There are a number of functions paragraphs play in discourse studies. For example, it encourages a writer to give adequate focus to the various aspects of his or her message; and it facilitates the identification of one idea in an essay to another idea. Some classical second language writers (for example: Stern, 1976; Halliday & Hasan, 1976;…

The syntactic complexities of English sentence structures induced the Indonesian students' sentence-level accuracies blurred. Reciprocally, the meanings conveyed are left hanging. The readers are increasingly at sixes and sevens. The Sentence Crimes were, therefore, the major essences of diagnosing the students' sentence-level inaccuracies in this…

This study examined "signals" of relationships between sentences that might be helpful in teaching reading to non-native speakers of English. Logical relationships were given special attention and classified to determine if they could be contained within a limited list to be used for teaching purposes. Five hundred paragraphs (2,720 sentences)…

The benefits for students of English as a second language of reading abstracts are considered, and the functions and types of abstracts are reviewed. In addition, the results of a survey of Ben Gurion University (Israel) lecturers regarding their reading habits and use of abstracts are briefly addressed. It is suggested that when abstracts are…

The foreign student in an American university must be able to communicate in English, orally and in writing, well enough to do college-level academic work. The college or university which admits foreign students has the responsibility either to require a certain level of English proficiency or to provide the means for the student to get the…

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…

Foreign students in American colleges and universities experience difficulty with various aspects of English composition, especially grammar, mechanics, syntax, sentence and paragraph structure, and report writing. One way to deal with the situation is to set up a composition course in ESL in which the specific problems of non-native speakers are…

An integrated approach to teaching English composition to undergraduate students in Indian universities is proposed. The integration in approach is realized in terms of an onward progression from the first to the third year of the degree course. The idea of an integrated approach (viewing the sentence and the paragraph in an integrated manner) can…

A study investigating the influence of certain features of cohesion and coherence on Israeli college students' difficulty in reading English expository texts examined the reader's ability to understand sequences of propositions and familiarity with markers of cohesion. Three methods were used to investigate the problem: application of a…

A survey of 34 professors teaching English as a second language in 20 Japanese universities elicited information about common errors in student writing. In open-ended questions, respondents identified 40 student error types, which were grouped into 18 categories. The most common problem category was sentence development, and other high-frequency…

The present study reports on exploratory research to determine whether the Aluminum Paragraph, a sentence-combining exercise developed by O'Donnell (Hunt, 1970) to measure the development of syntactic complexity in the writing of native speakers of English, can also serve as a measure of the active syntactic proficiency of learners of English as a…

A technique to help English as a second language students master the basic elements of expository prose is considered in terms of course objectives and the types of assignments used to accomplish them. A characteristic of many highly verbal students entering a college program is their propensity to "talk on paper" in an informal, ungrammatical,…

An instructional unit that enhances student interest and curiosity about animals and promotes conceptual growth through development of observation and listening skills is discussed. The lessons and activities are for use with limited English proficient students in kindergarten through fourth grade who are receiving services from the…