This qualitative study examines the semiotic meanings communicated through multiple representations in the teaching of an advanced undergraduate course in biology. Scientific discourse is intrinsically multimodal in nature; in other words, science is discussed and researched using multiple modes that convey meaning (Lemke, 1998). Therefore, to…

The demand for concurrent enrollment courses, which allow high school students to earn college credit and high school credit simultaneous, is increasing and more students than ever are using these courses as a bridge to their college education. Despite a history of marginalization, an increasing number of students of color are also joining…

Imagine reading the following text: [characters omitted]. One will not be able to comprehend this sentence unless she or he can read Korean--is able to decode characters and words in the Korean orthography and has an understanding of the Korean language. This example illustrates the absolutely necessary role of word reading in reading…

"OpenEssayist" is an automated writing evaluation system (AWE) designed to provide immediate textual and graphical feedback to students to help them improve their academic writing. One of the graphical visualisations as part of "OpenEssayist," (named a 'rainbow diagram'), illustrates how well the key concepts within the writing…

Teacher-student group conferences (TSGCs) blend the benefits of one-to-one teacher-student writing conferences with those of peer response. TSGCs socialize student writers into discussions of academic writing, giving them an expert model (the teacher) and an opportunity to practice providing feedback to several peers. This article describes how…

Many students in higher education seek support with academic writing by engaging in literacy brokering, defined as third-party interventions in the creation of academic texts (Lillis & Curry, 2010). Such interventions may take many forms, from illicit practices such as purchasing a paper (see Newton & Lang, 2016) to innocuous practices…

This article is a brief account of how the Writing Center at Daytona State College has begun to utilize social media in our space. We examine the platforms that we use, along with the data associated with them, and then discuss our goals for integrating our staff into the narrative that we share on campus and virtual campus. We first want to see…

Courses: Research Methods, Qualitative Research Methods, Ethnography. Objectives: The aims of this class exercise are: (1) To define an autoethnographic approach to communication research; (2) To understand autoethnography as both a research process and product; (3) To emphasize the varied forms of autoethnographic research and writing; (4) To…

This study investigates the role that textbooks, virtual reality (VR), and mixed approaches (i.e., text and VR) can play in the development of the two writing types, summary and argument writing. This study uses hemodynamics as a proxy for learning. Differences in hemodynamic responses during writing tasks were measured across four different…

While research into the potential benefits of second or foreign language (L2 or FL) collaborative writing for jointly written texts has proliferated in the last few decades, it remains unclear whether texts that learners compose individually after such activities demonstrate improved quality, accuracy, fluency, and complexity. This study compares…

Through either morphological or functional approaches, previous research has examined how instructed second language (L2) learners develop control over a challenging area of French: the use of the "imparfait." In order to better understand this challenge, this cross-sectional study utilized both approaches and examined how 94 university…

Recent studies documented that the act of writing explanations improves students' learning only to a limited extent, as students attend less frequently to genre-typical features of comprehensibility during writing explanations (i.e., cohesion). In this study, we investigated whether learning by writing explanations can be enhanced when students…

The author shares his experience in effecting change in an AP English Literature and Composition course by employing book trailers as an assessment. Using multimodal responses fostered a shared classroom space that combined the students' preferred, everyday communicative modes with the canonical literature study required by the curriculum. This…

After third grade, students' motivation and enjoyment of writing begins to wane, and this trend continues through most of their education. Middle grade students especially need high-quality writing instruction; however, many teachers report feeling inadequately prepared to teach writing. To combat these issues, teacher preparation programs should…

In England, two concurrent but largely disconnected discourses have emerged whose representatives have promulgated initiatives relevant to students' extended historical writing: genre theorists and the history teachers' 'extended writing movement'. Despite certain goals held in common, the two discourses have tended to talk past one another…