Several barriers hinder students from producing clear and impactful written work. Writing assignments are often given on an individual basis, similar to homework, and without any assistance. Students in a classroom context have access to both their classmates and the teacher while they are working in groups or pairs as part of their assignments.…

This research inspects the allocation of involvement load to the evaluation component of the involvement load hypothesis, examining how three typical approaches to evaluation (cloze-exercises, sentence-writing, and composition-writing) promote word learning. The results of this research were partially consistent with the predictions of the…

This article introduces a pedagogical intervention that includes a set of creative activities designed to improve the oral and written production of students in the English classroom, especially those who have shown a lack of interest or attention. It was observed that participants initially seemed careless about studying the language. Eventually…

The current study investigates the applications of the pinyin input system, a Chinese word processing method, for writing on Facebook in order to help CFL (Chinese as a foreign language) learners from two Irish universities to improve their handwriting in Chinese characters on paper. The data were collected from writing activities conducted over…

In this paper we report a case study of two first-year students at a university in Hong Kong doing the same writing assignment that required the use of sources. We explore the students' understanding of plagiarism, their strategies for composing, the similarity between their texts and source texts, and the lecturer's assessment of their work. The…

Languaging that second language (L2) learners engage in while producing and comprehending language is a major source of L2 learning [Swain, M., 2006. "Languaging, agency and collaboration in advanced language proficiency." In: Byrnes, H. (Ed.), "Advanced Language Learning: The Contribution of Halliday and Vygotsky." Continuun,…

The purpose of the conference presentation upon which this paper is inspired was to present an innovative approach to motivate students to write in a second language during a first-year Spanish class. Usually, students comply with writing exercises that convey basic thoughts, due to constrained vocabulary and limited knowledge of grammatical…

This study investigates whether L2 instruction on the Spanish aspectual system containing a recognition task of the learners' L1 (Dutch) aspectual system helps the learner to understand and interiorise the L2 system. Second year Dutch university students (N = 20) took part in the experiment. In weekly groups of two to four, the students received…

Seven sentence combining activities designed to be stimulating and effective for college-level Japanese students of English as a Second Language are described. It is also demonstrated that a wide range of subjects can provide viable and engaging topics for the activities. The exercises include the following: (1) combining sentences provided into a…

The place of literature in the foreign language classroom is described, and the effectiveness of the short story is noted. Suggestions are offered regarding selection criteria, classroom activities, oral activities, role play, oral comprehension, and a variety of written exercises including sequencing and writing dialog. (Contains seven…

Encouraging students of English as a foreign language (EFL) to write family oral histories is an excellent way to teach academic writing and spark student interest. Oral history is defined, steps in writing oral histories are outlined, advantages and disadvantages of having undergraduate EFL composition students draft them are examined, and…

For most English-as-a-Second-Language students, writing is the most difficult skill to master. By integrating writing within the daily routine of language learning, students become as comfortable with writing as they are with speaking and reading. This article presents practical examples for integrating writing within everyday K-12 classroom…

Suggestions are offered to help secondary and postsecondary language teachers think more deeply about speaking activities that prepare students for writing. Criteria for evaluating prewriting activities are discussed, along with brainstorming, collaborative concept mapping, and the 4/3/2 technique. (Contains 14 references.) (LB)

A series of six related lessons is presented that covers the three stages of process writing in which secondary students work in pairs and groups. Covering 11 35-minute periods, the lessons include prewriting, writing, and postwriting. Sample questions are appended. (Contains five references.) (LB)

Presents nine tips for planning effective second-language writing lessons. Tips are based on three principles (writing is a means of communication, writing is a process, and eliciting oral or written production of foreign language varies according to the degree of guidance teachers give to students). The paper offers six sample writing lessons for…