Written feedback on ESL student writers’ academic essays

This paper provides an analysis of written feedback on ESL student writers’ academic essays to shed light on how feedback acts as a communicative tool between the lecturer and students. The objective of this study is to explore the types and usefulness of written feedback on ESL student writers’ academic writing. First, it discusses the importance of feedback and the theoretical framework of the Speech Act Theory. The data for this study comprises written feedback and students’ interviews. The feedback was coded, and a model for analysis was developed based on two primary roles of speech: directive and expressive. Based on this analysis, the paper discusses the types of feedback from which students benefit the most, namely, directive-instruction feedback and expressive-disapproval feedback. The interview conducted as part of this study provided insightson how the students felt about each type of feedback. This study also suggests a possibility of developing a taxonomy of good feedback practices by considering the views of the giver and receiver of written feedback

Effectiveness of written feedback in ESL writing

Feedback is one of the most influential tools in the learning of writing. However, there are divided views on its impact on ESL writing. This article reviews past studies to explore the various types of written feedback and its effectiveness. Firstly, it discusses the feedback role in ESL students’ writing, followed by the types of feedback. Furthermore, it highlights the type of feedback which is useful and effective in the writing process. Next, it presents the different views on the effectiveness of feedback in ESL writing due to the type of feedback and the way it is given. Lastly, it concludes that feedback acts as a scaffold by providing a meaningful and impactful learning to students

The second language acquisition of past tense marker in English by L1 speakers of chinese.

This study is considered the L2 acquisition and underlying of past tense marker, focusing on whether or not L2 learners of English are successful in associating the grammatical properties with Chinese language. Although the dataset is small, the results showed that Chinese speakers are able to acquire the past-tense marker although Chinese language has none of this feature. The L1 Chinese speakers are able to acquire the regular past-tense marker better co mpared to the irregular form

Erratum to: Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (3rd edition) (Autophagy, 12, 1, 1-222, 10.1080/15548627.2015.1100356

non present

Diminishing benefits of urban living for children and adolescents’ growth and development

Optimal growth and development in childhood and adolescence is crucial for lifelong health and well-being1–6. Here we used data from 2,325 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight from 71 million participants, to report the height and body-mass index (BMI) of children and adolescents aged 5–19 years on the basis of rural and urban place of residence in 200 countries and territories from 1990 to 2020. In 1990, children and adolescents residing in cities were taller than their rural counterparts in all but a few high-income countries. By 2020, the urban height advantage became smaller in most countries, and in many high-income western countries it reversed into a small urban-based disadvantage. The exception was for boys in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa and in some countries in Oceania, south Asia and the region of central Asia, Middle East and north Africa. In these countries, successive cohorts of boys from rural places either did not gain height or possibly became shorter, and hence fell further behind their urban peers. The difference between the age-standardized mean BMI of children in urban and rural areas was <1.1 kg m–2 in the vast majority of countries. Within this small range, BMI increased slightly more in cities than in rural areas, except in south Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and some countries in central and eastern Europe. Our results show that in much of the world, the growth and developmental advantages of living in cities have diminished in the twenty-first century, whereas in much of sub-Saharan Africa they have amplified