To determine the reliability of evaluation decisions about student writing competency across modes of discourse, a large sample of students was randomly assigned a writing task in one of four modes of discourse. Results provide evidence that mode of discourse must be considered when judging the adequacy of student writing. (Author/LMO)

Examines class and ethnic differences in narrative style. Reviews recent research and outlines the basic differences between White middle-class narrative and the styles of various cultural groups. Explicates some of the uses of narrative in educational research and deals specifically with the educational implications of narrative differences. (CMG)

This volume brings together the majority of lectures and papers presented at the 1998 and 1999 discourse symposia at Vaxjo University. Part one, "Four Perspectives on Discourse," offers a matrix perspective on narrative, a cross cultural perspective on academic rhetoric, a cognitive perspective on informational discourse, and a construction…

Describes narrative activity in Spanish in a children's religious education class composed of Mexican immigrants at a Catholic parish in Los Angeles. Describes how students and their teacher collaborate in constructing a multiplicity of identities in an ongoing narrative within an oppressive colonial past in Mexico. (31 references) (Author/CK)

Suggests a method for presenting narrative accounts of one event in history so that students can practice analyzing and evaluating sources. Presents historical background about the capture of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 1902, and offers three conflicting versions of this event with the teaching procedures for using the accounts in the classroom. (KO)

In two experiments, 102 mechanically naive college students viewed an animation on bicycle tire pump operation with a verbal description before or during the animation or without description. Improved performance of those receiving description during the animation supports a dual-coding hypothesis of connections between visual and verbal stimuli.…

Data from 27 subjects--children acquiring Swedish as their first language (L1), adult immigrants acquiring Swedish as their second language (L2), and adult Swedish controls--were used to investigate narrative structure in child L1 and adults L2. Narratives were elicited through a picture story task. (30 references) (Author/JP)

The effects and potential of a hypermedia user's participation in fiction and film creation are discussed, focusing on how the technology can assist an individual in departing from conventional forms of reading and writing. Contemporary trends in hypermedia fiction are examined, and its use of creativity and intelligence are discussed. (MSE)

Investigates the acquisition of tense and aspect by learners of English as a Second Language and learners of French as a Foreign Language. Examination of written narratives collected from both groups using a film retell task reveals similar patterns of distribution of tense/aspect morphology across target languages. (29 references) (Author/CK)

This handbook is one of a set of six which provide a systematic means to help students in grades 4 through 8 learn the process of writing while building specific writing skills. The handbook focuses on paragraph writing, and offers 25 reproducible lessons, in a variety of formats, to help students improve their use of descriptive, narrative,…

This report documents the content and impact of an in-service program designed to enhance elementary school teachers' competence in narrative writing assessment. The program "Writing What You Read" was designed to help teachers and students make substantive assessments of texts. The program, which focused on a portfolio approach, was conducted…

This in-depth study explores problem areas of Hong Kong secondary and university students in writing narrative and argumentative compositions on two different themes. Subjects were 40 university English majors, 40 form four and 40 form six secondary students. The research indicates that the students at these grade levels experienced difficulty in…

The teaching activities presented in this pamphlet focus on storytelling. Beginning with a discussion of the purpose and rules of storytelling, it contains suggestions for selecting stories, lists story suggestions for various ages, and includes a brief annotated bibliography of recommended story collections. It explains learning and telling a…

Traditional ways of teaching French literary narrative have greatly relied on the use of metalanguage. Modern teaching practice, in rejecting this technique, leads to questions about what to substitute for it. An experiment was carried out in which over 20 groups of from 20 to 35 intermediate-level students in French-medium schools were instructed…

This theoretical paper explores the nature of narrative by examining its key characteristics as a communication tool and an independent mode of thought in the form of a literature review. The first section describes stories or narrative. The second section establishes links between narrative, change, and learning through the concept of…