Responding to calls for research into measurable English language outcomes from individual language support consultations at universities, this study investigated the effect of individual consultations (ICs) on the academic writing skills and lexico-grammatical competence of students who speak English as an additional language (EAL). Attendance by…

Background: This study examined the use of student-teacher interactions through dynamic assessment (DA) to diagnose and promote the learner's comprehension on Chinese writing patterns. Debates over the uses of standardized tests to assess language learners' performance have been ongoing in the field of second language acquisition for many years.…

This study explored receptive vocabulary size and early literacy skills (namely: letter naming, knowledge of phoneme-grapheme correspondences and early writing) in emergent bilingual Northern Sotho-English children. Two groups of Grade 1 learners were tested in both English and in Northern Sotho. Group 1 (N = 49) received their formal schooling in…

The "School Leader's Literacy Walkthrough" is designed to assist school leaders in observing specific research-based practices during literacy instruction (or students' independent use or application of those practices). This tool is based on rigorous research that indicates the most effective way to teach reading (see Foorman &…

This study aimed to investigate problems facing Palestinian Arab students from Israel who are majoring in teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in developing well-written paragraphs in English. They usually transfer the stylistic features of their first language, Arabic to the target language, English. For example, they tend to write long…

In view of the fact that learner-centered instruction is the standpoint in education in new trends, teachers must be aware of students' characteristics in order to tailor their teaching to needs of learners. One of the areas which is closely related to characteristics and performance of language learners is the role of gender on language learning…

The ability to communicate--orally and in writing--is a graduate attribute that employers in many countries rank as number one in importance, aside from relevant qualifications. This paper reports the implementation and evaluation of a collaborative peer assessment and self-assessment learning and teaching (L&T) initiative, which was designed…

This study investigated the engagement with writing of reluctant writers in the contexts of home and school. A structured and semi-structured survey method was used to capture responses from 106 reluctant writers in 9 primary schools (age range 6--9 year olds) in the UK. Findings show that although these students were deemed to be reluctant…

The aim of written expression studies is to have students explain their knowledge, feelings, ideas and imaginations in a correct and effective manner. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of story map on story writing skills of first grade teacher candidates who study at the Department of Elementary Education. The…

The study investigated the effects of the Cognitive Level and Quality Writing Assessment (CLAQWA) rubric on the cognitive and writing skill growth in freshmen composition classes. The participants were enrolled at a Midwestern state university. The nonequivalent control group design used quantitative analysis with selected criteria from the CLAQWA…

It is apparent that individuals using text abbreviations as a written convention is a continuingly growing phenomenon. This special writing convention has been referred to as textism usage. However, there is surprisingly little research investigating the impacts of textism use on dyslexic children's cognitive abilities associated with literacy…

Factors affecting the free writing speed of 11-year-old students were investigated using the Group and Individual Assessment of Handwriting Speed. Intelligence, gender, legibility and whether the student has special educational needs or speaks English as an additional language were all found to impact on writing speed to a significant extent. In…

A course is described that prepares graduate students in the sciences to publish research, grounding them in the processes of academic publishing and encouraging them to publish their research in a timely fashion. This article addresses some key questions about the course: What previously unmet need does it meet? What subjects does it cover? How…

The inner-city high school in Washington, DC, that Guillaume Gendre joined as an assistant principal had a modest reputation for achievement but was nevertheless challenged to raise expectations for student work. In other schools, Gendre had used assignments--a specific kind of instructional task in which students are charged to think about an…

The present study investigates the effectiveness of integrating RCampus in EFL freshman classrooms in developing EFL students' reading and writing skills. Two groups of freshman students majoring in translation participated in the study. Before instruction, pretest results showed no significant difference between the experimental and control…