Developmental composition courses serve a sizable and growing number of Generation 1.5 students, or long-term U.S. resident language learners, and it is believed that language challenges may be part of Generation 1.5 writers' difficulty in controlling the academic register. The current study investigates possible similarities and differences…

In the tradition of work by Shaughnessy (1977) and Bartholomae (1980) applying concepts from second language acquisition research to developing writing, we explore the commonalities of L1 and L2 writers on the specific level of linguistic choices needed to order information within and across sentence boundaries. We propose that many of the kinds…

Presents a case study analyzing the texts produced by a basic writing student in her first three-and-one-half-years of college. Argues that longitudinal studies that examine both personal and academic histories can provide insights about writing development that are not accessible through other research methods. (SR)

Examines the qualities and frequency of episodes of concurrent metalinguistic and ideational thinking reported verbally by second-language learners while they composed. Finds frequencies of thinking episodes is significantly related to learners' writing expertise in their mother tongue. Argues for integrating the notion of comprehensible output…

Describes the integration of computers into the writing practices of a remedial English class in an urban high school. Analyzes the year-long written work of six students in the class. Concludes that the teacher's structuring of instruction had the greatest impact on both student writing and the ways computers entered into that writing. (HB)

This article examines writing conference discourse in one English as a Second Language (ESL) basic composition course. The study is based on a 25,000-word corpus of 10 writing conference interactions between the instructor and seven students. Through a microlevel analysis, the authors demonstrate how and to what degree the writing conference can…