Writing for the BBC World Service "Short Story" Program provides English as a second language students with the necessary conditions for "authentic writing," namely authentic and communicative writing practice, encouragement of language acquisition, and improvement of the teacher student relationship. (CB)

Technical questions regarding the reliability and validity of large-scale portfolio assessment were studied which focused on: (1) whether raters can score collections of writing reliably with rubrics designed for single samples; (2) whether ratings derived from different frameworks differ in their capacities to support technically sound…

This report describes the development over three trial semesters of a required course for sophomores at Baker University (Kansas) to develop reasoning and critical thinking skills that would prepare them for a required senior capstone course. The report describes the work of the faculty team that prepared two textbooks ("Reasoning and…

This document presents eight lesson plans designed to teach self-determination and Arizona academic standards to students with disabilities in grades K-12. The lesson plans include: (1) an oral language lesson plan for students with learning disabilities in grades 1-2; (2) a reading acquisition lesson that teaches color words to students with…

The eight titles in this document include the following: "Comprehension and Input Processing as Useful Terms in the Field of SLA" (number 28) (Teresa Cadierno); "On the Role of Instruction in SLA: Research Results and Theoretical Explanations" (number 29) (Teresa Cadierno); "Can Writing Be Taught" (number 30) (Stuart Greene); "Academic Listening"…

This study argues that community college composition instructors need to develop their own body of research and scholarship on theories of writing, one that is not solely dependent upon four-year college theory, but that works as an equal partner in the composition theory debate. The premise that community college students are different from…

Articles in this special issue include the following: "Learning to Write in a Second Language: Two Decades of Research" (Alister Cumming); "Some Steps Towards a Socio-Cognitive Interpretation of Second Language Composition Processes" (Julio Delarios Roca, Liz Murphy Liz); "Trends in the Conceptualizations of Second Language Composing Strategies: A…

First Steps is a program instituted by the Western Australia Ministry of Education to improve the literacy and numeracy of primary school students, particularly those at risk of academic failure. First Steps is organized around reading, writing, spelling, and oral language; children's skills are organized along developmental continua. This study,…

The purpose of this study was to address the validity of grades of 3 on AP® Examinations and to compare AP students to other relevant student groups. While research has shown that students who earn grades of 3 or higher and place out of introductory courses do well in the subsequent courses, there are some college faculty members who think this is…

Course offerings listed in a national directory of training programs for junior/community college teachers were measured against the opinions of Iowa community college writing teachers about helpful training for community college teachers. Results indicated a need for more course offerings in remediation techniques, composition theory, speech,…

Describes the dynamics of problem solving through spoken discourse in one-to-one tutoring of second-language writing in order to determine whether these processes vary with either instructional approach or language used. Tutors' and students' cooperative efforts to solve problems in the students' draft compositions focused primarily on local…

Describes a representative sample of recent research on the uses of microcomputer-based word processing in composition instruction. Topics discussed include revision strategies; collaborative writing; student attitudes and motivation; writing quality; implementation of word processing; problems; equity issues; and questions for future research.…

Describes the Graphic Story Writer system, which was written to explore ways in which a computer can simulate the presence of an active listener for early readers and preliterate children as they explore story construction. An authoring tool that allows adults or more advanced students to create or edit new scenarios is also described. (Contains…

Describes the development of an interactive compact disc on CD-ROM XA that was designed to help adults learn to read. The application of technology to learning is discussed, differences in learner control in computer-based systems are considered, virtual writing is described, and assessment activities available on the disc are explained. (five…

Discusses what is known about cognitive skills writing. Reports results of an experiment in which 288 youth in grades 7, 8, and 9 were given writing assignments relating to planning, translating, reviewing, and revising their papers. Discusses gender differences in cognitive writing processes and reviews literature on interventions for cognitive…