This packet is the third of five developed as a set of self-appraisal instruments with which teachers (and others) can systematically examine their instruction methods in communication skills. The packet contains forms for teachers, students, administrators, and parents addressing two levels of specificity: responses to the overall communication…

The 12 articles in this journal issue focus on writing as an expression of language. Specific topics discussed in the articles are: (1) What can be learned from writing research, (2) young children and writing (3) translating meaning from spoken to written language, (4) assumptions about writing instruction, (5) first grade writers, (6) learning…

Three high school students present findings of their survey of professional writers' training, influences, and writing processes conducted to judge whether secondary school writing programs adequately prepare high schoolers for writing in the future. Comments from writers emphasized prewriting, inspiration, reader feedback, and sequential drafts.…

In early stages of writing, the writing process encourages "writing the way we talk," but in the end students are expected to write as academicians: a student must control his/her written level of language. For English speaking students, needing to belong to ingroups, and the casual attitude of American society both contribute to students'…

People write because they have something to say, when they have a rich experience to share, or when they have ideas to clarify and record. Effective writers learn how to communicate. This applies to adults as well as children. Teaching writing is about building on the language skills that children bring with them to school. Pupils need a rich…

Describes a research project designed to evaluate the adoption of process writing by secondary English teachers in Hong Kong. A range of attitudes is identified among the participants. The teachers' profile suggests that they can be assisted in actualizing the necessary conditions for implementing the process approach by provision of suitable…

Assessed preservice teachers' responses to information about the process of writing via HyperCard stacks. Subjects were provided with the opportunity to examine children's writing development by viewing samples of their early writing, invented spelling, and composition. The program enhanced understanding with its combination of text and authentic…

Reviews research on reading and writing development, comparing the whole-language approach with the Montessori approach for teaching reading and writing at the elementary school level. Also discusses techniques to teach students how to write poetry and short fiction, stressing the importance of both freedom and structure in evolving reading and…

Considering the complicating effect of cultural differences in writing conventions, this study examines discourse tradition as influenced by Confucian/Taoist precepts and those of U.S. academic environments, the latter requiring rational argumentation, justification, and proof. Pedagogical implications of native-speaker and nonnative-speaker…

Examines whether targeting instruction to students' weak points has an effect on their writing quality. Upper intermediate students in an English for academic purposes course were asked to write a composition before and after the instructional treatment. Comparison of results from the two tasks shows a significant increase in scores on both…

This study investigates the effects of receptive and productive vocabulary learning on word knowledge. Japanese students studying English as a foreign language learned target words in three glossed sentences and in a sentence production task in two experiments. Five aspects of vocabulary knowledge--orthography, syntax, association, grammatical…

This annotated bibliography contains 32 citations of journal articles, book chapters, and books that focus on the teaching of writing in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) and English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) classrooms. (MDM)

Contributed by English teachers across the United States, the activities contained in this booklet are intended to promote the effective teaching of writing and literature. Teaching strategies offered in the first section of the booklet are designed to stimulate language exploration and include activities in which students write family newspapers…

Originally developed as part of a project for the Department of Defense Schools (DoDDS) system, this learning package on the relationship between reading and writing is designed for teachers who wish to upgrade or expand their teaching skills on their own. The package includes an overview of the project; a comprehensive search of the ERIC…

A study analyzed some of the characteristics of junior high students' oral communication behavior that accompanied the assignment, production, and evaluation of a writing task. It involved fieldwork in three junior high school English classes--first in a six-month pilot study and then in a year-long period of observation. Through direct…