This ethnographic narrative employs a neo-Vygotskian perspective (Holland et al.) to examine how, in the setting of a remedial ESL program at a public two-year college in North Georgia, the subject position of an ESL basic writing instructor was mediated by her understandings of and engagement with the multiple and interactive contexts of her…

This report examines the importance and efficacy of oral language, literacy, mathematics, and science preschool curricula and how these curricula can be improved through alignment with research on early childhood development and learning. Detailed, research-driven recommendations are presented for what preschool-aged children should be learning in…

For years, educators have approached college writing from three distinct pedagogies: composition studies, basic writing, and ESL. But now as these classrooms have diversified, mixed, and blended, separated pedagogies are no longer effective. In other words, these three fields (each with its own journals and conferences) have the same common…

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the publication of Mina Shaughnessy's groundbreaking book, "Errors and Expectations," a roundtable discussion was held at the March 2007 Conference on College Composition and Communication in New York City. This article, based on the earlier discussion, examines the question of CUNY's multiple…

Course designs for Basic English Writing classes vary from one course to another. The objective of this study was to investigate the semantic misinterpretation of English words found in the English compositions written by native-Chinese-speaking undergraduate students and to overcome if such a barrier occurred in the process of writing. First,…

Presents annotations of 179 writing textbooks (new texts or new editions of previously published texts) having a 1993 copyright date. Includes developmental and ESL writing texts, first-year writing texts, advanced writing texts, special texts, and professional texts. (RS)

Uses student essays to illustrate the linguistic variations that many basic writing students bring to the academy and then offers some insights from second language acquisition and literacy studies that may help writing specialists enhance pedagogical practice to better serve these students. (SG)

Examines whether prerequisite relationships exist between five analytical components of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) composition: content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics. Finds the need for an approach to writing which recognizes that "separate skills" are actually highly interrelated. (MM)

Suggests that the best writing curriculum for second language students is one that balances content and form, that calls for an attention to writing process and to written product, and that draws on knowledge from both teacher and student. Describes the "focus on form" approach the author uses in her mainstream basic writing class, as well as some…

Presents findings of a study comparing compositions by beginning writing and English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students at a two-year college. Reports similarities in the groups' topic choices, topic sentence use, and expository development. Reveals that ESL students tended to write shorter papers containing more sentence level errors. Discusses…

Basic English Writing (BEW) courses have been part of English learning curricula in many universities. Some research has been conducted to investigate various class designs for English language courses. However, class designs for English writing are not yet abundantly developed to provide more experimental results. The purpose of this study was to…

Finds that students who become part of an active, student-centered learning community have a greater change of succeeding in college than those who do not. Explores the nature and structure of learning community programs and what makes them so effective in contributing to the success of entering college students, English-as-a-second-language (ESL)…

Discusses the implications of considering different writing components (lexical, syntactic, and rhetorical) separately, in an effort to avoid problems of writing evaluation. Proposes that instead of "balancing" these components, teachers should separate them in working to establish curricula for English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students. (MM)

This paper reports on a cross-disciplinary study by an L1 compositionist and an applied linguist investigating interrelationships among university basic writing students' responses to linguistic identity labels, their residency statuses, and their preferences for mainstream or multilingual composition. Previous L2 writing research has suggested…

This paper examines the different discourses circulating within the Adult Learning Division, and in particular, the ESL Program and Basic Writing Course, of Monroe Technical College in Wisconsin. The paper considers those discourses that are related to the experience of a part-time ESL writing instructor. It examines discourse on multiple levels.…