humanities have been advocated to teach empathy to medical students. This paper describes a new approach using the medium of creative writing and a new narrative genre: clinical realism. METHODS Third year students were offered a four week long Student Selected Component (SSC)...

The main purpose of the present quasi-experimental study was to investigate the effects of linear process versus genre-based approach on EFL learners’ written production. To this end, 40 learners of English at intermediate level were randomly selected as the participants of the study and assigned into two groups of experimental (process and genre) which received different types of instruction f...