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Contextualizing grammar in second language (L2) classrooms implies making grammar constructs relevant to the learners’ world; affording learners the opportunities to better comprehend and apply these concepts in their own milieus. This instructional design (ID) has been devised to contextualize grammar and to explore learner engagement of pre-service English teachers through Computer-Aided Learning (CAL) and Task-based Learning (TBL) in a technology-driven learning environment. CAL encompasses technology-aided discussions, multi-media presentations, online tests and exercises, and social media deployment. TBL, on the other hand, contextualizes grammar using technology and social network in planning, executing, and presenting four assigned tasks: picture essay, brochure design, dialogue composition, and comic strips illustration. Facebook is the e-portfolio of the class, archiving all group and individual output. The CAL-TBL tandem is propelled by group initiatives and class collaboration evident in group discussions and planning, microteaching, task presentations, peer reviews, and self-evaluations. These initiatives engage learners; empowering students to collaboratively take active part and responsibility for their own learning. The three-hour-class meets every week in a computer laboratory. The post-semester feedback and online poll course design review as well as the University Course Evaluation comments have shown that the ID, from the learners’ perspective, is effective in contextualizing grammar and in engaging learners.

This paper aims to examine the impact of using visual grammar on learning participle adjectives by EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners.

The study follows an experimental design in which two groups participated in the study. The experimental group used visual grammar tools in learning participle adjectives. The control group was taught the participle adjectives in a traditional way. A pre–post test was designed and presented to the participants in the two groups.

The results showed that the experimental group made statistically significant improvements in their performance in using participle adjectives due to the use of visual grammar tools.

The current study is only limited to the effect of visual images on a particular grammatical issue, that is participle adjectives. Besides, the study does not include the gender variable; there may be variation in the results depending on the variable of gender.

The present study can provide language instructors with some guidelines on how to incorporate visual grammar applications in teaching grammar aspects. Learners can also be encouraged to have a better understanding of English grammar, using the different connotations of visual images.

Using visual images in teaching grammar will increase the learners' ability to think beyond their classroom environment. They can use this experience whenever they face visual images in different societal activities.

This paper is one of the initial attempts to investigate the effect of using visual grammar on learning participle adjectives.

Using videos in language learning has been investigated in the literature to enhance second language learning. The previous studies have explored the effect of videos on learning a foreign language, especially vocabulary learning. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of videos on learning present progressive tense in the perspective of semiotics.

A total of 30 Arab English foreign language (EFL) learners participated in the study and were assigned into two groups. The first group was taught present progressive tense with the help of videos (the semiotics group). The second group was taught the same content using a traditional way, i.e. without videos.

Results of the post-test indicated that participants in the semiotics group outscored the participants who did not learn through videos to learn present progressive tense. The study concluded that using videos is a useful tool to enhance learning present progressive tense.

To the authors’ knowledge, no study has been conducted to examine the effect of semiotics on learning L2 grammar, especially the present progressive tense. Therefore, this study explores the impact of using videos, as a form of semiotics, to help EFL learners learn present progressive tense.

The purpose of this paper is to present Zeuss, a software-based tool designed to improve grammar learning process in elementary school children. Despite efforts by the Colombian Government, the results of the final high school test indicate that students have major deficiencies with language, grammar and reading comprehension. Several difficulties have been evidenced in activities like writing essays or understanding academic papers. Among the reasons that may lead to these results include outdated courses, overcrowded classrooms and lack of interest.

A diagnostic test is performed on third-grade elementary school students to assess the current grammar knowledge and identify areas for improvement. The test results are used to design a software-based tool called Zeuss. The authors include playful activities inspired by several pedagogic exercises found in the literature and personalization so that interaction is tailored to specific user preferences and tastes.

Zeuss has been tested with third-grade students of the Gimnasio Campestre San Francisco de Sales elementary school in Bogotá, Colombia. The results show that using the tool leads to an overall improvement in the grammar construction learning process.

Zeuss aims at improving the learning process in elementary schools helping teachers to overcome several limitations like overcrowded classrooms and outdated pedagogic strategies. Zeuss focuses specifically on the grammar learning process.

Zeuss features updated pedagogical strategies, playful activities and a personalization model to tailor the learning process and help in context. It also allows teachers to track individual and classroom progress.

We have been applying inquiry-based learning (IBL) methodologies to language teaching in the department of French studies at the University of Manchester (UK) since 2006. We were aware that IBL was successfully employed within scientific subjects such as medicine and dentistry, but little research had been carried out within higher education in the adoption of such methodologies in advanced level language learning. Our projects in grammar, phonetics, interpreting and in producing resources for students on their period of residence abroad have not been without their challenges and we have experienced some reticence from students and educators alike. This chapter will set out a rationale for the adoption of IBL methodologies in language provision, detail the projects undertaken and analyse their results in terms of both measurable ‘product’ and perceived ‘process’-based outcomes. Finally, we will examine the dovetailing of competencies enhanced by IBL with those promoted more generally through language learning, a combination which we believe rends our students highly employable in the global jobs market.

This study aims to seek to demonstrate how explicit teaching of SFL metalinguistic and multimodal “grammars” enhanced 8-9-year-old children’s deeper understanding and production of multimodal texts through critique of the construction of mini-documentaries about animals: the information, language of narration, composition of scenes and resources to engage the viewer. It also seeks to demonstrate how a knowledge of metalinguistic and multimodal “grammars” contributes to students achieving both content knowledge and understanding of the resources of semiotic modes.

A design-based approach was used with the teacher and author working closely together to implement a unit of work on mini-documentaries, including explicit teaching of the metalanguage of information reports, mini-documentary narration (aka script) and multimodal resources deployed to scaffold students’ creating their own mini-documentaries.

The students’ mini-documentaries demonstrate how knowledge of SFL written and multimodal SFL-informed “grammars” assisted students to learn how meaning was created through selection of resources from the written, visual, sound and gestural modes and apply this knowledge to creating multimodal texts demonstrating their understandings of the topic and how to make meaning in a multimodal mini-documentary.

The research is limited to the outcomes from one group of students in one class. Generalisation to other contexts is not possible. Further studies are required to support the results from this research.

The linguistic and multimodal SFL-informed grammars can be applied by educators to critique multimodal texts in a range of mediums and scaffold students’ production of multimodal texts. They can also inform assessment criteria and expand students’ conception of what is literate practice.

Knowledge of a linguistic and multimodal metalanguage can provide students with the tools to enhance their critical language awareness and critical multimodal awareness.

This paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of Language Enhancement Program (LEP) activities in enhancing the oral communication skills of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students at King Khalid University.

A mixed-method study design was used. Simple random sampling techniques were adopted to recruit the study participants. For the survey, a total of 58 male students were recruited and for interviews, 20 male students were selected. The 58 participants were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The traditional method was adopted to teach the control group, while LEP activities were conducted to teach the experimental group.

A post-test was conducted to examine the oral communication skills of the participants of the experimental group. The scores of both groups were analyzed using a t-test value at a significant level of 0.05. The content analysis method was adopted to assess the enhancement of the oral communication of the students enrolled in the LEP. The questionnaires and interview results showed that the LEP program has a central focus on improving students' oral communication skills.

It is limited to the EFL students at King Khalid University.

LEP is a good program and can be implemented in Saudi Universities.

Students can interact with one another through the LEP activities that promote their English proficiency as well as their personality characteristics.

The paper spells out the role of LEP activities in improving students' oral communication in English and students' opinions about LEP activities in enhancing their English language in different types of communicative contexts. Further, it suggests some pedagogical implications for overcoming the difficulties faced by EFL students in various communicative contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to present findings from a learning study (Lindström, 2015) with Swedish sixth grade pupils on the English grammatical structure, the progressive aspect (PROG). The focus is on how the lesson design and the treatment of the subject content, informed by variation theory, affected the learning of the PROG.

Four teachers of English as a foreign language, including the teacher researcher, collaborated to plan, teach, evaluate and analyse a series of six research lessons. The theoretical framework was the variation theory of learning which was used both to design the lessons and analyse teaching and learning. A basic assumption is that learning is a function of discernment, and discernment is conditional upon experiencing variaion. Empirical data consisted of interview transcripts, pre- and post-lesson assessments, and video recordings of the lessons.

The use of the present tense when teaching the PROG was insufficient. When the past tense was introduced, along with particularly powerful examples, pupils’ understanding of the PROG improved. Furthermore, reversing the conventional order by instead beginning the lesson with examples in the past tense, helped the pupils to generalise the meanings of the PROG. Improved pupil learning outcomes were observed when the PROG was treated from the perspective of wholeness, simultaneity and complexity.

The findings challenge conventional ways of teaching the PROG and thus have value for instruction of English as a foreign language.

With shortening product life cycles and an increasing number of product variants, manufacturing firms perform more production ramp-ups. In this context, learning is crucially important to quickly achieve high production process quality and stability. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Through a laboratory experiment, this study analyzes spillover learning between consecutive ramp-ups and how this phenomenon is influenced by tacit knowledge transfer through observation and imitation.

The results prove the existence of spillover learning between consecutive ramp-ups. Moreover, they provide evidence how tacit knowledge transfer through observation and imitation enhances learning of new tasks in consecutive production ramp-ups.

Future research could focus on the specific psychological processes driving tacit knowledge transfer and spillover learning, a topic which is only touched upon in this paper.

The findings show that manufacturing firms should not only aim at reaching a steep learning curve during a single production ramp-up, but should also take into account the effects of spillover learning with regard to future production ramp-ups. Furthermore, the paper provides novel insights concerning the allocation of workers to production tasks with regard to previous experience when introducing new personnel and during ramp-up phases.

Previous evidence on the existence and characteristics of spillover learning in production ramp-up situations is not conclusive. This paper provides new and unambiguous insights by considering different organizational settings.

This paper aims to clarify that the link between Michael Polanyi’s tacit knowledge theory and the field of knowledge management research does not withstand in-depth analysis. Second, the paper suggests a way to emerge from the ambiguity that unavoidably results from using the tacit knowledge concept in knowledge management studies.

The paper begins with an analysis of the tacit knowledge theories developed by Polanyi, by cognitive psychologists and by knowledge management scholars. It goes on to formulate a new conceptual framework of tacit knowledge.

This proposal consists in assuming that the terms “unconscious” and “tacit” are not interchangeable and, consequently, redefining the epistemological profile of knowledge management theory so as to acknowledge the existence of two planes of analysis. One is occupied by the process through which individuals gain knowledge, or the knowing process, which may be unconscious or conscious. The other contains the dichotomy between tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge, where the two terms indicate two alternative states that only consciously developed knowledge can adopt.

The paper provides support for the two-planes idea by referring to contributions from various disciplines, and particularly from cognitive psychology studies concerned with unconscious knowledge; a more thorough and extensive review would be needed, however, to fully demonstrate the proposal.

Distinguishing between two planes of analysis makes it possible to unveil the mystery of tacit knowledge.