Over three days, 180 junior and senior high school English teachers, postsecondary (university and college) writing instructors, workplace (corporate and small business) writing instructors, and government officials who are responsible for portfolios related to workforce training and literacy met to understand from a broad systems-level…

This article explores levels of proficiency in Chinese with reference to the new HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi) Chinese Proficiency Test and the "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages" (CEFR). Special attention is given to learning and teaching the writing of Chinese characters and the use of Pinyin, a phonetic Romanization…

A process-writing approach (BW) with novel concepts was developed by the authors to teach writing to elementary-level students. They believed the BW approach was effective but was particularly effective for special-needs students. Consequently, they decided to quantitatively test these assertions. Instead of testing students taught using the BW…

Commercial publishers have shaped reading and writing instruction in American schools through their interpretations of state-developed reading and writing standards and standards-aligned materials, which teachers then implement in English classes, including those serving multilingual learners. This paper uses microethnographic discourse analysis…

The present study aimed at developing the memoir writing skills as a creative non-fiction genre of second year distinguished governmental language preparatory school pupils using the a WebQuest model. Fifty participants from second year at Hassan Abu-Bakr Distinguished Governmental Language School at Al-Qanater Al-Khairia(Qalubia Governorate) were…

This research investigated the relation between rater cognition and rater behavior, focusing on differential severity/leniency regarding criteria. Participants comprised a sample of 18 raters examined in a previous rater cognition study (Eckes, 2008b). These raters, who were known to differ widely in their perceptions of criterion importance,…

Written communication is considered one of the most critical competencies for academic and career success, as evident in surveys of stakeholders from higher education and the workforce. Emphasis on writing skills suggests the need for next-generation assessments of writing proficiency to inform curricular and instructional improvement. This…

This article reports the results of an experimental study on the effectiveness of mobile technology (WhatsApp) in improving the critique writing skills of English as a Foreign Language learners and increasing their motivation for learning. The participants (n = 52) are Average-English proficient learners enrolled in two writing courses given at…

Writing is an essential skill for participating in modern American society. Although it is crucial to careers and civic engagement, student writing falls far short of national expectations (College Board, 2004; NCES, 2012; Persky, Daane, & Jin, 2003). The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) seek to increase the rigor of writing instruction…

This study reports Korean English language learners' perceived needs concerning their learning of reading and writing and how the integrated reading and writing instruction impacts their reading comprehension and summary-writing abilities. The study also delineates teacher's challenges faced during the instruction. A total of 93 students in a…

Corrective feedback (CF), the implicit or explicit information learners receive indicating a gap between their current, compared to the desired, performance, has been an area of interest for EFL researchers during the last few decades. This study, conducted on 139 English-major prospective EFL teachers, assessed the impact of two CF types…

In an urban K-8 school, standardized assessment scores in writing declined 27% from the year 2007 to the year 2010. The scores indicated that the percentage of students scoring proficient or above in writing declined, while the population demographics remained stable. The purpose of this study was to examine elementary writing teachers'…

For my purposes, I approach writing assessment as more than just grading or responding to a set of student papers within a classroom context. Instead, I look at writing assessment as a complex act that links to teaching and learning, that affects the educational environment and students, that acknowledges the consequences of the assessment, and…

Knowing how to write is critical to students' post-secondary success, yet concerns with students' writing have persisted for nearly four decades. Few reports, however, document high school English teachers' lack of preparation to teach writing or the pressures they face as they negotiate accountability policies and diverse student need. This…

This study aimed to investigate the effects of the online course tools, specifically discussion boards, blogs and wikis, the built-in facilities of Blackboard as computer-mediated communication integrated in e-learning environments on improving integrated reading and writing and on the attitudes of EFL college students towards literacy skills in…