ESL writing teachers face the challenge of providing written feedback that is both effective and motivating to students. Thus, many end up making use of praise (or positive feedback) before offering criticism. Only limited research has examined how students perceive praise, and few studies among the most recent have focused on praise above other…

Several factors can impede the writing process of students with dyslexia. One recommended adjustment to help them overcome these writing challenges is the use of personal computers for writing. The research underscores the significance of effective keyboarding skills in optimizing the benefits of computer-based writing for these students, with…

Although several decades of research has highlighted the contribution of classroom behaviors to students' mathematics and reading performance, this relation with regard to writing performance has been examined to a lesser extent. Therefore, this study sought to examine a wide range of classroom behaviors as predictors of written expression,…

Research suggests that executive function, motivation, transcription, and composition processes are implicated in the writing quality and productivity of children with and without learning difficulties. However, numerous components embedded within these constructs create both conceptual and empirical challenges to the study of written expression.…

Grade 4 represents a critical juncture in the literacy development of young students. This article explores the role of handwriting in unlocking the higher order psycholinguistic and metacognitive resources needed to compose quality text. In particular, we investigate the threshold of control over handwriting needed to unlock vocabulary that…

The main objective of this study was to analyze what writing measures, or combination of measures, would be most appropriate for early detection of students at risk of presenting future difficulties in learning to write in Spanish, in terms of tasks, scoring indices (dependent, independent and accurate-precision) and duration. A sample of 231…

We examined the effects of transcription instruction for students in 1st grade. We selected students in the lowest 70% of the participating schools for the study. We randomly assigned these 81 students to (a) spelling instruction, (b) handwriting instruction, (c) combination spelling and handwriting instruction, or (d) no intervention.…

In an age when students are increasingly expected to demonstrate technology-based writing proficiency, fluency challenges with word processing programs can pose a barrier to successful writing when students are asked to compose using these tools. The current study was designed to determine whether differences existed in typing fluency and digital…

Studies that specifically test the effectiveness of instructional procedures for improving the writing of young African American males who experience difficulty learning to write are almost nonexistent. Although writing intervention studies include these children, researchers rarely disaggregate their data to determine whether the writing…

Previous research has shown that both dictation and speech-to-text (STT) software can increase the quality of writing for native English speakers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of these modalities on the written composition and cognitive load of elementary school English language learners (ELLs). In a within-subjects…