Describes how students who are learning disabled can improve their writing skills through physical movement and manipulating visuals. Describes how movement draws on kinesthetic intelligence and manipulatives draw on spatial intelligence to help students understand language structures in nonverbal ways that may be more intuitive than verbal…

Four ideas for French language classroom activities are described: an exercise in listening to popular songs; a film scenario rewriting exercise; a technique for teaching the subjunctive mood; and a paired or small-group activity to enhance understanding of advertising. (MSE)

Discusses design issues raised during an in-house review of undergraduate English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) writing courses at the University of Nebraska. Issues covered include the purpose of teaching ESL in a university environment, the autonomy of instructors, focus of the writing curriculum, and the value of student effort versus student…

Presents reminiscences of a former editor of "English Education," discussing English teacher education during the 1970s and some of the difficult transitional moments during that era. Discusses methods courses, changes in the curriculum, and outside critics of English education. (TB)

Proposes a genre-centered approach based on the work of M. Bakhtin as a means of bridging the language gap between writing scholars in the Ukraine and writing scholars in the West. (TB)

Describes an inventive way of promoting children's literacy learning: having them design picture books, including in the process, aspects more typically associated with illustrators, book designers, and art directors. Describes one child's creation of three different books. (SR)

Notes the challenge of teaching with multiple perspectives. Explains that studying a poem with two voices shows students how to consider multiple perspectives. Concludes that looking at different perspectives on a topic not only widens students' views, but also deepens their understanding. (PM)

Outlines a successful children's literature author's struggle with writing in high school and college. Contends that stories are vital because they are experienced. Notes that children's literature is about the possibilities of childhood. (PM)

Three authors describe their motivations to write and influences on their writing careers, including love of reading, desire to escape other occupations, and influential teachers. Advice for teachers includes using the writers' workshop model; encouraging editing and revision; steering students toward literary, rather than mass media sources;…

The "6+1" model of writing assessment identifies the traits of good writing as ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation. Examples of the model's nationwide spread include Arizona preservice teachers who tutor middle school students to familiarize themselves with the model, and a former…

Describes a workshop for teachers in rural Thailand to consider new perspectives in teaching writing in English. Teachers were participants in a certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign language (TEFL) program course sponsored by the Canadian International Development Agency. The genre approach to writing is proposed as a way of helping…

Reports on a study of teacher-student writing conferences which finds that conferences have an effect on the revision process; and the divergent backgrounds students bring to instructional events (in terms of writing ability, writing experience, or native language) have a structuring effect that cannot be dismissed solely as teacher bias or…

Argues that the publication of student writing from all levels of an English program motivates students, provides instructional material, and validates the process approach to teaching writing. (TB)

At the Technical University of Budapest (Hungary), abstracting is taught in "Professional Documentation," a class designed to make Hungarian students of English translation familiar with written genres that are not translation but which a translator might be required to write: calls for papers, scientific articles, research proposals and…

A survey about instructional strategies was completed by 183 elementary teachers and teachers of students with learning disabilities. Results indicated that the most important factor influencing respondents' philosophical decisions on teaching reading and writing was their teacher training program emphasis. Most respondents believed that a…