I presented the following 10 research findings at the Rascals Conference in St-Hyacinthe, Quebec, on June 4th, 2018. The handout is here. Get the error correction card game that I described. The PowerPoint and references are below. I have created a web version of the talk that I gave and uploaded it to YouTube so
Read on »Posts By: Nicholas Walker
The Economic Benefits of Bilingualism
On paper, Canada is a bilingual country. It has two official languages: English and French. All students in Canada take second language courses at school, but many do not learn enough of the second language to be considered bilingual. In part, this is because the second language is not always taught effectively in schools, and
Read on »Astronomy Glossary
Astronomy Listening Resources Careers in Astronomy Astronomy Reading Resources Careers in Astronomy A day in the life: Astronomer A day in the life: Astronaut Astronomy Grammar Resources Online ESL grammar checker Astronomy Vocabulary List antipodal Relating to or situated on the opposite side of the earth. asteroid Minor planets, especially those of
Read on »Anthropology Glossary
Anthropology Activities Match terms & definitions Listen and match terms & definitions Anthropology vocabulary card game Anthropology Listening Resources Careers in Anthropology Anthropology Reading Resources Careers in Anthropology What can I do with a major in Anthropology? A day in the life: Anthropologist Anthropology Grammar Resources Online ESL grammar checker Anthropology Glossary aboriginal Inhabiting or
Read on »Accounting Glossary
Accounting Activities French translations English definitions Pronunciation Accounting vocabulary card game Accounting Listening Resources Careers: The Real World of Accounting How to use AccountingCoach.com to Learn Accounting for Free Accounting Reading Resources A day in the life of an Accountant/Auditor What can I do with a degree in Accounting? 3 Reasons to Become
Read on »Academic versus Conversational Vocabulary Differences
There are “extensive linguistic differences” between different registers of English (Biber et al., 1999, p.9). Academic and conversational registers reveal a complementary frequency distribution of vocabulary and grammatical forms. Some of the principle differences are as follows: Vocabulary Differences Arranged by Parts of Speech Nouns Conversation has a lower density of information and therefore fewer
Read on »Aelfric’s Grammar, the First Grammar Book Written in English
If you are a fan of BBC’s story of Uhtred and Alfred, The Last Kingdom, you might be interested to learn about an important scholar working at that time, called Aelfric. Who was Aelfric? Aelfric of Wessex (955-1020) wrote the first grammar of Latin in a vernacular language. The Historical Context of Aelfric’s Life In the
Read on »About the Virtual Writing Tutor Grammar Checker
For a list of Virtual Writing Tutor features with video tutorials on how to use them, see here. This article is about the motivation to build and use the Virtual Writing Tutor for pedagogical purposes. Until recently, I had been correcting student errors by hand, returning assignments a week or two later. Like other teachers,
Read on »Aspect Error
What is an aspect error? Rules and Examples RULE: Use the Present Progressive to represent an action that is progress. Use the Simple Present for actions that repeat, like routines and habits. Adverbs of frequency like every day, often, sometimes, and never indicate that an action repeats, so you should use the Simple Present. INCORRECT:
Read on »Target Structures
What are target structures? Optimal second language pedagogy involves a repeating exchange of meaningful messages with a focus on target structures. By “exchange,” I mean that teachers should provide learners with opportunities to create sentences, paragraphs, stories, essays, blog posts, articles or reports that are meaningful to the learner. Learners should express those messages to
Read on »Reviews, Interviews, and Grammar Checker Articles
Here is a list of articles that were published recently about the Virtual Writing Tutor grammar checker: The Impact of Virtual Writing Tutor on Writing Skills and Attitudes of Omani College Students by Amal Aamir Al Badi, Mohamed El Tahir Osman, & Abdo, M. Al-Mekhlafi EFL Magazine interview with Nicholas Walker by Sharyn Collins 10 Reasons to
Read on »Word Counter
How to Use the Word Counter on the Virtual Writing Tutor When you want to know how many words are in a particular text, paste the text into the text area and click the “Count Words” button. The system will count your words and sentences, and calculate your average sentence length. The text you enter
Read on »Get Help from the Community on the Grammar Checker Forum
New Grammar Checker Forum The Virtual Writing Tutor has added a community forum to its free grammar checker. Post your text, tell the community what kind of help you need, and benefit from the free proofreading service that the community can provide. You can get help with your grammar, spelling, punctuation, and structure. It costs nothing
Read on »Grammar Checker Poem
For help finding the contextual spelling errors and eggcorns in this poem, copy and paste it into the VirtualWritingTutor.com and hit “Check Grammar”. Poem Eye halve a spelling chequer, It came with my pea sea, It plainly marks for my revue Miss Steaks I kin knot sea. Eye strike a quay and type a word, And weight four
Read on »Make no sense or have no sense?
When can I say have no sense and make no sense? Is have no sense ever correct? One of my students wrote this sentence in a narrative writing assignment: I tried to explain to him that this situation just have no sense. Can you see what the problem is? In fact, he has made two errors in one. The first is a
Read on »Sentence Fragments, Run-On Sentences, and a Comma Splices
Punctuation errors are easy to make and hard to spot. For some writers, it is especially hard to catch punctuation errors such as sentence fragments, run-on sentences, and comma splices. These punctuation errors can really make your writing seem chaotic. A grammar checker can catch these errors some of the time. Better than a
Read on »Paraphrase Checker
Students sometimes inadvertently plagiarize because they don’t know how to paraphrase. To remedy this gap in their learning, I created a paraphrase checker for the Virtual Writing Tutor. The concept is simple. The system shows you which words are the same and need to be paraphrased. This feature is very useful for students and for blog
Read on »Numbered Diagram of Virtual Writing Tutor Features
Feature List (The numbers below correspond to the numbers on the image above.) Click on the logo to return to the main page. Update your password, newsletter subscription status. Create a free account and login. For added convenience, you stay logged in until you logout. Use speech recognition for hands free operation or to
Read on »Sesquicentennial Pin for Leadership in Education 2017
On November 25th, 2017, the Honorable Melanie Joly awarded me the Sesquicentennial Pin for Leadership in Education. The pin has a maple leaf at its center and is made from silver and copper recovered from the roof of the House of Parliament in Ottawa, See my other awards here.
Read on »TESL Canada Innovation Award 2017
On June 9th, 2017, TESL Canada awarded my Actively Engaged Series of ESL textbooks with the TESL Canada Innovation Award. See my other awards here. The Awards Committee said this about my three books: The Actively Engaged series for intermediate level students in academic preparation and college level English courses integrates reading and listening activities with grammar
Read on »Hypertext Narrative Creator and Grammar Checker
Have you ever read a choose-your-own-adventure story? A hypertext narrative is a branching story just like that but online with hyperlinks. The reader reads a section of the story and then chooses how the story should progress by clicking on a link. See examples of hypertext stories created with the Virtual Writing Tutor. You can
Read on »Switch Layouts of the Grammar Checker
The default layout displays feedback on the errors detected by the grammar checker below your submitted text. This was a pedagogical choice. The idea is that learners must try to remember the feedback long enough to scroll up to the text area and make to the correction. Some users have requested that their text and the
Read on »Check Spelling and Grammar
Anyone can check spelling and grammar for free. Non-members can check 500 words. Members can check up to 3000 words at once. Membership is 100% free and comes with many additional benefits. How to check spelling and grammar
Read on »Better Pedagogy and Time-Savings through Automated Feedback
If you teach ESL, you may have encountered any number of disparaging remarks from students and teachers alike about language instruction. For example, when I challenged my students a couple of weeks ago to spend a little more time on their English homework, one of my college students said to me, “No offense, but it is
Read on »Eggcorns
Definition and Examples of Eggcorns What is an eggcorn? DEFINITION: An eggcorn is a word or phrase that results from a mishearing or misinterpretation of another. INCORRECT: I would like an expresso and an ice tea, please. CORRECT: I would like an espresso and an iced tea, please. INCORRECT: We can fix this with a bit of duck tape. CORRECT: We can
Read on »How to Comment on Student Writing
Good writers understand their readers and the effect their choices have on a reader’s experience of their writing. In contrast, novice writers struggle to anticipate difficulties readers face with imperfect prose. The purpose of a teacher’s comments is, therefore, to “dramatize the presence of a reader” (Sommers, 1982, p.148), letting the writer know what has
Read on »How can I improve my English?
Students often ask me this question. They want to practice their English, but they don’t have anyone to practice with. Whenever I am asked, I am tempted to tell them my friend’s solution to the common question, How can I improve my English? I had a friend named Joseph who moved to Montreal from Czech
Read on »20 Reasons to Use Games in College-Level ESL Courses
At the front of a class, a teacher delivers the lesson she has spent hours preparing. She has tried to make it engaging and is animated as she attempts to convey the importance of what she wants her students to learn. Some of the students are listening and attentively taking notes. Others are struggling to
Read on »Healthcare Communication Problems with Linguistic Minorities
Effective communication between healthcare providers and their patients is an important factor in patient satisfaction. Global patient satisfaction with healthcare has been found to be lower among patients who have more provider-patient communication problems (Charles, Goldsmith, Chambers, Haynes, & Gauld, 1996). The most commonly reported problems involve failures on the part of providers to communicate
Read on »Absenteeism and a Cooperative-Learning Attendance Policy for ESL
There are plenty of good reasons to skip class: if you have a contagious disease or have a doctor’s appointment that you cannot reschedule, if car trouble or bad weather interferes with your commute, or if you are flat broke and need to work an extra shift to make rent and avoid eviction. Most people
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