The purposes of this research was to develop English writing skills through techniques of sentence skeleton and signpost word analysis for English major students, and to compare the writing skills before and after the study. The sample consisted of 43 English major juniors at Faculty of Education, Ubon Ratchathani Rajabhat University, enrolling in…

This article presents the results of an action research study whose purpose was to apply alternatives for the development of grammatical competence in a group of third semester students of a Morphosyntax I course in an English language teaching undergraduate program at a Colombian public university. Given the fact that the teaching of grammar has…

Many students who are nonnative speakers of English, yet highly proficient, are placed into basic writing or English as a Second Language courses when they enter college. While these students may have advanced oral English proficiency, their writing frequently suffers from a lack of training in academic writing and commonly contains fragments and…

This paper draws upon data from a research project, undertaken in 2 Year 6 classrooms during the 2006 World Cup, to analyse how children used complex sentence structures in their writing on a football web-log. We explore how the confluence of a temporary, popular, global event and an online forum for communication created a moment of linguistic…

"Of the many difficulties young writers may encounter when engaged in the complex act of writing, crafting sentences that accurately convey their intended meaning is particularly challenging. Sentence combining can provide systematic instruction in sentence-construction skills within an overall framework of the writing workshop."

Discusses the steps involved in using short-paragraph dictation exercises: (1) preparing a passage which is of high interest and focuses on grammatical problems exhibited by students; (2) determining the best way of presenting the passage; and (3) evaluating student performance. Identifies the technique's benefits for improving writing skills.…

Examines the sentence-based pedagogies that arose in composition during the 1960s and 1970s (the generative rhetoric of Francis Christensen, imitation exercises, and sentence-combining) and attempts to discern why these three pedagogies have been so completely elided within contemporary composition studies. Concludes that this erasure of sentence…

This exercise is intended to teach the sense of sentences and their place in the larger fabric of paragraphs as they are woven into organized papers. Based on the five-paragraph theme (introduction, three body paragraphs, and conclusion), the exercise divides "What I Haved Lived For," the prologue to "The Autobiography of Bertrand…

In this article a method to improve sentence writing ability called sentence combining is explained. The potential effects of sentence combining are related and relevant research summarized. In addition, how to introduce sentence combining practice to a class, key instructional components including oral practice and peer assistance, sources of…

By focusing their attention closely on a written text, cloze passages help students learn more about how language works--the interaction of vocabulary and syntax, the influence of diction on style, the important grammatical relationships between words in a sentence, and the logical relationships between sentences in a paragraph. (HOD)

Argues that there is sufficient reason on both theoretical grounds and the results of research and demonstration to encourage and include writing as one aspect of a reading improvement program. Describes several writing activities for use in such a program. (FL)

Three activities used with first-year French students are described: (1) drawing pictures by following directions which demonstrates knowledge of subjects and prepositions, (2) reading a poem in French and rewriting it in French prose, and (3) learning numbers through role-plays involving money. (PMJ)

Examines the use and understanding of concordant and discordant adverbial conjuncts in the latter part of the life span. Young, middle-aged, and elderly adults, matched for education level, were studied. Results indicate a significant decline in processing adverbial conjuncts in the elderly, due to a deficit in linguistic processing rather than a…

A curriculum for intermediate composition for students of English as a second language is presented based on the use of levels of specificity as an organizing principle. The course objective is for students to write well-planned, coherent paragraphs acceptable to the American academic audience, within limited formats. Two additional fundamentals…

Examines the use of sentence combining as a bridge between grammar and rhetoric during the past 100 years. (MM)