This article describes how students gain the confidence and skill to write personal essays by practicing their natural ability to tell their own stories orally in social situations. The author describes how her students' ability to chat with her and with one another at the start of each class became the cornerstone of their efforts to improve…

The study examined an ESL writing class, which consisted of 36 students, at a community college of Hong Kong. The students took part in three online collaborative writing tasks by sending drafts to peers who gave them suggestions and comments for improvement and working together on the completion of the writing tasks via email. The 36 students…