In recognition of the need to increase academic standards in its freshman composition course and expand its remedial English offerings, Laredo Junior College (LJC) in Texas developed a three-level remedial English program, with the lowest level focusing on sentence writing, the middle level on paragraph writing, and the upper level on essay…

A collection of papers presented at a seminar conducted at the Regional Language Centre (Singapore) on communicative language teaching includes: "Integrating the New and the Old in a Communicative Approach" (William T. Littlewood); "Communicative Competence and Language Teaching: Second Thoughts" (Christina Bratt Paulston); "Communicative…

An addition to the "wholeness of language" debate, this document is divided into two sections. The first reviews theories regarding the reading writing relationship, suggesting that an awareness of the interdependencies and commonalities among various forms of communication may provide insights leading to students learning to read like…

Intended to facilitate a broader emphasis on creative writing in American high school English classes, this manual offers a number of writing laboratory exercises. The exercises are divided into five categories: (1) library skills, including reference book know how, and using the parts of books; (2) critical reading skills, including…

Noting that computers have fascinated teachers looking for new and better ways of teaching writing, not because the machines make students into better writers, but because they are useful tools that make editing and revising much easier, this paper explores the use of computers to teach writing, based on the experiences of a writing laboratory…

A study examining the writing processes of five college students for whom English was a second language is reported. The students were labeled "unskilled" writers because of their inability to pass a university writing proficiency test. The study looked at: (1) the composing behaviors these students exhibited; (2) the conscious composing…

As part of a one-year trial project, in fall 1981, Oakton College students who scored below 35 on the Educational Testing Service Test of Written Expression were not permitted to enroll in C101 (an introductory communications course) until they had successfully completed a developmental communications course or had retaken and passed the exam. To…

Papers delivered at the First American Reading Forum are collected in this yearbook. Focusing on the theme of comprehension, many of the essays respond to a preceding essay. The essays and reactions cover a variety of topics, including the following: (1) comprehension measures, (2) instructional strategies to promote comprehension, (3) current…

Wordsworth II, a cooperative venture of English teachers and computer scientists at Michigan Technological University, is designed to be a viable alternative to the computer assisted instruction (CAI) currently on the market for college writing courses. Consisting of eight process-based modules, the program offers a sophisticated and interactive…

For use by teachers in helping students become better writers, this booklet describes and illustrates cognitive mapping, a prewriting technique that helps students combine their verbal and visual skills in order to produce ideas and to plan stories, plays, reports, or essays. The first section of the booklet discusses the interrelations between…

Error pattern analysis is a teaching technique that emphasizes identifying, classifying, and keeping a frequency count on only those errors actually occurring in students' writing. Application of error pattern analysis in a workshop format requires three steps: preparing an error pattern analysis, teaching from this analysis, and integrating it…

A cooperative writing workshop that attempts to engage first-term college freshmen in a variety of genuine writing problems by stressing the class as audience, the use of daily journals, feedback from small group discussions, and frequent revision is described in the first part of this document. The remainder of the paper presents a case study of…

The problems encountered by English as second language (ESL) students in selecting verb tenses for their written discourse were investigated. Tape recorded interviews with four freshman composition students who had been referred for intensive work on verb errors were analyzed for students' explanations of their errors and the contexts in which…

Peer evaluation was implemented in a college composition seminar to explore its effectiveness. The class of 13 students met once a week, workshop style, for 4 hours. Students wrote short papers (three to five typed pages) every week in an assigned mode (critical analysis, social commentary, familiar essay) but on topics of their own choosing. For…

A course entitled "In Another Country: Perspectives on Human Values" is being initiated in Manor Junior College (Pennsylvania) in an attempt to revitalize liberal arts offerings while making them relevant to career oriented students. Satisfying composition and philosophy requirements, this experimental six credit course will be offered to allied…