Educational standards documents worldwide include reading and writing of evidence-based argument as a major focus. In order to help students craft arguments that will be considered seriously by those with the power to make changes that affect them, educators need to cultivate within students their sociological imagination--that is, an…

Seventh grade teachers at a Colombian public school chose cooperative learning as a strategy to improve student's social performance and as a tool to get learners to enrich their academic level. This article reports on an action research and innovation project focused on the results eight students obtained in their written performance in English…

This study examined the relationship between ninth-grade students' use of connectives (temporal, causal, adversative, and additive) in functional writing and performance on standards-based/criterion-referenced measures of reading and writing. Specifically, structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques were used to examine the relationship between…

This action research study investigates the effectiveness of a model based on the theory of systemic text analysis for the teaching of EFL writing. Employing students' pieces of writing and a teachers' survey as data collection instruments, the writing performance of a group of monolingual intermediate level adult students enrolled on a private…

In contemporary higher education there is a growing demand for academics to increase their publication output. This requirement raises the question of how institutions can best support a sustainable academic writing culture, which is needed to challenge the assumption that all academics know how to write for publication. This case study examines…

Given the importance of effective written communication skills to the discipline of accounting, faculty must emphasize these skills in their classroom in order to adequately prepare students for successful careers in the field. Since 2000, only two studies in the accounting literature have examined which written communication skills are needed by…

Writing skill is seen as a cornerstone of university students' success in both academic and career life. This qualitative study was conducted to further explore the teachers' and students' perceptions on the relationship between writing apprehension and writing performance, contributing factors of writing apprehension, and strategies to reduce…

Writing development seems heavily dependent upon the automatization of transcription. This study aimed to further investigate the link between transcription and writing by examining the effects of promoting handwriting and spelling skills on a comprehensive set of writing measures (viz., bursts and pauses, levels of written language, and writing…

The authors discuss a scholarship of teaching and learning project conducted in three first-year writing seminars of different disciplines. The goal was to introduce students to academic inquiry, which they define as the process of critically analyzing class materials, engaging with the larger body of knowledge on a topic, using evidence to…

This paper looks at the teaching of subject discipline content through the medium of a second language. It begins by looking at the globalisation of discipline content teaching through second languages, whereby increasing numbers of academics and students are either teaching or learning in universities across the globe in a language other than…

In the field of computer science, specific English language skills are needed to facilitate the students' academic progress. Needs analysis is generally believed to be an important element in ESP/EAP context because it enables the practitioners and curriculum designers determine the learners' needs in a particular academic context. In this regard,…

This qualitative study addressed the English language learning needs and challenges expressed by a sample of 22 postgraduate students from diversified faculties in the University of Jordan. These students were required to take the Alternative National English course. They wrote a self-report reflecting on their English language learning needs and…

This paper presents a model for teaching large classes that facilitates a "small class feel" to counteract the distance, anonymity, and formality that often characterize large lecture-style courses in higher education. One author (E. P.) has been teaching a 300-student general education critical thinking course for ten years, and the…

A growing number of instructors use information and communications technology (ICT) inside and outside the classroom to teach all kinds of programs, including language courses. In this study, the instructor used a traditional way of teaching (lecturing, text-book, conversation, no technology in the classroom, no social network) during the first…

The development of transferrable skillsets, articulated in statements of graduate learning outcomes, is emphasised in undergraduate science degree programmes. Science students enrolled in dual (double) degrees comprise a significant minority of Australian science undergraduates. Research comparing perceptions of single and dual degree students on…