A collection of working papers on English as a second language (ESL) instruction includes: "A Structured Approach to Teaching Composition" (Margery Tegey); "Teaching Writing' to ESL Students: A Process-Based Approach" (Marie Nelson); "When Theory and Intuition Meet: An Approach to Composition Instruction" (Ali A. Aghbar, Kathy Trump); "Shakespeare…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 14 titles deal with the following topics: the composing processes of four twelfth-grade students; the relationship of writing quality to syntax; the development of language variables in two modes of writing and their relationship…

In a summer institute, secondary school writing teachers improved their teaching and writing skills through teaching writing by the direct method and through participating in weekly writing tutorials. Too often, writing is taught through such indirect methods as work with grammars, rhetorics, and heuristics, which seem more attractive to teachers…

This manual is designed as a guide for the initial training of raters and referees in holistic evaluation of writing samples. It is intended for use by a single trainer in a group of twelve (nine raters, three referees) trainees. The manual is divided into sections corresponding to the procedures to be used in the training sessions. The left hand…

Technical problems involved in obtaining scores for essays written by teacher candidates are addressed. The rating procedure assures that each essay is read by three raters specially trained for the task. Ratings range from "1" for incompetent or unacceptable to "4" for outstanding. The score assigned to each essay will be the…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 20 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) voice in writing; (2) the effectiveness of an individualized humanistic writing program; (3) the effects of peer evaluation on eighth grade narrative writing;…

The seven articles in this journal issue deal with the politics and practice of teaching writing. The articles focus on the following topics: (1) efforts to establish educational accountability, including competency based teacher education, licensing of teachers, and minimum competency testing; (2) methods for teaching students to use intuition in…

FOR A REPORT ON FRESHMAN COMPOSITION PROGRAMS, THE ASSOCIATION OF DEPARTMENTS OF ENGLISH OBTAINED SYLLABI AND COURSE DESCRIPTIONS FROM DIRECTORS OF FRESHMAN COMPOSITION AT 66 COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES. AMONG THE DATA ASSEMBELED FOR THE FULL REPORT (AVAILABLE AS TE 500 190) ARE THE DESCRIPTIONS, CONTAINED HERE, OF FRESHMAN ENGLISH PROGRAMS AT 14…

This newsletter contains five articles. The first, "Discourse Structure in Reading," by Ron Shook, suggests that reading materials for the beginning ESL (English as a second language) reader often have three defects: (1) profusion of detail as question fodder; (2) an oversimplified syntax; and (3) an artificial construction that violates…

This volume contains achievement tests designed for American students who have completed second-year Persian. They are constructed on the basis of materials related to course syllabi. The tests are tailored to the needs of the conventional second-year Persian program on the college level, where emphasis is usually placed more on reading,…

Focuses on the need for improved teaching at the secondary and college levels of the English curriculum, emphasizing the view of learning that also includes the development of thinking abilities capable of helping students use information to create their own insights. Reviews recent pedagogical guides that follow this approach. (NKA)

Compares and contrasts the efficiency and work habits of professionally experienced and inexperienced writers. (CRH)

To maximize the level of comfort that will facilitate an equal exchange of ideas instructors need to tailor their pedagogy to fit their audience. That means they must consider the extent to which their students have been exposed to computers. The University of Houston-Downtown (UHD) has a high percentage of "non-traditional" students.…

This paper presents findings based on interviews with three employees of a university writing center about their experience tutoring foreign students. International students who are not native speakers of English but want to enroll in American universities must demonstrate a basic level of competence in English before they can participate in a…

One of the major issues in intercultural discourse studies is the variation of discourse patterns across cultures. It has been reported that there appears to be a Western preference for a deductive pattern and a Chinese preference for an inductive pattern in discourse. However, it has also been pointed out that there is nothing inherently Chinese…