This article describes a qualitative study of how two ethnic Burmese families in the United States authored storybooks that included their children's drawings and writings representing their families' stories. The theoretical perspectives of storytelling and the social semiotics multimodal approach were utilized in this inquiry. The data included…

Language is the most basic tool for communication. There are four basic areas of skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Each skill has a special importance in itself. Therefore, development of all skills will be beneficial for individuals. Writing skill is separated from other skills in that it has permanency. With writing, knowledge…

Learning to read and write the Japanese language is not an easy task. For the non-Japanese speaker this can be a struggle and a challenge. Some schools in Western Australia offer children the opportunity to learn Japanese as a foreign language. Consequently, Japanese as a foreign language unit is offered to all undergraduate students in Education.…

This study examines the question of how the feedback of peers and teachers on a collaboratively written student text, mediated by track changes and commenting functions in Microsoft (MS) Word, can act as a form of socialization into an academic or professional discipline. It focusses on a collaboratively written legal memorandum, authored by…

Analysis of the linguistic discourse plays an important role in the social, cultural, ethnographic, and comparative studies of languages. Discourse markers as indispensable parts of this analysis are reportedly more common in informal speech than in written language. They could be used at different levels, i.e. as "linking words,"…

It is established that transcription skills (handwriting and spelling) constrain children's writing. Yet, little is known about the mechanism underlying this relationship. This study examined the mediating role of bursts and pauses on the link between transcription skills and writing fluency or text quality. For that, 174 second graders did the…

Research on adult writers has shown that writing proceeds through bursts of transcription activity interspersed by long pauses. Yet few studies have examined how these writing behaviors unfold during early and middle childhood. This study traces the progress of bursts, pauses, transcription, and written composition in Portuguese students from…

This paper outlines the alignment-oriented approach in classroom EFL writing. Based on a review of the characteristics of the written language and comparison between the product-focused approach and the process-focused approach, the paper proposes a practical classroom procedure as to how to teach EFL writing. A follow-up empirical study is…

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to look at Chinese English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' organizational strategy use in English writing at universities in Taiwan. One significant area that has been indicated in contrastive rhetoric studies spins around the notion of culturally constructed organizational patterns. It is claimed that…

Most studies on narrative competence have focused on monolingual subjects, and there are very few studies which address this issue in bilingual subjects dealing with two language systems. In the present case study we analyzed and compared the textual and narrative written skills of three deaf and three hearing adolescents attending eighth grade at…

Writers typically produce their writing in bursts. In this article, the authors examine written language bursts in a sample of 33 children aged 11 years with specific language impairment. Comparisons of the children with specific language impairment with an age-matched group of typically developing children (n = 33) and a group of younger,…

The purpose of this study was to determine what difficulties King Saud University students encounter when learning to write academic English and to differentiate between students' learning needs and objectives. The sample consisted of 50 postgraduate students enrolled in King Saud University during the academic year 2009-2010. Analysis of the data…

Undergraduates producing handwritten essays in university exams need to transcribe information onto the page in a rapid and efficient manner under considerable time pressure. In fact, capacity models of the writing process predict that the more automated students can make the transcription process then the more resources will be available for…

Exploration of a specific use of Text Based Virtual Reality--not just as powerful communities for authentic communication and collaboration in language learning but exploiting role-playing and writing aspects. The "Walk on Ice" takes a group of adult English-as-a-Second-Language learners through the creation of imaginary characters who…

Intended for teachers in Tasmania, this booklet discusses making sense of language, the nature of written language, language and context, and organizing knowledge of the world. Chapter 1, Understanding Reading, contains a general discussion of the reading process as well as sections on the beginning and continuing reader, planning a reading…