Surveys students' perceptions of how their Intensive English Program courses prepared them for university writing courses. While the students expressed similar perceptions of the emphases of their courses, their responses regarding how the Center for English as a Second Language prepared them for their composition courses were inconsistent. (seven…

Examines invented spelling as a stage of progress in children's writing growth. Suggests that children generally understand consonant sounds first. As a consequence, they start invented spelling often omitting all or most vowels. Gradually, as children make the transition to conventional spelling, vowels are added. Proposes ways to facilitate…

Suggests three ways to foster writing skills in preschool and primary school children: encourage language development; set up a writing center; and teach children to have fun with words. Offers instructions for writing projects, including making picture dictionaries, talking with pictures, writing outdoors, composing silly sentences, keeping…

Describes a program that associates phonics instruction with children's earliest reading and writing, using the ERIS method to teach sound/letter correspondences and to provide opportunities for writing and reading. (NKA)

Explores the consequences of not developing competence in oral forms of the second language, which is the intermediate step in the recommended sequence of bilingual literacy development. (JK)

Describes a six-step technique that capitalizes on children's experiences and interests while providing structure and redundancy within a creative framework to maximize sight word acquisition. (FL)

Reports on two case studies of writing development in the primary grades. Notes the impact of teacher's questioning techniques, both on student development as writers and on teacher ability to evaluate student progress. (RL)

Discusses children's writing process and how creating an atmosphere in which they are willing to take risks encourages their writing fluency and enthusiasm. Suggests that allowing invented spellings, reading-writing partners (peer pairs), and class editing can be beneficial to beginning writers. (HTH)

Examines the effect of simplified reading materials on writing skills of 10-year-old English-as-a-Second-Language students in England. Finds no increase in students' expressive resources but does find a consolidating effect on command of the language system. Relates results to Krashen's model of second language acquisition. (RS)

A study of kindergarten children used three language-eliciting situations to obtain stories. The stories were compared for fluency, vocabulary, descriptive nature, and story structure. Results indicated that stories elicited without the use of a prop were more fluent and reflected a more sophisticated story structure than those elicited by a…

Describes a study that compared drawing and discussion as planning activities for writing, to determine the effects of each upon the quality of narrative writing. Reports that, among second and third grade students, the writing quality of the drawing group was significantly higher. (KM)

Describes some of the components of the West German approach to beginning reading and writing instruction. (FL)

Describes a study in which twenty first grade students wrote daily in journals, which were then analyzed at the end of the school year. (JC)

Contributors discuss (1) the role of teacher explanation, (2) packaged teaching programs, and (3) motivating children to write poetry. (FL)

Suggests that reading and writing are not only language competencies displayed in literacy or literature but that they are the sites for analysis in emergent literacies. (DF)