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In recent months, the most frequent close reason on Language Learning SE seems to be that questions ask for explanations about specific points of English vocabulary or grammar by learners of English. Such questions are off topic here but can be answered on English Language Learners Stack Exchange. However, we don't have a specific close reason for that, just a more generic one with the following text:

Questions about grammatical rules or specific characteristics of a language are off-topic here. A language-specific site is the appropriate place for these questions, or if such a site does not yet exist, you can propose one on Area 51.

This close reason only suggests closing but does not allow reviewers to suggest migration. The large majority of questions that have been migrated away, especially in the recent past, have been migrated to English Language Learners Stack Exchange (even though in the last 90 days, 50% of them were rejected). (Since the start of the public beta phase, one question was migrated to Chinese Language SE, two to English Language & Usage SE (where migrations often get rejected), one to Spanish Language SE, one to Literature Stack Exchange, two to French Language SE, five to Linguistics SE, one to German Language SE and one to Latin Language SE.) I would like to propose an additional custom close reason with the following info:

Brief description:

Questions asking for an explanation of a specific vocabulary or grammar point in the English language.

Usage guidance (for the review queue):

Questions asking for an explanation of a specific vocabulary or grammar point in the English language are off topic here. When this type of question is asked in the context of learning English as a second or foreign language, the appropriate site for this is English Language Learners Stack Exchange. (If the question is a proofreading question, it should not be migrated to English Language Learners.)

Close description (to be displayed publicly):

This question was closed because it asks for an explanation of a specific vocabulary or grammar point in the English language. It is currently not accepting answers.

Post owner guidance (goal: "Provide meaningful actions a user can take to either get their question reopened or have a more favourable outcome in the future.")

As currently worded, this question asks for an explanation of a specific vocabulary or grammar point in the English language in a way that makes it off topic on this site. A more general question about methods or resources for learning or teaching the relevant type of vocabulary or grammatical construction may be on topic on Language Learning Stack Exchange.

Privileged user guidance (goal: "Provide guidance for users with the reopen privilege so they can constructively engage the post owner and reopen the question if appropriate."):

In order for this question to be on topic on Language Learning Stack Exchange, it should ask for methods or resources for learning or teaching the relevant type of vocabulary or grammatical construction instead of asking for an explanation of the specific language feature.

This custom close reason would allow reviewers to suggest migration to ELL, whereas the current close reasons can only suggest closure. (Migration can currently only be suggested in a comment.)

What do people think? (1) Do you think we need this close reason? (2) If yes, does the proposed wording work for you or can you suggest improvements?

Note: We currently have just one custom close reason, in which the close reason as such, the post owner guidance and the privileged user guidance are identical.

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  • Why should a question about language be off-topic on a language SE site? That's like Movies & TV SE closes a question as off-topic because it's asking about a sci-fi movie which can be answered on Science Fiction SE site. Well, there are so many highly up-voted questions about science fiction movies on Movies & TV SE. I would say if sites overlap it's okay to ask same categories in both of them. Apr 19, 2021 at 13:41
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    @aminabzz Please review the site's scope. This is a site about how to learn or teach specific aspects of language. Questions asking for explanations of certain words or grammatical constructions in a specific language have always been off topic here. The comparison with Movies & TV SE and SFF SE is not valid.
    – Tsundoku Mod
    Apr 19, 2021 at 14:24

1 Answer 1

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TL/DR

  • Let the off-topic questions be simply closed
  • If we really want help new users get familiar with ELL.SE rules, maybe we want to make an LL.Meta.SE writeup like "What do you need to ask a good question on our sister ELL.SE site"

I don't find it a good idea.

You seem to be trying to solve the problem of semi-automatic migration, but I ask myself, is the problem worth solving?

  • An off-topic question is usually the first question asked by a new user;
  • …who may haven't read the rules;
  • And their question, being off-topic here, must be poorly worded/framed to fit rules of ELL.SE or another language site, too;
  • 50% rejection rate seems to confirm my guess.

So there's a low chance for a bad LL.SE question to become a good ELL.SE one.
In fact, it looks surprising that you've got 50% accepted migrations to that site; I would rather expect 5% or so. :) One should be very much familiar with the ELL.SE rules and traditions so that their question were not downvoted to the oblivion at once.

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  • The Usage Guidance could be added to better reflect was is on topic (or off topic) on ELL to drive down the number of erroneous migrations? I have edited the proposed Usage Guidance a bit to reflect this.
    – Tsundoku Mod
    Aug 14, 2021 at 13:59

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