Whether foreign language writing is rated using analytic rating scales or holistically, the organization of ideas is invariably one of the aspects assessed. However, it is unclear what raters are sensitive to when rating writing for organization. Which do they value more highly, the physical aspects of organization, such as paragraphing and the…

Traditionally, at universities, English as a foreign language instructors have used a series of approaches to teach students how to write academic texts in English from both teacher preparation and regular programs. In spite of this, students continue to have problems writing the academic texts required of them in the different courses. Concerned…

Writing as one important skill in language proficiency demands validity, hence high schools are real places in which valid results are needed for high-stake decisions. Unrealistic and non-viable tests result in improper and invalid interpretation and use. Illustrations without any written research have proved their effectiveness in whatsoever…

This study investigates the effect of Iranian EFL students' proficiency level on their ability in identifying paragraph boundaries of unparagraphed expository texts and in producing paragraph boundaries in their own L2 expository writings. Further, this study seeks the correlation between advanced and intermediate learners' ability to identify and…

The use of the paragraph is recommended in teaching composition, provided that heuristic rather than mechanical techniques are used. Some such techniques for advanced level teaching are discussed. (RM)

Some of the difficulties of developing a student's ability to write in aforeign language are discussed, and specific suggestions are made of ways to teach this skill. (RM)

This study investigates topic units and suggests some practical applications to the teaching of composition to native speakers and second language learners. A topic unit is a structural unit beyond the sentence. It is composed of clauses and consists of two parts -- a head proposition and a set of comments. The head proposition consists of the…

This article states that advanced composition skills must provide students with means of becoming independent writers, able to monitor their own writing and to know the means to solve problems of effective written communication. (Author/CFM)

Tests the hypothesis that second language (L2) students' approach to text reflects a top-down processing strategy in contrast to first language (L1) students' approach that is more text-driven. Results confirmed L2 subjects studied the texts less efficiently than L1 subjects. (HOD)

Describes how behavioral and cognitive psychologies regarding language learning can be synthesized in the teaching of written composition to students learning English as a second language. (MM)

Hunt and O'Donnell's Aluminum Paragraph was administered to sixty Canadian college students enrolled in English as a Second Language (ESL) courses. The students were asked to re-write and to improve a paragraph consisting of 32 short, single-clause sentences. The students were identified as low intermediate, high intermediate, and advanced in…

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…

To determine formal principles of discourse processing and production, a study reviewed theories in various disciplines related to language and/or thought and thereby rationalized an approach of quantitative matrix analysis to the problems caused by discrepant discourse structures encountered in second language learning. Statistical analyses of…

This paper first explains the diversity of the Arab World, the unifying force of Classical Arabic, and that Modern Standard Arabic, less complicated in structure and less ornate in rhetoric, is sufficiently Different from colloquial dialects to require considerable instruction in schools. For contrastive analysis to be useful as a basis for EFL…

This bibliography includes textbooks useful for the teaching of written skills in English as a second language to college and university students. The major emphasis of the texts listed is the teaching of writing but some contain material on reading as well. The first section contains only texts designed specifically for second language use. The…