It is now widely recognized that assessment and the feedback play key roles in the learning process. However, assessment-based learning approaches are not yet commonly practiced in Japan. This paper provides an example of an assessment-based approach to teaching and learning employed for a course entitled "English as an International…

"Engineering Report Writing," a required course in the Civil Engineering Department at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, combines both pragmatic and innovative assignments that teach the techniques of technical writing. Course design and success are discussed. (LBH)

The writing course described in this paper is designed to utilize the existing listening, reading, and speaking skills of educationally disadvantaged students to teach writing skills on the college level. The paper discusses the rationale of the course, describes the content briefly, outlines the language skills employed in a typical week's…

This document discusses a study of 36 level 3 exercises tried out in a single, middle-income, suburban, second-grade classroom. The following outcomes were generated for the exercises: capitalize the first letter of a sentence, correctly end sentences with periods or question marks, capitalize proper nouns, correctly use commas in dates and…

This paper describes a freshman composition course at a community college which was taught by television and which included thirty 30-minute tapes and an accompanying study guide. Entitled "Writing for a Reason," the primary objective of the course was to help students write effectively so they will be able to fulfill their writing requirements in…

A course in technical writing has justification for appearing in a college English department curriculum if course content as it is currently taught is somewhat modified. In general, business or technical writing has been primarily a study of a wide variety of letter and report writing forms. To be taught as a liberal arts course, a technical…

Designed for students, faculty, and others interested in the writing program at Umpqua Community College (UCC) in Oregon, this booklet clarifies the specific function and scope of the writing courses offered by UCC's Department of Humanities. Section I states the department's objectives (e.g., to provide a core curriculum meeting the requirements…

Intended for use every day for a semester, this secondary seminar handbook provides a schedule, lesson plans, materials for classroom distribution, and a bibliography for a course designed to teach critical reading and basic writing skills through an in-depth study of Ernest Hemingway. Because the course requires that students write seven position…

The justification for including a year-long course in practical writing and editing in a research-oriented university's writing program and a description of that course are presented in this paper. Discussed are the responses to four questions: What is practical or survival writing? How much is there of it? What can a university gain from teaching…

Students' verbatim comments reflect the enthusiasm toward writing which is generated by the course. The author discusses the course design, citing the texts used, including readings from master, technical report writers. Description of the curriculum leads progressively from textual analysis through the final phase in which students are urged to…

A project to create a competency-based B.A. degree in history or a competence-certification program was undertaken jointly by Sangamon State University and Illinois Central College. The project involved defining competence in history, specifying evaluation procedures, and restructuring the history curriculum. Competencies and assessment techniques…

This course is designed to meet the needs of any student, either concurrently or previously enrolled in third- or fourth-year French, who desires to review the essentials of French grammar and to increase his vocabulary. It is, however, specifically planned for those who want to take the College Board Achievement Test in French. For that reason,…

In this detailed survey of the English offerings of a private secondary school for girls, each grade is divided into semester or smaller thematic units. For each of these units, an overview/rationale is followed by a book list and description of how the unit's activities will help the student develop specific skills in the areas of reading,…

This paper is part of a series presented at the symposium on a European units/credits system for modern language learning to adults. Included are a list of 58 modules or units of study, together with some indication of real-life situations in which the skills associated with the modules could be used. These modules have to be further divided so…

A competency-based, individualized, English course was designed so that, at any one time, students would be working toward a grade of C, B, or A. While some students, based on a pre-course writing evaluation, might begin work at an advanced level, other students might spend the whole semester attempting to achieve the skills required for a C.…