Background or Context: The notion of writer's block has been primarily conceived and explored as a breakdown in a cognitive writing process (Rose, 1984); yet, for many writers, confronting writer's block often involves engaging the body through sensations, feelings, movement, and action. However, these considerations have not yet impacted our…

In this multiple case study, I examine relationships among the essay genre, contextual influences, sociocultural resources, and choices made by four adult English learners enrolled in an English composition course at a community college. My primary objective is to provide an expanded view of the writing processes used by adult English learners.…

Although research about the effectiveness of second or foreign language collaborative writing for jointly written products has proliferated in the last few decades, there has been less examination of whether and how pre-task preparation could maximize the language learning opportunities that collaborative writing can afford learners. Informed by…

Writing anxiety is one of the most essential factors influencing language learning. The current study is to explore the effect of sentence-making practice on reducing writing anxiety of two classes of adult EFL learners, one in low-intermediate level (LI learners), the other in high-intermediate level (HI learners). Two classes received two-week…

Adult students add nuance to the understanding of transfer. Overwhelmingly, research on writing transfer assumes students move from grammar to high school to college to work in one uninterrupted progression. Yet, 40 percent of college students are older than twenty-four, and younger students increasingly work while attending college. These…

This article presents a pedagogical experience that addresses the use of an instructional strategy called screenwriting aimed at improving the teaching of writing in an educational context. This pedagogical intervention took place in a private English language school, where three adult students willingly participated to create their own short…

Building on Sheen's (2007) study of the effects of written corrective feedback (CF) on the acquisition of English articles, this article investigated whether direct focused CF, direct unfocused CF and writing practice alone produced differential effects on the accurate use of grammatical forms by adult ESL learners. Using six intact adult ESL…

Three groups of 26 people each (low-literate adults, ninth graders, and sixth graders) wrote on any topic whereas an observer noted their behavior and later discussed their writing. Although the writing behavior of adults was more like that of sixth graders, adults tended to be less efficient. Ninth graders' behavior was considered a prototype.…

Reports on the gender-related difference in out-of-school writing experience of adult students returning to college. Discusses implications for teaching, maintaining that the differing writing backgrounds such students bring are resources to be utilized rather than deficits to be remedied. (SR)

States that previous research shows links between children's reading comprehension and various writing skills but little is known about reading-writing relationships in adult students. Investigates such relationships in health-care workers attending an adult literacy program. Finds that writing of poorer readers showed significantly lower level of…

A study examined the re-entry female student as a composite of the various roles she plays, and also traced the changes that occurred during her first semester in college, specifically in composition class. Internal and external factors, both positive and negative; the writing process itself; and the mode and focus of instruction during that…

Examines internal and external factors which affect the way women reentering higher education learn and write. Finds several constant internal factors: sense of inferiority among peers; inability to concentrate; sense of guilt; feeling out of place among younger students; fatigue; and doubt. Finds that positive internal factors outweigh negative…

An ethnographic study examined ways in which the writing behaviors of adult literacy students in a classroom setting were either similar to or different from current theories of language acquisition. Three students were selected from an adult literacy class at the Fordham Library Center in the Bronx. The research plan had a three-pronged approach:…

Describes a writing program that addresses adult students' limited access to computers and the program's effect on a pilot group of students. Offers some preliminary conclusions about the effects of computer availability on teaching methodology. (MS)

Presents the case study of an African-American woman returning to a basic skills program in an inner-city community college, examining in particular a writing conference with the task of transforming telling of an experience into writing about it. (SLD)