The main purpose of this dissertation is to examine the (in)effectiveness of the Usage-based grammar approach through explicit instruction of adverbials in the US educational context. One area that can complicate the question of native speakers' grammar knowledge is their awareness of grammatical terms and their functions. Along with exploring…

This paper documents shifts in English teachers' knowledges and practices as a consequence of their involvement in a jointly funded Griffith University and Queensland Department of Education English Teacher as Writers Project. The pilot research uses an exploratory case study methodology to explore what works when it comes to challenging teachers…

The initial composition course in the community college has the potential to be a transformative space for the identity formation of adult learners towards the linguistic signifier of "scholar." Freshman students of variable ages enter a new culture which demands the negotiation of an alternative academic language, an adaptation to the…

Understanding writing as a performative material practice, this paper highlights the "imperative" as a strategy to enhance writing practices in our classrooms and academic workshops. Drawing on posthuman theories and intra-active relationships, it describes how performative arts-based writing can provide a way to engage with the human…

In the last few years, college and university systems nationwide have implemented sweeping reforms to placement and course sequences to rectify systemic inequities affecting incoming students. Many of these reforms acknowledge that standardized placement tests create false distinctions between "prepared" and "underprepared"…

Although existing research examines how pre-K-12 teachers understand everyday translanguaging and enact translanguaging pedagogies in their literacy classrooms, considerably less research explores translanguaging pedagogies in literacy teacher education. Drawing on García, Johnson, and Seltzer's theorization of translanguaging "stance,"…

Blended learning approach has become an emerging trend in the field of education and has caught the attention and interest of many researchers as a new approach to encourage students in their learning process. The present study aimed at examining the effectiveness of blended learning in improving Saudi EFL students' English paragraph writing at…

Science has greatly enhanced what we know about reading and writing. Drawing on this knowledge, researchers have proffered recommendations for how to teach these two literacy skills. Although such recommendations are aimed at closing the gap between research and practice, they often fail to take into account the reciprocal relation that exists…

The theory of threshold concepts has given faculty a powerful way to name foundational, but difficult, disciplinary concepts. However, there is no methodological consensus about the best ways to identify them. In this article, we introduce a phenomenographically-derived narrative framework for identifying stages of threshold concept acquisition.…

Background: This study was designed to develop a program to increase the confidence level among kindergarten teachers to teach handwriting in kindergarten. Methods: A pretest-posttest quasi-experimental research design was utilized. Five teachers employed at the kindergarten center in a school district in Illinois participated in the study. Data…

Writing, writ large, is the very process, practice, and product by which students, researchers, faculty, and administrators on college campuses professionalize, become knowledgeable, and, in some cases, become experts. CSU Writes (Colorado State University) approaches writing as both the cornerstone practice and the primary means of professional…

Occupational therapists use a variety of approaches during intervention to address handwriting legibility, including therapeutic practice, sensorimotor approaches, and practice using iPad apps. The purpose of this pilot study was to compare the effectiveness of three interventions implemented in small groups to improve handwriting legibility:…

We examined effects of intervention on the level and trend of text-writing sequences of students with disabilities and writing difficulties, in addition to potential moderating effects related to student demographics (i.e., disability status, age, gender, and race) and writing task (i.e., sentence, essay, and narrative). We reviewed 18 single-case…

I first briefly review two paradigms for scholarly writing, namely the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and Academic Literacies (Ac Lits) approaches. ESP has traditionally been considered as the dominant paradigm and Ac Lits as somewhat on the margins of academic writing theory and practice. My aim in this article is to illustrate which areas…

Sound-based sentence method has been used to teach reading and writing (since the 2005-2006) in Turkey. This method, however, might pose difficulties in learning "sound-syllable-word-phrase" formations for students with intellectual disability. The aim of this research proposes a new method of literacy for students with intellectual…