Recent controversies about the quality of writing instruction in the nation's schools are examined in this paper. The first chapter summarizes articles in the news media that have pointed to a crisis in education and cites facts that lend support to an opposing view. Chapters two and three discuss conflicting responses from educators, state…

The proceedings include conference welcomes by Leon R. McCarrey and Peter J. Krueger, six papers, a list of conference participants, and proceedings of previous meetings. "Higher Education: Beacon or Mirror," by Keith Goldhammer, traces the history of higher education and its purposes, calling for renewed efforts to increase its quality…

A method is described for teaching writing to students for whom English is nearly a "first" language by virtue of the nature and circumstances of their use of it. The basic tenet of the approach is that the student can only learn to write well if he has a belief in himself and in the value of his own responses. To write well, the student must…

The justification for including a year-long course in practical writing and editing in a research-oriented university's writing program and a description of that course are presented in this paper. Discussed are the responses to four questions: What is practical or survival writing? How much is there of it? What can a university gain from teaching…

After a brief discussion of the concepts underlying the design of a high school district's composition program that emphasizes teacher inservice preparation and writing as process rather than product, this paper develops a theory of learning language skills similar to that used in learning a second language. A distinction is drawn between language…

THE NEBRASKA CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT CENTER (NCDC) ENDEAVORED TO CREATE AN INTEGRATED CURRICULUM IN ENGLISH FOR KINDERGARTEN THROUGH 13 BASED UPON LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, AND COMPOSITION. THE NCDC RECRUITED A CROSS-SECTION OF THE SCHOLARLY AND SCHOOL COMMUNITY TO DEVELOP, TEST, AND EVALUATE THIS CURRICULUM, AND TO CONDUCT RESEARCH AND DEVISE…

Two technical writing courses at a two-year agricultural college were designed to meet the individualized needs of students in various agricultural studies in the animal industries, horticulture, agricultural business, and agricultural mechanics. Offering a technical writing program based upon the writing tasks of the students' intended…

This monograph presents what illiterate and formerly illiterate adults have said regarding what it is like to be unable to read in a world that presumes everyone is literate, and of experiences they have had while acquiring the ability to read and write. In later chapters the authors, who were involved in the Vermont Adult Basic Education (ABE)…

The study was designed to test the effects of a limited amount of sentence-combining practice on the syntactic development and overall writing ability of foreign students. Participants were freshmen studying English as a second language during an eight-week period. Twenty-four students were divided into a control and an experimental group. The…

Detailed analyses are given of the most effective teaching techniques in each of four major basic skills areas: writing, reading, English as a second language, and mathematics. Six basic questions are addressed for each area: (1) What are the objectives of skills programs in this area? (2) What are the different skills levels of entering students,…

Findings are summarized from the statewide assessment of Texas students' achievement in mathematics, reading, citizenship awareness, and writing skills. For reading and mathematics achievement, criterion-referenced tests were developed. Test items from exercises developed by the National Assessment of Educational Programs (NAEP) were used to…

Written for use with junior high school students, this handbook links natural ecological issues with language arts instruction. It contains a series of lesson plans, each offering a number of suggested learning activities for use both in and out of class. The lessons are built around 12 major environmental concepts that form a framework for each…

This collection of 27 articles written by educators suggests to classroom teachers creative ways of teaching writing well even when confronted with unreasonably large classes. The articles are presented under six main headings: ungraded writing, teacher involvement--not evaluation, student self-editing, practice with parts, focused feedback, and…

Advice for college students on attending classes, studying, writing papers, and taking exams is included in this guide. The discussion of classes includes: choosing courses, planning a schedule, choosing professors, and in-class behavior and participation. Studying techniques, including techniques for different types of courses, reviewing for…

Certain categories of grammatical errors made by 42 teacher trainees at Lund University in Sweden are described and explained. Each student was asked to write two summaries in English, one an account of a book that appeared on a list of books for extensive reading and the other an account of a 40-minute tape recording in the language laboratory,…