A study examined the relationship between syntactic complexity and overall accuracy in the written English of 30 advanced learners of English from five different native language groups. Results show similar patterns of error distribution, a similar level of relative strength in syntax, and relative weakness in morphology. (Author/MSE)

A variety of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instructional activities based on the film "Kramer vs. Kramer" are described. The first involves having students identify the characters and their relationships to one another, and at a higher level, information about their characteristics and feelings. A second is an exercise in…

Formative evaluation of program implementation and student performance was used to assess a new writing program used in 11 elementary schools in Hillsborough County (Florida). Twenty-one teachers and 600 students in grades 4 and 5 participated. Teachers were interviewed, and students completed an attitude survey. In addition, 4 writing samples…

Ohio's Educational Assessment Program is briefly described, and extensive tables present the 1978 test results. The sampling design, test development, and setting of performance expectancy levels are discussed. Results are reported for the total test and for each objective. Comparisons between the average predicted, minimally acceptable, and…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 29 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the language in a Spanish bilingual reading classroom; (2) the early stages of language acquisition of black children; (3) the dependency relation between oral…

This article describes an attempt to give university students of English as a second language instruction in writing literary essays. The students were given literary commentaries to listen to in the language laboratory, and then were asked to summarize these commentaries, using, as much as possible, the structures contained in the original…

One major view concerning what an orthography should be conforms to Pike's idea that a practical orthography should be phonemic, that is, that there should be a one-to-one correspondence between each phoneme and the symbolization of that phoneme. An alternative view, that of Chomsky and Halle, proposes that the fundamental principle of orthography…

This article describes a research study that implemented literacy methods for the purpose of promoting reading comprehension with links to student writing through the practice of integrating reader response before, during, and following teacher read-alouds, and then extending the reader response into the composing process of student-created…

This report provides empirical proof of a disturbing trend in higher education. Over the last several decades colleges and universities have substituted so-called "distribution requirements" for a solid core curriculum. Distribution requirements enable students freely to choose their general education courses, the courses outside their…

Reviews experiences teaching diverse groups of college English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students. Writing assignments encouraged students to depict a particular aspect of multiculturalism in an autobiographical manner. Until teachers give greater credence to the complex voices of their students, multiculturalism will be an academic discourse the…

Studies the writing achievement of 28 11-year olds attending an urban Newcastle upon Tyne (England) school and their ability to conform to standard English writing conventions. Finds the influence of a nonstandard dialect (Tyneside) to be minor. Observes writing difficulties are frequently related to mastering the writing system itself rather than…

This study examined the effect of an experimental educational psychology course on preservice teachers' ideas about teaching. The experimental course immersed students in writing as a response to reading, writing to reflect on previous beliefs, and a teaching model to help students question their experiences and beliefs founded in previous school…

A computer-oriented, classroom-based research project was conducted at Thomas Nelson Community College in Hampton, Virginia, to explore the ways in which students in a composition and literature class might use a local area network (LAN) as a catalyst to critical thinking, to construct a decentralized classroom, and to use various forms of…

This study was conducted during 2 school years, involving one teacher and one classroom from each of four elementary (grades 1-2) and secondary schools. The study included writing activities on the word processor, videoconferencing, and World Wide Web use. The main data source was a series of videotapes of the above mentioned activities.…

A study quantitatively analyzed the frequency of English article deletion by Korean learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). Subjects were 49 freshmen in a South Korean university. The absence of an article system in Korean induces usage errors in which learners ungrammatically either omit or add an article. The study especially focuses on…