ESP

How can psychologists explain strange experiences such as hallucinations or unusual beliefs in ghosts and angels? This compelling introduction aims to uncover how and why such beliefs occur, exploring explanations based on different psychological models, and evaluating the scientific basis of parapsychology and the challenges that researchers face.

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This study examined the writing performance of 58 students with a history of specific language impairment, assessing them at ages 8, 11, 12, 14, and 16 to evaluate longitudinal tra- jectories of writing performance and relationships with oral language, reading, and handwriting  fluency. At age 16, participants continued to experience problems with oral language and literacy:Their writing evidenced short texts, poor sentence structure, and difficulties with ideas and organi-zation. Concurrent measures of vocabulary and spelling were significant factors in explaining writ-ing performance. Handwriting fluency remained a particular difficulty for the current cohort and directly affected writing performance. Path analysis indicated that previous levels of literacy medi-ated the impact of oral language skills

This paper documents the strategies used in providing students with feedback in a large scale action research project that was
designed to help students develop their language and literacy skills. The Scaffolding Literacy in Academic and Tertiary Environments (SLATE) was designed to provide students in a university in Hong Kong with discipline specific language and literacy support (see Mahboob, Dreyfus, Humphrey, and Martin, 2010, for a detailed description of the program). This support was provided by language tutors from around the world – with a large team of the tutors based in Sydney. In order to do this work, the SLATE team in Sydney developed a number of protocols and procedures for providing online support to the students. This paper describes these processes in some detail.

Given the fact that few studies have investigated the English language needs of EAP students in Iran, the present study was an attempt to analyze the needs of Iranian EAP learners of Humanities and Social Sciences. To this end, 114 EAP learners at different educational levels (BA, MA, and Ph.D.) and with different English proficiency levels (elementary, intermediate, and advanced) were asked to provide their responses to a questionnaire. Moreover, ten EAP learners and eight EAP instructors were asked to write narratives about their experiences in EAP courses. Their narratives were then analyzed based on Strauss and Corbin's (1998) systematic approach. The results revealed that the EAP courses did not pay the deserved attention to writing, speaking, and listening skills, while the coverage of the sub-skills (grammar and vocabulary) was successful. Moreover, it was revealed that the EAP textbooks were insufficient in terms of the inclusion of language skills, community-specific cultural issues and conventions, and the topical knowledge. The analysis of the EAP learners' needs also showed that not all interaction types happened in the EAP courses. Furthermore, the analysis of the narratives of EAP learners and EAP instructors indicated that the EAP curriculum, EAP textbooks and also EAP assessment should include the four language skills, provide a communicative venue for EAP learners to practice their disciplinary issues, and design communicative materials. It can be concluded that the current EAP curriculum needs revision to fulfill the EAP learners' present and target situation needs.