In this teaching tip, we--a literacy professor and two K-12 teachers--encourage a rethinking of the baseline writing assessment by sharing our experiences with "The Paper Selfie," an activity that juxtaposes the arts and young people's personal writing. By centering students' identities, their hopes, beliefs, dreams, and realities,…

This study explored the effects of technology-mediated task-based language teaching (TMTBLT) in an English as a foreign language (EFL) writing course on students' descriptive writing performance. A quasi-experiment was conducted. Students in two writing courses were recruited and randomly assigned to an experimental or control group. The…

Writing in a foreign language is a particularly difficult skill to develop, especially when young learners are concerned because they are parallelly learning to write in their L1 and do not have strong oral foundations in their L2. The issue becomes even more complex when the ways to assess young learners' writing are considered, given that…

This study evaluated essay writing among Senior Secondary School Arabic students in Kwara State, Nigeria. This study evaluated the content, organization, expression and mechanics aspects of essay writing among senior secondary school Arabic students on the basis of gender and school ownership in Kwara State, Nigeria. A total number of 174 students…

Grammar Instruction has an important role to play in helping students to speak and write more effectively. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of direct grammar instruction on the quality of student's writing skills. The participants in this study included 18 fifth grade students and two fifth grade teachers. Based on the results…

In this study, we employed a new instructional model that helps students develop scientific writing and presentation skills. Argument-driven inquiry (ADI) is one of the most novel instructional models that emphasizes the role of argumentation and inquiry in science education equally. This is an exploratory study where five ADI lab activities take…

In Flanders, there are neither Flemish assessments nor teacher surveys to provide insights into the current practice and outcomes of writing instruction. In the present study, we provide a-state-of-the-art study of the practice of writing instruction in Flemish late elementary education by investigating: (a) how writing is taught, (b) how teachers…

The perceived value of peer editing to students is unclear. To investigate, first-year students (N = 35) completed a writing attitudes scale and first writing assignment in September 2012. The expected writing requirements were explained and handouts provided, as well as subsequent instructor feedback and grades. A second writing assignment was…

This quasi-experimental study examined whether there was any difference in the quantity and quality of the written texts produced by two groups (N = 18) of intermediate Chinese language learners. Over one semester, students in the experimental (E) group wrote weekly updates and comments in Chinese on a designated Facebook group page, while…

This study is devoted to the effect of "textual metafunction" on the levels of coherence and cohesion in the Iranian EFL learners' English writing performance. Sixty Iranian intermediate EFL learners who were adult females participated in this study were randomly divided into two groups; experimental, and control. They were given a…

In this study, 72 secondary English teachers from the Santa Ana Unified School District were randomly assigned to participate in the Pathway Project, a cognitive strategies approach to teaching interpretive reading and analytical writing, or to a control condition involving typical district training focusing on teaching content from the textbook.…

Given that nowadays writing skill is included in main standardised tests worldwide as well as nationwide, as writing assessment is employed as a part of performance assessment in classroom testing at high school level in Korea, English teachers are first expected to establish the construct of writing ability explicitly prior to devising other…

The merits and shortcomings of formalized assessments of student writing have been debated by critics who maintain they are not valid measures of writing proficiency, often result in a narrowing effect on the local school curriculum and elicit predictable or formulaic writing by students and by proponents who argue they help to inform teacher…

In response to a growing demand for highly proficient speakers of foreign languages, both from private and government sectors, an added emphasis has been placed on immersion-type programs that offer extensive contact time in a target language. Although time in a target language certainly plays a valuable and needed role, this research demonstrates…

Describes a method of teaching basic writing to native and nonnative students that emphasizes a regression to the most basic elements of writing. Considers what writing content, rhetorical techniques, grammar exercises, and proofreading methods are most effective for the two groups. (TB)