A college faculty member points out that allowing students to write and perform their own foreign language plays improves listening, speaking, and writing skills and exposes the students to new idiomatic expressions and conversational patterns used in contextually relevant and culturally specific situations. (Author/CB)

Three examples from Canadian schools and elsewhere illustrate the ways in which computers and computer networks can improve language skills, both first and second. Computer networks can provide opportunities for collaborative learning experiences facilitating literacy development and cultural exchange. (LMO)

Gives strategies middle school teachers can use to promote student writing. Includes brief discussions of authentic writing; freedom of topic choice; free time to write; and the process of review, revision, feedback, and reinforcement. (ET)

The introduction of computer technologies into the regular school system has not been very successful, probably because of the lack of sound curricular integration. Proposals are offered for courseware development that will better fit into the modern languages curriculum. (Contains three references.) (Author/LB)

Suggestions are offered for parents who wish to support their gifted children's writing. Parents should write themselves and share their writing with their children. Parents should encourage children to write abundantly to promote children's interest and confidence. Parents should not correct or comment on their children's writing unless asked for…

In 2 experiments involving 271 elementary and middle-school students with greater and lesser writing skills, components of the writing-translating process were examined. Skilled writers showed more fluent sentence-generation processes and were faster on lexical decision-making tasks. Fluent translating may help reduce the working-memory load…

Reviews two prevalent paradigms for language writing education: the social, using formalized methods to bring students of all backgrounds into mainstream academic literacy; and the developmental, emphasizing theories of language acquisition to enable students to approximate literacy through their cultural contexts. Argues against viewing these…

A survey of 33 former English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students now in university-level content courses explores their perceptions of the relationship between their ESL writing class instruction and the actual writing tasks in later courses. Findings reveal general satisfaction but also expressed needs for more complex writing assignments and…

Persistent low levels of school literacy among Canadian Natives is discussed in terms of language, script, culture, and pedagogy. Low literacy level is only a problem when defined by the narrow Western conception of literacy. When writing is taken as a graphic means of preserving and communicating information, then native cultures have always been…

Discusses the differences between theme units and theme immersion (TI). Unlike traditional, predetermined theme units, TI has teachers and their students jointly plan the investigation of a topic or question, using student-centered lines of inquiry and methodology. Also discusses several resources that teachers can use to learn more about TI. (MDM)

Reviews the resurgence in the use of literature in the English-as-a-Second-Language classroom and reports on a writing class at a technical university in Singapore. The course included both reading and oral report components. Only general guidelines were given on principles of organization and presentation. Results indicate improvement in student…

Describes a study of a writing exchange between a classroom of teenagers (mostly African American, mostly male) in the United States and another classroom of students in England. Notes that even reluctant writers produced responses in a variety of styles. (SR)

Highlights the importance of the father in children's early reading and writing experiences, explaining the need for both planned events (i.e., nightly stories or weekly library visits) and unplanned events (i.e., spontaneous trips or playing games) and emphasizing the need for nurturing children's natural curiosity about print. (SM)

Describes a writing instruction project called the "landmark method" that fosters writing skills in students with learning disabilities. Outlines specific strategies that have proven effective in teaching writing to students with dyslexia or other learning disabilities. (HB)

Researchers agree that academic self-efficacy beliefs are strongly predictive of academic performance. This study investigates four students' perceptions of the evolution of their efficacy beliefs about writing and of the relationship between these beliefs and their writing competence. (JPS)