Comic strips are proposed in the teaching of writing not only because of their appealing forms, but also due to their salient features as media to present content, organization and grammatical aspects of narrative texts. This study investigates the implementation of comic strips in teaching writing through a collaborative classroom action research…

This paper explores the problems of EFL classroom writings in the Chinese college teaching context from the perspective of textual organization and pragmatic strategy. Influence of their native cultural thought pattern causes the problem of discourse pattern and cohesion; lack of sufficient pragmatic strategy renders students' unawareness in…

An adjunct turned writing program administrator reflects on her professional journey and describes efforts to improve the teaching environment amongst composition faculty--primarily part-time--within her department. Based on a local program review, a pilot faculty relations plan was implemented that addressed two major areas: offering more…

The emphasis on engaging students in high-impact educational practices is increasing in higher education. Since its release in 2008, "High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter" has been the go-to report for campuses seeking guidance to help their students "reap the full…

Students in developmental writing courses and first-year composition courses struggle with the writing process. Individual instructional strategies have been insufficient to engage these students or build their self-confidences for further writing courses. The purpose of this study was to understand how students perceive a combination of three…

In this age of standardization, many English teachers are unsure about how to incorporate creative writing and thinking into their classroom. In a fresh new voice, Luke Reynolds emphasizes that "creativity in our lives as teachers and in the lives of our students is one of our most vital needs in the 21st century." Based on his own journey as an…

This dissertation examines theories of emotion in politically contentious discourse in order to better understand the implications for teachers and students in composition classrooms where critical pedagogical practices lead to contentious political work. I suggest that partly as a result of the social and political turn in composition studies,…

This research studies the effects of a writing community on three novice, middle school, Title I language arts teachers' perceptions of themselves as educators and as writers. The participants wrote on topics of their selection, on a bi-monthly basis, for one semester, to explore their teaching and learning. The teachers are in their first…

This paper examines how virtual worlds and other advanced social media can be married with problem-based learning to encourage creativity and critical thinking in the English/Language Arts classroom, particularly for middle school, high school, and undergraduate college education. Virtual world experiences such as "Second Life," Jumpstart.com, and…

This article reports a case study that examined English as a Second Language students' peer response stances from an activity theory perspective. More specifically, the study was guided by the constructs of activity and motive/object in Leont'ev's theory. Multiple sources of data were collected from two native Spanish-speaking students enrolled in…

Community college campuses around the United States serve an increasingly diverse student body. A report from the US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights highlights this growing trend by outlining a plan to increase racial diversity at four-year institutions by encouraging transfers from community colleges, primarily because community…

To effectively address the needs of second language (L2) learners in college writing courses, many postsecondary institutions, especially those located in cities with high concentrations of immigrants, offer college-level courses for L2 students. Such courses include noncredit English language courses in an intensive English program, developmental…

A middle school language arts teacher reflects on his experience in utilizing a school-housed online social network to create avenues for authentic audience, purpose, and response to student writing. With many technology proponents advocating a 21st century education, the fact that interacting with the Web 2.0 environment is essentially a reading…

The daily demands of teaching leave little time for English teachers to contemplate the history of the profession. However, as they celebrate the centennial anniversaries of both the founding of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) in 1911 and the first publication of "English Journal" in 1912, they are presented with a prime…

This study investigates the benefits of collaborative writing tasks. Previous research from the perspective of the sociocultural theory of mind suggests that writing tasks completed in pairs offer learners an opportunity to collaborate in the solution of their language-related problems, co-construct new language knowledge, and produce…