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Questions related from Michael W. Marek
Most teachers agree that teaching the culture of native-speaking countries is valuable, but how MUCH should this be done? Do you have a percentage in mind or other ways of saying how much of the...
01 January 2020 6,285 6 View
Research shows abundant advantages of using technology for learning... But use of smartphones during class time often means text messaging and other distractions from what is actually going on in...
06 June 2018 9,038 10 View
Many people think that university professors and researchers do not work during their summer vacation. But we know that summer is when faculty do projects that are too time consuming during the...
06 June 2018 3,133 10 View
The app was released for iOS in May 2018, but I have heard very little about it. Do you use it? What do you think?
06 June 2018 4,872 2 View
Final Test Week is here for my school, and rapidly approaching for many faculty members. It includes a huge crunch of test-giving and test grading, plus many other end-of-the-semester tasks....
04 April 2018 2,325 11 View
I have a conference paper that was published in the conference proceedings that I am planning to expand for a journal submission. I am already planning to change the title and expand the length...
03 March 2018 8,228 3 View
Facebook's new policy about keeping "Engagement Bait" out of the newsfeed is intended to eliminate posts with "like and share this post" calls to action. But liking and sharing is part of the...
01 January 2018 6,094 4 View
Right after the 2016 US election, we heard a lot about the "echo chamber" that saw a lot of people talking about issues in social media, but mostly to people of similar beliefs. Why did neither...
01 January 2018 1,645 2 View
Here are three websites that say they have continued the work of Beall's List, which was discontinued due to harassment....
12 December 2017 7,491 8 View
I believe that cold weather CAN be the result of global warming and the resulting climate change, as explained in this blog...
12 December 2017 9,174 60 View
I will be teaching online classes on the spring semester. Students prepare by reading the textbook and watching online videos, then in the learning management system (LMS) they use discussion...
12 December 2017 9,604 4 View
Research is an expected function for higher education faculty, but I wonder what the REAL motivation is? Below are some suggestions. Curiosity about something in your field? Support a...
11 November 2017 1,859 8 View
I am not a speaker of Spanish, but I teach media and am wondering about the dialect or accent of Spanish used in Spanish language media across the United States. Is it based on the version of...
10 October 2017 8,712 3 View
Traditionally, instructional designers would choose a technology first, or be told by the school what was available to use. Then they would figure out how to use the technology for the purposes...
07 July 2017 2,064 10 View
Beall's list has disappeared due to harassment received by the author. But.... I have found a 2017 archival listing of Beall's list of possible predatory journals. It is at the attached link. If...
02 February 2017 5,621 2 View
I am a senior full professor and native English speaker. Much of my scholarly work uses what I consider to be innovative methodologies which are not simply copied from some other study. It is not...
02 February 2017 8,803 6 View
Most teachers agree that teaching the culture of native speaking countries is valuable, but how MUCH should this be done? Do you have a percentage in mind or other way of saying how much of the...
02 February 2017 5,081 10 View
The Brexit debate in England and the Trump election has led observers to note that truth no longer plays a dominant role in political discourse. So-called "fake news" was prominent, either...
01 January 2017 2,726 8 View
Jeffrey Beall of the University of Colorado at Denver, maintained the list from 2008 until just recently. It was a wonderful resource, but it was shut down due to "threats and politics." Now...
01 January 2017 4,651 5 View
In TESOL, EFL teaching, CALL and MALL, I have seen many studies that were of short duration. For example, in looking at several MALL studies, learners used MALL for as little as 40 minutes, one...
01 January 2017 9,536 20 View
I have a friend who is making use of a well-validated questionnaire about technology. She made some wording adjustments to fit her local context. Now a reviewer is asking that the wording...
12 December 2016 1,504 1 View
In particular, when you are giving written instructions, do you refer to yourself in the first person, or the third. For example: "Be sure to watch my video and reply in the forum section by...
12 December 2016 5,543 6 View
In the United States, there was criticism after the recent presidential election that people posting in social media were in an "echo chamber" and were only talking to people of similar mindset.I...
11 November 2016 3,435 2 View
I have been asked to speak (via Skype) to a class in another country of graduate students learning how to teach with Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). What should someone who is...
11 November 2016 675 5 View
Many young people in the United States were disappointed by the outcome of our presidential election. They fear that there will be many negative consequences. In a larger sense, school teachers...
11 November 2016 5,789 2 View
I see many papers that perform statistical analysis on small numbers of participants (a few dozen or less) and claim that the findings are generalizable. My statistical coursework years ago tells...
10 October 2016 7,469 8 View
University faculty are expected to be loyal to their university, but I know many faculty members who are much more focused on their own career, promotion, or prestige, and not really as loyal to...
10 October 2016 7,040 13 View
Teaching the same course over and over again can be boring, especially if it is a beginner's course. But teaching a new class can be hard work because you must start from the beginning to develop...
09 September 2016 9,722 14 View
I have several classes in which I give students feedback about how they did their assignment and the process they used, in addition to just the final outcome grade. Often it takes me significant...
09 September 2016 5,878 2 View
I hope that most academic programs are continually evaluating themselves and updating their classes. But my question is broader. How often should a major, comprehensive review be made? What...
09 September 2016 1,146 4 View
Over the last few days, as I write this, the news has been filled with tributes to the 50th anniversary of the American television show Star Trek. Many scientists, astronauts, and business people...
09 September 2016 842 5 View
I have a friend who is a university professor and spent several months working on a research project with a colleague, but before they had their paper written, the collaboration fell apart. The...
08 August 2016 702 2 View
There are many ways of understanding motivation. In asking this question, I want to move beyond theories. I am not interested only on things TEACHERS can do to produce motivation.I am interested...
08 August 2016 1,210 13 View
Are you familiar with Instructional Engineering? Have you seen it in the literature or heard it at conferences? What does it mean to you? Do you use "engineering" approaches in your...
07 July 2016 7,899 4 View
There are many frameworks for understanding motivation, like instrumental versus integrative. I am interested in knowing what specific kinds of things motivate your students? Is it things you do...
06 June 2016 2,967 13 View
See my paper, which has just been published by Educational Technology and Society. We surveyed 70 corresponding authors of past Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) studies. Although...
04 April 2016 1,161 1 View
What do you know today about teaching and learning English that you wish you had known before you started teaching? Were there things your teachers did NOT teach you that they should have? What...
04 April 2016 8,136 3 View
I am in possession of my grandfather's photograph album from when he was in the Prussian military in China in 1903-1906. This was immediately after 义 和 团, Yì hé tuán, the Boxer Rebellion If you...
04 April 2016 812 3 View
Today we know that learning English is not only about interacting with native speakers, but also interacting with anyone with whom you do not share a mother tongue. I think that most people agree...
04 April 2016 6,975 56 View
There are many frameworks for understanding motivation, like instrumental versus integrative. I am interested in knowing what specific kinds of things motivate your EFL students? Is it things...
03 March 2016 1,921 1 View
I have recently encountered people studying subjects that seem to be superficial. So I wonder, is it the subject that makes us say "this is scholarly writing" or is it the WAY that the subject is...
03 March 2016 4,821 1 View
There is broad acceptance of the idea that teaching culture is important as part of teaching language. I am wondering if you use current news from the target country as part of this teaching about...
03 March 2016 5,252 3 View
Undergraduate students who are planning on continuing to a master's degree often take research classes during their undergraduate years. Which do you think is more valuable to such a student in...
02 February 2016 3,156 5 View
I have been thinking about writing a case study, but I have seen some comments that suggest that case studies are a "last alternative" poor choice. Can a case study be high quality, or do they...
02 February 2016 9,340 3 View
In academic writing, we are surrounded by social networks or social media platforms. But what criteria do we use to say "this platform is social media, but that platform is not"? I know that...
01 January 2016 5,791 10 View
Using smartphones for learning is often advocated because learning can take place at any time and place, but do students really use their smartphones this way for learning? Some studies say that...
01 January 2016 3,889 3 View
It seems to me that if we KNOW what motivates students, we can better appeal to that motivation. There are many frameworks for understanding motivation, like Gardner's instrumental versus...
12 December 2015 433 3 View
Particularly when the teacher is a native speaker, it is important to know what are the HARDEST parts of learning English. What did YOU find to be the hardest? I ask because when a teacher...
12 December 2015 4,582 38 View
Depending on your answer, why or why not are teachers respected?
10 October 2015 8,088 5 View
There are two possible uses of learning technology introducing new knowledge (i.e. learning outside the classroom) and applying knowledge learned in the classroom. Which is the more effective for...
09 September 2015 2,980 2 View
Many studies, particularly in my field of teaching EFL, use students as participants. My theory is that sometimes you can have a research goal that is not the same as the instructional goal. The...
09 September 2015 10,011 7 View
I was just grading assignments for an undergraduate class. We run the range from Freshmen to Seniors. Of 17 students, four did not turn the assignment in and two more were only partially...
09 September 2015 2,262 10 View
We all have the challenge of developing intriguing research topics that will produce valuable results and appear to journal reviewers. Do you think that new ideas from new collaborations are...
08 August 2015 3,480 6 View
Many English idioms have obscure origins, like "it's raining cats and dogs." Does knowing the origin help students understand the use of an idiom? Can you learn and use the idiom effectively of...
08 August 2015 4,372 2 View
Many people around the world speak two or more foreign languages. But some languages are easier to learn than others. What do you consider to be the easiest foreign language to learn? Why is it...
08 August 2015 7,198 2 View
Most manuscripts need to be revised at least once before publication. When you are an original reviewer, looking at a revised version, is it permissible to raise NEW issues not mentioned in the...
07 July 2015 8,297 4 View
I have sometimes had journal blind reviewers misunderstand my research design and methodology. For example, a reviewer may have no background in qualitative methodology and complain about "sample...
07 July 2015 7,015 4 View
A journal editor recently suggested that "EFL environment" is not a good way to refer to a country where English is taught as a foreign language. She suggested referring to the "expanding circle"...
07 July 2015 1,780 5 View
LINE provides text and voice chat capability, groups, and may provide higher privacy than Facebook..
06 June 2015 968 3 View
What do you think about the role of culture in EFL learning? In today's world, EFL learners may need to speak English with people who speak many other native languages. When we talk about...
06 June 2015 5,244 3 View
For those of you who have a native language other than English, what are the similarities and differences in writing in your native language compared to writing in English. I am interested...
06 June 2015 4,307 1 View
In a small academic department, how important is it to have faculty who received their own doctorates from different universities? For example, in a department of ten faculty, how many can have...
03 March 2015 7,083 3 View
I may be doing a project related to teaching Tourism English. What advice to you have? What kinds of student activities work best? How do you structure such a course?
03 March 2015 8,796 1 View
We have been asked by a reviewer to include a Conceptual Framework in our Literature Review, but our understanding is that in Qualitative research, the conceptual framework results from the data,...
03 March 2015 7,963 5 View
It has been my habit, across several peer-reviewed journal articles, to have a section at the end of the Findings or in the Discussion that directly answer the research questions, i.e. summarizing...
02 February 2015 7,300 0 View
Do you say "after my current topic, I will research THIS topic, followed by THAT topic?" Are your research topics new each time, or do they follow a progression? Do you REALLY know your...
01 January 2015 3,089 11 View
In addition, which do you think has the most value for your discipline?
01 January 2015 899 3 View
In a previous question I asked, most people agreed that L1 writing ABILITY correlates with L2 writing ability. This is my follow-up: Are conventions for L1 writing in a given culture...
01 January 2015 851 27 View
Dörnyei says that students are best motivated when they imagine themselves functioning in the future as part of a cosmopolitan international society. Therefore, teachers should help students...
01 January 2015 2,057 16 View
In your experience, how is the order of authors determined? Is the first author the person who did the most writing? The original instructional and research design? The analysis? How SHOULD it...
01 January 2015 4,635 5 View
This coming week is final test week at my school. Final test week usually means not only test grading, but grading of many final papers and projects. How do you stay organized? How do you stay...
12 December 2014 4,309 4 View
Studying for essay questions requires understanding of concepts, theories, and models. Studying for multiple choice and true/false questions is about factual information. Is it good to ask...
12 December 2014 7,691 1 View
This article describes fake manuscripts accepted by two journals that claim to use scholarly peer review. The fake manuscripts were supposedly written by characters of the popular American cartoon...
12 December 2014 5,245 1 View
Maybe another way of asking this is "what SHOULD your teachers have taught you?"
12 December 2014 8,427 2 View
12 December 2014 2,927 41 View
Many universities have breaks between semesters about now. Are you doing scholarly work during your "vacation"? What kind? How much? How do you feel about HAVING to do this kind of work...
12 December 2014 2,562 1 View
For a friend, I am looking for a quality journal, preferably indexed by SSCI, that is open to a study about teaching culture with a smart phone app, analyzed with qualitative analysis. The point...
12 December 2014 624 3 View
Is it better to use an app that you create, especially for your project, so you have complete control of the features... Or to use a common app that the students already know?
12 December 2014 9,818 1 View
I have been asked for advice about this kind of situation, when there has been formal agreement to discontinue a collaboration. As long as one acknowledges the role of the previous collaborators...
11 November 2014 1,739 5 View
What process do you use to decide what instructional/educational technology you will use in a particular study, course, or academic program? For example, do you select a technology and then...
11 November 2014 599 7 View
I am sure that speakers of different mother tongues will have different challenges, but what aspects have you or your students found to be hardest?
11 November 2014 7,685 6 View
I have seen the argument made in scholarly papers about language learning that using technology for the basic drill components of language learning can reduce the workload of the teacher. I am...
11 November 2014 8,743 3 View
I am interested in things you have learned that you wish someone had told you. If you can, please also explain why it is important.
11 November 2014 7,055 4 View
There is no single English speaking culture. The United States has many cultural differences from the UK, Australia, and even Canada. How should a teacher who is not a native speaker decide what...
11 November 2014 7,522 9 View
10 October 2014 8,873 2 View
I just discovered today that the publisher of a journal in which I had an article published in 2016 has reprinted that article in a huge four-volume compendium (listing no editor). I am sure that...
01 January 1970 6,693 13 View
Here's an article about a research project saying that students learn more when taught using active learning strategies:...
01 January 1970 1,617 11 View
Because I have been very successful at academic publishing, my dean has asked me to find ways to share my experience with junior faculty members at our school who need mentoring. How do you...
01 January 1970 3,238 3 View
Cambridge University Press is launching a new open-access journal to help address science’s reproducibility issues and glacial peer-review timelines. The journal will publish reviewers’ names...
01 January 1970 2,969 1 View
I had the thought today about Facebook, Twitter, and many other online/mobile platforms which continually feed us "top posts" or content based on location. I don't like this because I like to...
01 January 1970 3,739 6 View
Winter break is either here or approaching for teachers around the world. What academic or school-elated projects will you be working on this break? I have a media criticism paper that I am...
01 January 1970 6,288 4 View
One of the best known formulas for character development of heroes is Joseph Campbell's monomyth, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Campbell identifies this recurring story outline in ancient...
01 January 1970 561 21 View
The news article below says that one Eastern Chinese province is planning to stop teachers from assigning homework to be preformed via smartphone apps. According to the article, the restriction...
01 January 1970 1,662 5 View
It will be my third CALL Conference, and I am looking forward to seeing friends there, and meeting new colleagues. My presentation wil be Sunday morning.
01 January 1970 6,267 8 View
