Language is a tool for communication. People use it when they converse with each other. One way to comprehend what is being said is based on understating the intended meanings of the conversation, or what is called the underlined meanings (pragmatics). Pragmatic studies how different meanings are conveyed, depending on the utterances provided. A…

This qualitative study examined the nature of preschoolers' composing and processes in a Head Start classroom, prioritizing children's intrinsic motivation to engage in a project-like composing activity. Eighteen three- to five-year-old students participated. Data were collected across 33 classroom visits over a 3-month period. Primary data were…

This dissertation study explores the emergence of off-task engagement, in which three Chinese first-graders write mathematically. It seeks the solution to the conflict between the intended mathematics writing and the realized mathematics writing, which ties to the Cartesian rationality dominating mathematics classrooms--that tends to ignore…

At Ciudad Community College (pseudonym) and across the Colorado Community College System, the course competencies for Technical Writing I (ENG 131) have more than tripled to accommodate ENG 131 as a guaranteed transfer course equivalent to ENG 121: English Composition I. Unfortunately, this has had the effect of increasing the workload for…

In this qualitative methods study, I draw on Paul Kei Matsuda's 1999 article "Composition Studies and ESL Writing: A Disciplinary Division of Labor" to examine if, more than 20 years after its publication, there is still a significant disciplinary division between ESL writing and first-year college composition. I surveyed writing…

Special education team members have shown an inability to write rigorous individualized education program (IEP) goals that meet students' needs. Researchers have focused on special education team members' ability to write IEP goals, and the phenomenon continues to be a vital concern. This basic qualitative study was conducted to examine the…

Traditionally, the texts that students produce in first-year composition (FYC) settings have served as the predominant sites for faculty to perceive students' writerly ethos. It is primarily in these texts where faculty tend to assess the variety of available credibility cultivation practices that students employ as they attempt to increase their…

In public school classrooms across the United States, approximately one in ten students is learning English as a second language. These students, often referred to as English language learners (ELLs), comprise one of the fastest growing demographic groups in the United States, with approximately 5 million ELLs enrolled in public schools across the…

Existing research into the usage of intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) has been predominantly quantitative. Studies and metanalyses suggest that ITSs are second only to human tutors with respect to improving student learning outcomes; and that there are no significant differences between learning with an ITS versus a human tutor. This…

Narrative is an important part of how humans make sense of the world and express their thoughts and feelings. For children, stories are the predominant way in which they organize and express ideas and imagination. Hence, stories have a significant role in children's various play activities, especially pretend-play. At around the third to fifth…

This work studied an institution's experiences with acceleration and placement reform in English coursework as changes in these measures affected student persistence, completion, and subject mastery in English composition. Through assessing student learning outcomes after placement reform and acceleration, this study compared students' success…

This study investigates how aspects of collocational proficiency affect the ratings that expert examiners give to second language (L2) English learner essays. Lexical proficiency is a multi-faceted phenomenon and certain aspects of it are particularly impactful on human judgements, including lexical sophistication and accuracy. However, the…

This counterstorytelling study involved examining how Practitioners of Color (POC) enact "carino" and embed restorative literacies or cultural and community practices in community college integrated reading and writing (IRW) classrooms to create a safe counterspace for Students of Color (SOC). The significance of this research is to…

Scientific literacy is an increasingly important skill for today and tomorrow's citizens. Encapsulated in the definition of being scientifically literate, one must be knowledgeable about science and technology in context and be able to interpret and communicate the information well. Introductory science courses, like general chemistry, are key…

The ability to use citations correctly becomes an essential skill that needs to be learned by all students, American or international, enrolling in an institution of higher learning in the United States. The difficulties that student writers, particularly second-language writers, experience with source use in academic writing have been widely…