Whether dealing with their native or a foreign language, both teachers and students have consistently found writing skills to be difficult to achieve. Students are concerned about initiating and structuring their thoughts, while teachers struggle to inspire their students to improve their writing capabilities. Hence, this experimental study…

This article describes the outcomes of a research project conducted at the Ministry of Stories (a London-based writing centre) which sought to develop an online, mentor-assisted, writing platform. Across a 3-month period, at four different sites across the UK, more than a hundred Year 7 pupils took part in the project, using the platform to write…

In language education, the development of writing capability is an important and challenging teaching objective. Writing performance is related not only with students' comprehension and expression of texts, but also their experience and perceptions of the contexts. Descriptive article writing is a basic writing activity; the content includes…

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the EUROCALL society succeeded in holding the 28th EUROCALL conference, EUROCALL2020, on 20-21 August as an online, two-day gathering. The transition process required to make this happen was demanding and insightful for everyone involved, and, in many ways, a logical consequence of the core content and purpose of…

For any curriculum area that entails writing, digital storytelling could transform students' perceptions of and their actual abilities to express themselves through the written word. The use of two Web sites has helped the students of one school go from staring apprehensively at blank pages to eagerly publishing stories.

In the current study, the researchers evaluated the effects of simultaneous prompting and computer-assisted instruction on the story-writing responses of 3 males with autism, 7 to 10 ears of age. Classroom teachers conducted all probe and training sessions. The researchers used a multiple baseline across participants design to evaluate the…

Describes a simple computer game for writing poetry. Notes the advantages and limitations of such computer assisted English instruction. (RL)

Computer technology has become an indispensable tool in writing. Those of us who have spent any time in schools can attest to the prevalence of word processing, concept mapping, Web editing, and electronic presentation software, all deployed, to a large extent, in the collective effort to enhance student writing. The degree to which such tools…

Describes clientele who could benefit from software being developed at University of Iowa for writing effective prose; what these authoring tools do and how they work; and design standards likely to produce a successful product. The software's design scheme, general design principles and objectives, and educational potential are discussed. (MBR)

A computer program titled "The Bald Headed Chicken," written for the Apple IIE and Apple IIGS, is described. The program enables primary-level students, as well as limited-English-speaking students, to manipulate graphics and text to create their own stories which can then be saved on disk or printed. (Author/JDD)

Introduces a computer lesson for use with elementary ESL students when they first arrive at school to help them feel more comfortable in their new surroundings. Describes how the lesson introduces students to simple vocabulary they can use in everyday situations along with the corresponding written words. (MG)

Focused on the topic of poetry-writing instruction, this annotated bibliography contains 29 references of articles and papers in the ERIC database. The citations include articles discussing poetic forms, teaching strategies for elementary and secondary levels, and computer-assisted poetry-writing instruction. (MM)

The article describes how to use a word processing program and add-on story starters for different genres to enhance elementary students' creative writing skills. Teachers input story starters, then students select a genre and add on a story version in that genre. Students can also develop their own story starters. (SM)

A hypertext entitled "Reading the Map" comes from the exploration of an individual's own life. Observations, experiences, whatever comes to mind, become part of the text. This constant addition of information adds physically to the text, making a perceived move outward into the social. However, this additional information actually moves…

Reviews a videocassette, two sound filmstrips, and one set of computer courseware; all intended to motivate students to discover and release the stories within them. (ARH)