There are a myriad of writing tasks that confront a director of an early childhood program. Correspondence is one of the most frequent and time-consuming tasks of all. In this article, the author discusses some guidelines for getting started with the writing tasks. The author also offers some practical tips for effective correspondence.

The present study investigated the factor structure of a field trial sample of the Test of English as a Foreign Language™ Internet-based test (TOEFL® iBT). An item-level confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted for a polychoric correlation matrix of items on a test form completed by 2,720 participants in the 2003-2004 TOEFL iBT Field…

"Iranian Journal of Language Studies" ("IJLS") is devoted to all areas of language and linguistics. Its aim is to present work of current interest in all areas of language study. No particular linguistic theories or scientific trends are favored: scientific quality and scholarly standing are the only criteria applied in the…

The Department of Accounting at California State University Northridge (CSUN) has developed a unique sequence of courses designed to ensure that accounting students are trained not only in technical accounting, but also acquire critical thinking, research and communication skills. The courses have proven effective and have embedded assessment…

"Ready, Set, Leap!"[R] is a preschool curriculum that focuses on early reading skills, such as phonemic awareness, letter knowledge, and letter-sound correspondence, using multisensory technology that incorporates touch, sight, and sound. Teachers may adopt either a theme-based or a literature-based teaching approach, and for each…

This lesson uses a text about the houseboats of Kashmir to give students practice with descriptions, compound words, and participles. The lesson plan could be adapted to tourist destinations familiar to the students. Students are asked to write a description of their homes and create a tourism brochure for their own cities or towns.

For second language learners, English writing as one of the forms of communication is particularly tough. In order to help learners to write correctly and fluently, teachers could guide learners to integrate genre and content reasonably to meet their communicative needs, to motivate their interest and to improve their writing skills. The paper…

The results of a survey on teachers' perceptions regarding Florida's test-based accountability program raised serious doubts about whether testing has precipitated positive outcomes in upper-elementary students' learning. Nearly all of the 708 Florida upper-elementary teachers who completed the survey reported that testing had a negative effect or…

English is taught as a second language and compulsory subject in Malaysian secondary schools. Writing is one of the four language skills taught and tested. At the upper secondary school level, students write a variety of text types, most of which conform to examination genres. Given a learning context that is examination-driven and…

This study compared the preferred writing topics of urban and rural middle school students. Eighth graders (n = 205) responded to a brief survey of preferred writing topics in the descriptive writing genres of real or imagined stories, reports, and opinions. While some preferred writing topics were divergent such as society, crime, and violence,…

This study investigates the relationships between students' confidence in their generic skills on entry to university, their learning styles and their academic performance in first year. Research based on a large cohort of Scottish undergraduates found that students generally entered university feeling very confident that they already possessed…

This study was a comparison of the changes in English writing behavior of 7 Japanese university students (the study-abroad group) who spent 4 to 9 months in English-speaking countries with those of 6 counterparts majoring in British and American studies (the at-home group) who remained in Japan. The study aimed at confirming the results of Sasaki…

This study examines the Daily Oral Language (DOL) program aimed at helping students learn mechanics of writing through daily editing exercises. This nine-month study sought to determine if DOL improved editing skills and actual writing skills of seventy fourth-grade students. While the results of this study did not statistically demonstrate the…

This case study explored asynchronous online discussions, assessment processes, and the meaning students derived from their experiences in five online graduate courses at the Colleges of Education of two Midwestern higher education institutions. The findings suggest that asynchronous online discussions facilitate a multidimensional process of…

Teacher educators frequently express concerns regarding teacher candidates' writing knowledge, skills, and dispositions. Concerns include candidates' proficiencies for writing correctly and communicating effectively, teaching writing appropriately to preK-12 graders, integrating writing authentically across the curriculum, guiding preK-12 student…