Direct corpus use by learners or learner concordancing has been hailed as one of the promising areas that can revolutionize L2 writing and language pedagogy as a whole ([Conrad, 2000] and [Hyland, 2003]). It has been discussed to promote data-driven learning (Johns, 1988), to provide authentic contexts in which linguistic items are used, and to…

This article shares strategies that educators can use to assist students in meeting the challenges of academic writing more effectively. In order to foreground an understanding of struggling writers, the text begins with a brief review of composition theory and history related to basic writers and identity. It goes on to examine classroom…

This literature review serves to inform the reader on current literature on Contrastive Rhetoric (CR), with specific reference to teaching writing to Japanese students of English. It will examine the historical developments of CR and its present significance before then looking at possible reasons for unique characteristics of Japanese L2 writers…

With the increasing use of integrated tasks in assessing writing, more and more research studies have been conducted to examine the construct validity of such tasks. Previous studies have largely focused on reading-writing tasks, while relatively little is known about graph-writing tasks. This study examines second language (L2) writers'…

Most business communication classes teach students to use a writing process to compose effective documents. Students practice the process by applying it to various types of writing with various purposes-reports, presentations, bad news letters, persuasive memos, etc. However, unless students practice that process in other contexts outside of the…

In this study, the authors examined the effects of a systematic functional assessment-based intervention (FABI) to identify the function of a third-grade student's off-task behavior and create a plan to increase academic engaged time (AET). The FABI was designed and implemented in an urban elementary school with a comprehensive, integrated,…

Background: Despite years of intense criticism of contrastive (intercultural) rhetoric, theoretical debate, and controversy, there has been a recent resurgence in the number of high quality pedagogical studies concerning the teaching of intercultural rhetoric in university writing classes for East-Asian (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) writers.…

Although translation in learning a foreign or second language is frowned upon by many language practitioners, it is nonetheless used by language learners as a viable strategy. To date, few studies have investigated the effect of translation on writing. This study explored the use of translation by Iranian university students, particularly with…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of two handwriting approaches, D'Nealian and Sunform, on kindergartners' letter formations. Forty-one participants received D'Nealian handwriting instruction as the control group; 133 kindergartners were instructed in Sunform as the experimental approach. Pre-post tests at the beginning and end…

This study aims to capture both how the participants' genre awareness becomes embedded in their stances through genre-based writing instruction in an EFL context and also how viable multi-genre portfolio use is in genre-based EFL writing instruction. The qualitative data were gathered from several sources: (1) the participants' annotations of…

Teaching writing has always been a controversial issue in the field of Foreign Language Teaching. And while there are a number of approaches and techniques for teaching writing in an English as a Second Language or English as a Foreign Language (SL/EFL) setting, very few comprehensive frameworks exist for an ESL/EFL writing teacher. The present…

Research on expert performance suggests that deliberate practice provides optimal opportunities for expertise development. This study examined whether the provision of computer-based scaffolding (CBS) guiding deliberate practice facilitates students' development of writing expertise. A CBS environment "escribo" was designed to externally…

This writing program profile examines the work of Dr. Linda Adler-Kassner and the ways in which she has redefined writing and the place of first-year writing at her university. The profile highlights Adler-Kassner's development of an "open systems" curriculum and her use of assessment for program visibility and continuous program…

This author investigates Mexican women journalists' writing during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These women were at the center of the Latin American transnational experience--as female pioneers in the creation of a new mestiza rhetoric that reflected writing from the standpoint of inclusion that was resistant to oppressive ideologies. A…

Statistics show that American students' reading and writing skills are lagging at a time when literacy skills are needed more than ever. Efforts to address low adolescent literacy levels meet numerous challenges, chief among them is the fact that formal literacy instruction ends for most students after the elementary grades. Career and technical…