Sociocultural theory (SCT) is a powerful basis for exploring and guiding L2 (second/foreign language) learner development. For the most part, however, the focus of classroom SCT-L2 has been on single activities, for example, teacher mediation of learners' writing process or peer scaffolding. In this paper, we expand on these studies, building on…

Portfolios have been utilized in the teaching and learning of English of speakers of other languages as a tool for process-based writing and as an alternative form of summative assessment. While extensive research has been focused on the implementation of portfolios in English as a foreign language (EFL) writing, there has been limited attention…

Based on data from a ten-year study of literacy and linguistic diversity in the classroom, in this article we examine the intersection of investment and placemaking through an analysis of a student's emergent engagement practices in a teaching unit about writing blogs. Drawing on recent work on spatiality in literacy studies, we trace the evolving…

This study explored how 14 foreign-language writers at a university in Japan changed their genre awareness of discussion genre texts (particularly argumentative essays) during a 15-week systemic functional linguistics course consisting of text-based writing lessons assigned as part of a teaching and learning cycle. To obtain in-depth quantitative…

The chapters in this volume build on a growing body of ethnomethodological conversation analytic research on teaching in order to enhance our empirical understandings of teaching as embodied, contingent and jointly achieved with students in the complex management of various courses of action and larger instructional projects. Together, the…

Many instructors new to teaching English composition at the college level feel frustrated with what to teach and how to teach it. To learn about the context of support for these instructors, this small scale pilot study asked current ESL composition instructors in a large Midwestern research university to respond to a questionnaire aimed at…

For this dissertation, teacher linguistic awareness (TLingA) involves teacher linguistic knowledge, teacher language awareness (TLA), and teacher cognition for second language (L2) teachers. Teacher linguistic knowledge is an understanding of how language functions and is compiled within the different areas of linguistics. And TLA is the knowledge…

"TEFL/TESOL Methodology 2: Advanced Language Teaching/Learning Strategies (2nd Edition)" is a language methodology course with a modern touch. In other words, it is a combination of the most commonly used language teaching approaches, strategies and/or techniques in modern schools nowadays. In particular, it is intended to be used both…

This literature review serves to inform the reader on current literature on Contrastive Rhetoric (CR), with specific reference to teaching writing to Japanese students of English. It will examine the historical developments of CR and its present significance before then looking at possible reasons for unique characteristics of Japanese L2 writers…

This study explores the extent to which students in a community college remedial English as a second language (ESL) course engaged with a class wiki and the relationship between their pattern of engagement over time and success in exiting remediation. Participants included 47 students in two sections of ESL writing during the spring 2009 semester.…

The purpose of this study was to examine students' experiences and perceptions of multiple interaction activities (self-directed, peer, and teacher feedback) implemented in a large multilevel EFL writing class in one private technological university in the southern part of Taiwan. Large size writing classes, quite common in private institutions of…

A classroom technique for second language writing instruction is described that combines encouragement for writing with error awareness and correction skills, active composition problem-solving, and peer correction. (MSE)

Outlines a series of progressive exercises designed to train students in written persuasive discourse in French. The technique involves observation of advertising, study of premises, arguments, and conclusions, pragmatic text analysis, training in logical construction, and development of argumentative strategies. (MSE)

It is proposed that many students are unable to distinguish between unguarded writing patterns and literate or expository ones, and it is becoming increasingly necessary in writing instruction to clarify and impose the distinction between these patterns. This problem is confounded by current trends toward exclusively spoken language in the…

Models of and research into the writing process support the use of peer editing in the regular activities of a writing class. It has the advantages of: adding perspective to students' perception of the writing process, both their own and others'; promoting student self-confidence; improving the class atmosphere by active student involvement; and…