Three sections (two conventional and one experimental) of English 140 at St. Petersburg Junior College (Florida) were used to investigate whether or not the use of a writing laboratory would lead to writing improvement. The laboratory provided scheduled opportunities for writing revision and improvement through peer criticism and tape-recorder…

This text (which may be used by foreign students of English or by speakers of nonstandard English dialects) is based on the precepts that any genuine learning is by discovery; that such learning is an active process involving the use of conceptual intelligence; and that this learning can be facilitated by teacher guidance. The first section of the…

Eight classes (140 students) in 10th- and 11th-grade were taught English composition using either an "errorless" or a "dialectical" method, each involving a model paragraph. The progress of the students was examined using the STEP and Composition Rating Scales before and after the instruction. Significant changes in the students' scores occurred…

The purpose of this study was to determine (1) whether disadvantaged children using the Peabody Language Development Kit (PLDK) language lessons for 7 months performed significantly better on tests of intelligence, reading, listening, and writing than did similar children not experiencing these lessons, and (2) whether the performance of boys…

The objectives of this study were (1) to analyze the linguistic structures and the linguistic deviations used by children in their written sentences, and (2) to compare the structures and deviations with the quality of the writing, as judged by three competent raters. Eighty fourth-grade and 80 sixth-grade children (8% black) from working-class…

The purpose of this study was to help second grade children expand and elaborate their sentences by using sentence expansion techniques which would provide exposure to word form classes and increase awareness and understanding of syntactic units. Nineteen children in a second grade class for the gifted were asked to write a one-page composition at…

Short essays written by 60 secon d and third grade children were analyzed in order to compare the global quality with the syntactic maturity contained therein. Global quality is a broad measure of the level of ability and development evidenced by the pupil in his particular writing. Syntactic maturity is a measure based on the existence of various…

The author reports on a project designed to help foreign students make the transition from special English to regular college English classes through expanded use of the language laboratory. The project, conducted at the University of Texas at El Paso in 1968 (in the spring and fall semesters), was set up specifically to provide additional…

The eight articles in the first section of this publication on the teaching of writing in British schools concentrate on classroom practices--ways of motivating student creative writing, the encouragement of group expository writing, and criteria to be considered when marking student writing. In the second section, five articles critically analyze…

In learning the skills of reading and writing, it seems most probable that the child has to become aware of certain aspects of spoken language which he has not previously perceived. Although the child is capable of saying and hearing words and can easily tell them apart from other words, to spell them phonically he must understand the concept of…

When teaching composition to speakers of Black English, instructors should be aware of the dominance of oral expression in black culture and base the writing program on developing the students' present language abilities. The social value placed by inner-city blacks on oral expression is evident in the varying verbal contests carried out when…

The study of language variation has brought linguists closer to some of the problems which concern our schools, namely, the teaching of reading, writing, and speaking. Through variability studies, answers can be found to questions about how to delimit styles, how to effect acceptability in school writing and talking, how to appreciate the dynamics…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the problem of designing instruction in the process of composing. The scope of the study is limited to one kind of writing (the short, autobiographical narrative) and to one kind of instruction (a self-instructional program, developed by means of discrimination programing). Subjects for the study were…

The monograph is a complete outline for a program designed to help English departments institute logical and fair procedures for grading student essays. The contents in this monograph include "Factors in Judgments of Writing Ability,""The Effect of Bias,""Measuring Improvement in Writing,""Personal vs Staff Grading,""Standard Scores for Test…

This book contains a collection of articles written by teachers who, according to some of their students, really taught them how to write. The articles describe classroom methods for teaching composition that have actually worked for both teachers and students. Aimed particularly at English teachers in grades 10-12 the book includes specific…