Writing for the BBC World Service "Short Story" Program provides English as a second language students with the necessary conditions for "authentic writing," namely authentic and communicative writing practice, encouragement of language acquisition, and improvement of the teacher student relationship. (CB)

Articles in this special issue include the following: "Learning to Write in a Second Language: Two Decades of Research" (Alister Cumming); "Some Steps Towards a Socio-Cognitive Interpretation of Second Language Composition Processes" (Julio Delarios Roca, Liz Murphy Liz); "Trends in the Conceptualizations of Second Language Composing Strategies: A…

Describes a representative sample of recent research on the uses of microcomputer-based word processing in composition instruction. Topics discussed include revision strategies; collaborative writing; student attitudes and motivation; writing quality; implementation of word processing; problems; equity issues; and questions for future research.…

Describes the Graphic Story Writer system, which was written to explore ways in which a computer can simulate the presence of an active listener for early readers and preliterate children as they explore story construction. An authoring tool that allows adults or more advanced students to create or edit new scenarios is also described. (Contains…

Draws on classroom observations, interviews, and writing portfolios to contend that competing demands in modern classrooms can lead to environments that sabotage the teaching of argumentative and persuasive writing. Concludes that the epistemology fostered by classroom talk and other activities was inimical to the complex rhetoric the teacher was…

Concentrating on the unintentionally dominant group, the author considers how Walter Ong demonstrates that novice writers have a narrow concept of audience that is really a narcissistic fiction projected as an ideal reader (1975). Given this, writing instructors can work to broaden their students' sense of audience to consider readers who are not…

Intended for teachers of students in grades 4 through 8 and beyond, this book offers a simple process for teaching students to think critically and write logically. Each lesson in the book provides three different writing templates: the beginning template is intended for third- and fourth-grade students; the intermediate, for grades 4 through 6;…

The approach taken by two English-as-a-Second-Language teachers at the American University in Cairo (Egypt) in intensive courses for university-bound students is described. The approach is characterized by continuous communication between teachers, with the objective of providing constant reinforcement of those skills. Focus is on how two teachers…

This book reviews pertinent theories about writing in English, English as a Second Language (ESL), and foreign languages for teachers at secondary and postsecondary levels, to provide insight into the teaching and learning processes. Five hypotheses about the nature of foreign language (FL) writing serve as points of departure for analyzing…

A study at the University of Aizu (Japan) investigated characteristics of technical writing assignments composed in English as a second language on computer workstations and by hand. The in-class workstation essays and hand-written essays of 24 students revealed that while all were of similar overall quality, the workstation essays were not as…

This study investigated the collaborative interactions of junior high school boys (N=36) with learning disabilities while engaged in writing stories using a word processor. Half the subjects were of Anglo-American background and half of Mexican-American background. Each subject worked in two dyads, ethnically homogeneous and ethnically…

This paper describes the application of local area network (LAN) technology, especially electronic mail (E-mail), to develop the written communication skills of 10 deaf students in two pre-high school science classes at a school for the deaf. Students used E-mail for such activities as answering questions, keeping a log, communicating with an…

An intervention study was designed to implement and evaluate an instructional program combining the writing process and computers to improve the writing quantity and quality and investigate the apprehensions of middle level students. Subjects, 75 sixth-grade students, were chosen from a relatively small rural school system. The intervention took…

Some of the ways authentic writing assessment can be used in education are discussed. Using the Illinois Writing Program (IWP) as an example, this digest also looks at some of the goals, solutions, and experiences of a program that is implementing authentic writing assessment. New directions in authentic assessment are aimed at going beyond…

One teacher's experience with peer critique in a college-level composition course in English as a second language (ESL) suggests that it can be an effective classroom technique. If students are given very specific guidelines to follow, they often do a very credible job of analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of their peers' writing. Indiana…