Second Language Writing Research Papers (original) (raw)

Process theories have been extremely influential in the evolution of L2 writing instruction. Responding to purely formal views of writing, proponents borrowed the techniques and theories of cognitive psychology and L1 composition to refine the ways we understand and teach writing. While remaining the dominant pedagogical orthodoxy for over 30 years, however, process models have for some time found themselves under siege from more socially-oriented views of writing which reject their inherent liberal individualism. Instead, genre approaches see ways of writing as purposeful, socially situated responses to particular contexts and communities. In this paper, I discuss the importance of genre approaches to teaching L2 writing and how they complement process views by emphasising the role of language in written communication. #

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- Genre, Second Language Writing, Linguistics, Teaching Methods

Current research exploits the orthographic design of Brahmi-derived scripts (also called Indic scripts), particularly the Devanagari script. Earlier works on orthographic nature of Brahmi-derived scripts fail to create a consensus among epigraphists, historians or linguists, and thus have been identified by various names, like semi-syllabic, subsyllabic, semi-alphabetic, alphasyllabary or abugida. On the contrary, this paper argues that Brahmi-derived scripts should not be categorized as scripts with overlapping features of alphabetic and syllabic properties as these scripts are neither alphabetic nor syllabic. Historical evolution and linguistic properties of Indic scripts, particularly of Devanagari, ascertain the need for a new categorization of its own and, thus preferably merit a unique descriptor. This paper investigates orthographic characteristics of the Brahmi-derived Devanagari script, current trends in research pertaining to the Devanagari script along with other Indic scripts and the implications of these findings for literacy development in Indic writing systems.
Keywords: orthography; Brahmi; Devanagari, akshara; alphasyllabary; alphabet

including linguistics, education, Asian American studies, social psychology, and sociology. Reyes introduces terms clearly and concisely, often explaining why she chose one particular word over another. Her rationale for adding American to the teens' self-identification (i.e., Vietnamese American) is particularly interesting because it emphasizes the potential political and ethical impact of a researcher's choice of words. The appendix includes phonetic symbols and sample words. Because chapter 2 deals primarily with mock Asian and uses phonetic symbols repeatedly, the appendix is helpful, but referencing it could be tedious for a reader unfamiliar with phonetic symbols. The appendix also explains transcription conventions that are useful for understanding the dialogue between the teens. Reyes quickly captures the reader's interest through her portrayal of the teen participants. She manages successfully to represent the varying and sometimes controversial viewpoints of the participants without making value judgments. Because the very premise of her work is the changing and developing nature of identity, this is crucial. She succeeds in making it vividly clear that race and ethnicity are not the static categories they are typically understood to be. Reyes's work is scholarly and academic but not devoid of emotion. Readers are likely to find themselves picturing the participants not as sterile research objects but as unique individuals negotiating their identities in a complex world.

- by claudia keh
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- Psychology, Computer Science, Second Language Writing, Writing

Plagiarism has been on the rise amongst university students in recent decades. This study puts university teachers in the spotlight and investigates their role in raising students’ awareness about plagiarism. To that end, plagiarism policies in 207 Iranian university TEFL teachers’ syllabuses were analyzed. The researchers analyzed the syllabuses to find out if they contain a plagiarism policy, and if so, how the term is defined; whether they approach the issue of plagiarism directly; if they offer students any guidelines on how to avoid plagiarism; and if the consequences of committing plagiarism are specified. The results indicated that the majority of the syllabuses (83.6%) lacked a plagiarism policy and those that did include a policy were often vague in their definition of the phenomenon. However, when there was a plagiarism policy in the syllabuses, the teachers tried to address the issue directly half of the time and offered students brief guidelines on how to avoid plagiaris...

- by Musa Nushi
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- Applied Ethics, Academic Writing, Second Language Writing, University

The current study examines Vietnamese-German adolescents' (15-16 years old) use of Vietnamese verbs. The results show that majority of verb errors in their heritage language is derived from cross-linguistic influence (CLI). The most important finding is the strategy of simplification in their use of verbs, i.e., using basic verbs instead of specific verbs. The study also shows that infinitival form of verbs appears more frequently than mixed form of loanwords. However, the combination between German root and Vietnamese tendency of monosyllablization in hybrid forms provides more evidence for Moro et al.' s language mixing model (2017) and the argument of Alexiadou (2017) about "mirror asymmetry" implied in the combination in verb use between the societal language and the heritage language.

O ato de dar "feedback" escritos nas redações e outros textos de alunos apresenta um desafio. Um dos desafios principais é ser explícito nas correções e comentários, mas isso leva tempo e, no papel, pode tornar-se "bangunçado" pela quantidade de correções. A gravação na tela do computador das revisões de trabalhos esccritos -- numa técnica chamada "screencasting -- é apresentada como uma alternativa.

This experimental study investigates the effects of using creative writing activities on 7th grade students’ achievement in writing skill, writing dispositions and their attitude to English. One group pre and post test design was used in the study. The study was conducted during four weeks in 2012- 2013 academic year in an elementary school in the city centre of Denizli, Turkey. The study group was consisted of 17 female and 14 males in total 31 seventh grade students. When pre and post test results were compared it was found that students’ achievement in writing skill was increased after the experiment. Students’ writing disposition was also increased when compared to their levels before the experiment. However, students’ attitude to English course was not increased after the experiment. Results indicate that using creative writing exercises has a positive effect on writing achievement and writing disposition in 7th grade English language classes in elementary schools. Keywords: cr...

Inspired by the recent trends in education towards learner autonomy with their emphasis on the interests and desires of the students, and borrowing ideas from philosophy (particularly ethics), the present study is an attempt to investigate the discrepancy in the findings of the studies addressing error correction in L2 writing instruction, and suggest the (oft-neglected) students’ beliefs, interests and wants as what can point the way out of confusion. To this end, a questionnaire was developed and 56 advanced adult EFL learners were asked to complete the questionnaire. The opinions of 20 EFL teachers were also collected using another questionnaire. Twenty-three of the students and 13 of the teachers were then interviewed in an attempt to collect explanations for their answers in the questionnaires. The results indicated that all the learners wanted the errors in their writings to be corrected. About 90 percent of them believed that all the errors in their writings should be correct...

Easy physics-inspired approximations of the total and binding energies for the H atom and for the molecular ions H (+) 2 (ppe), H (2+) 3 (pppe), (HeH) ++ (αpe), He (3+) 2 (ααe) as well as quadrupole moment for the H atom and the equilibrium distances of the molecular ions in strong magnetic fields > 10 9 G are proposed. The idea of approximation is based on the assumption that the dynamics of the one-electron Coulomb system in a strong magnetic field is governed by the ratio of transverse to longitudinal sizes of the electronic cloud.

- by Dr Graeme Porte
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- Sociology, Information Technology, Research Methodology, Statistical Analysis

While a wealth of resources is available for teaching research writing of traditional IMRD research papers, instructors have little to draw on when working with graduate students in mathematics. The present study offers insight into recent mathematical research articles through an exploration guided by phrase-frames, recurring multiword units with a variable slot or blank. The paper introduces the concept of key phrase-frames. In doing so, the potential of phrase-frames for understanding subregisters and for teaching is shown. The starting point of this exploration is a 2,289,670-word corpus of 128 recent mathematics research articles collected from eight scholarly mathematics journals. Five-and six-gram phrase-frames were generated in KfNgram. Key phrase frames are identified as those with an occurrence of at least 20 per million words, occurring across 75% of journals and with a sMAPE of 1.95 cut off or higher when compared to the academic section of the Corpus of Contemporary American English as a reference. The 180 resulting frames were coded for open slot position and common pattern before being consolidated and functionally grouped. Core functions related to the aboutness, coherence and moves of the text. The discussion centers on how these groups reveal different aspects of mathematical texts

Although writing conferences with second language (L2) writers are thought to be valuable learning experiences, there is little
research to show how one-on-one writing conferences can benefit L2 writers at low English language proficiency levels. This report summarizes insights gleaned from instituting a large-scale, intensive L2 writing conference program for students at five levels of English language proficiency. This conferencing program is described, along with survey response from 14 writing teachers and 546 students in the program. Teacher responses demonstrated benefits of classroom-based writing conferences, such as opportunities for individualized instruction, goal setting, and rapport building. Student responses, meanwhile, differed by proficiency level and demonstrated that lower-proficiency learners favored less collaborative interactions with feedback on local concerns and more proficient learners preferred more collaborative interactions and global feedback. Furthermore, teachers seemed to structure their feedback and interactional styles based on the language proficiency of L2 writing students. This report adds to student–teacher writing conference research by investigating and reporting on the feedback preferences of L2 writers at different language proficiencies but also speculates on the overarching purposes of an intensive writing conference program, namely that it can provide a rich mentoring relationship which extends beyond traditional writing feedback.

- by Grant Eckstein
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- Feedback (Education), Academic Writing, Second Language Writing

The claim that 'The earlier, the better', for purposes of language learning, currently stands as an unquestionable nugget of wisdom. Sound wisdom, however, arises from questions confronting what we think we know with factual knowledge. This is precisely what this book does, by providing readers with timely evidence to enable critical assessment of this claim. The cogent insights that this book affords about the what, the how and the why of early language learning (ELL) show that the evidence is both sobering and heartening.

Writing is generally thought of as an activity which is carried out individually, often with feedback then provided by a teacher or colleague. While the use of pair or small group work in the second language classroom in relation to oral work has been extensively studied, and its benefits well documented, there are only a few studies which have documented the advantages of collaboration in written work, and in dealing with written feedback. Mostly conducted within a sociocultural framework, these studies suggest that collaborative writing provides learners with opportunities to learn through a discussion of the language they are using. In this paper, we explore the findings from the studies which have examined the effect of learners working in pairs or small groups on writing tasks, and the extent to which working predominantly in pairs, and receiving feedback on their writing in pairs, can enhance the language learning opportunities for learners through their ability to scaffold each other's contributions and knowledge. Drawing also on our own work from a large-scale study which examined learner's writing and their responses to feedback, we argue that learners working on writing activities in pairs can enhance learning by providing opportunities for the discussion of language. We conclude with a discussion of possible research directions in relation to further exploring collaborative writing and collaborative processing of feedback which may prove valuable for second language learners.

- by Neomy Storch
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- Second Language Writing, Linguistics, Teaching Methods, Feedback

This study aimed to develop and validate Critical-Thinking-in-Argumentative-Essay Rubric (CTER) for EFL college students. Two research questions were: 1) Is the CTER a valid and reliable assessment instrument? and 2) What are the attitudes of the raters and the writing teachers after they use the CTER? This study used a mixed methods research design and had three groups of participants: five experts, three raters and three writing teachers. Data sources included the experts’ validation survey for the CTER, interview, field notes and questionnaire. Two levels of validation of the rubric were conducted, and the evaluative descriptors were revised based on the experts’ comments. The writing teachers and the researcher used the CTER to evaluate the writing samples. Then, the scores obtained from the evaluation were analyzed to examine the inter-rater reliability of the rubric. The analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data showed that the CTER is a valid and reliable assessment. That is, it contained six valid and clear indicators of critical thinking in argumentative writing of EFL students and had the moderate inter-rater reliability (Kendall’s W = 0.5, ICC = 0.70) that was statistically significant at the 0.05 level. The raters and the writing teachers also perceived that the rubric can be used to promote learning and critical thinking of EFL college students. Pedagogical implications and recommendations for future research were presented based on the findings of this study.

Gilliland, B. (2017). Opportunity gaps: Curricular discontinuities across ESL, mainstream, and college English. In C. Ortmeier-Hooper & T. Ruecker (Eds.), Linguistically diverse immigrant and resident writers: Transitions from high school... more

- by Mustafa Öztürk
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- Academic Writing, Second Language Writing, Writing, Error Analysis

This paper reports a study on how ESL/EFL writers use their L1 (®rst language) when composing in their L2 (second language) and how such L1 use is affected by L2 pro®ciency and writing tasks. Sixteen Chinese EFL learners were asked to compose aloud on two tasks, narration and argumentation. Analyses of their think-aloud protocols revealed that these student writers had both their L1 and L2 at their disposal when composing in their L2. They were more likely to rely on L1 when they were managing their writing processes, generating and organizing ideas, but more likely to rely on L2 when undertaking taskexamining and text-generating activities. Additionally, more L1 use was found in the narrative writing task than in the argumentative writing. Finally, the think-aloud protocols re¯ected that L1 use decreased with the writer's L2 development, but the extent of the decline of L1 use in individual activities varied. Based on these ®ndings, an L2 composing process model is proposed. # Research on the L2 writing process has thrived since the early 1980s. The focus of attention has been, however, mainly on the similarities between L1 and L2 writing processes despite the``salient and important differences'' between them (Silva, 1993). One important difference between L1 and L2 writing processes is that L2 writers have more than one language at their disposal; that is, they may use both L1 and L2 for cognitive operations when they are composing in the L2. This difference has received limited attention from SLA : S 1 0 6 0 -3 7 4 3 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 8 4 -X researchers, resulting in little understanding of the unique features of L2 writing and a lack of a coherent, comprehensive L2 writing theory. The present study, therefore, focused on the use of L1 in the L2 composing processes of 16 advanced L2 writers, with a view to arriving at a better understanding of the distinct nature of L2 writing.

- by Qiufang Wen
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- Second Language Writing, Linguistics, Protocol Analysis, Chinese
- by Meixiu Zhang
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- Psychology, Second Language Writing, Linguistics, Curriculum and Pedagogy

Versión electrónica consultable a través de dispositivos personales: disponible para la compra en la tienda de Amazon Kindle.... more

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- by Ilaria Gobbi
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- Translation Studies, Computational Linguistics, Machine Translation, Terminology

Scholarship on plagiarism in second language (L2) writing in the past two decades has greatly expanded our knowledge of the topic. As a result, we now know more about: The complexity of plagiarism as intertextual practice (e.g., Pecorari & Petrić , 2014); The prevalence of plagiarism in L2 academic writing (e.g., [ 6 _ T D $ D I F F ] Sutherland-Smith, 2005); L2 students' often distinct understandings of what constitutes legitimate and transgressive intertextuality (e.g., Hu & Lei, 2012); Their culturally and disciplinarily shaped attitudes toward plagiarism (e.g., Flowerdew & Li, 2007; Shi, 2012); Various intertextual practices that L2 students engage in (e.g., Pecorari, 2008); Factors contributing to the incidence of plagiarism in L2 writing contexts (e.g., Hu & Lei, 2015); Faculty's reaction to and stance on students' intertextual practices (e.g.

Abstract: This study uncovered the writing problems of Level 4, Foundation Students of Shinas College of Technology, Sultanate of Oman for the Second Semester of Academic Year 2014-2015. Photo-elicitation was used as a tool in prompting the students to write and determine their errors. The picture showed a plate with different kinds of food familiar to the respondents. The study grouped the writing problems of the students into morphology and syntax. Morphologically, the study recommends the need to have more spelling practice and a study of the parts of speech. Syntactically, the study recommends more extensive exercise ith subject-verb agreement and sentence variety since the students only used the “There + is/are” pattern. Future researchers should further investigate on a comparative analysis of the writing problems of all Levels of the Foundation Program.

- by Aldrin L Apolonio
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- Second Language Writing, ESL/EFL Writing

The introductory section of an essay is essential since it determines whether the reader will be interested in continuing to read the text or not. For this reason, the use of essay hooks is necessary to perform the task of leading and grabbing the attention of the reader regarding the subject of a particular essay. There are several types of hooks that one could consider making their work interesting to read. Thus, this paper seeks to carry out an exploration of the different types of essay hooks and provide the relevant examples for each.

- by Anthony Bergs
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- Creative Writing, Education, Travel Writing, Academic Writing

This study examined writers' use of their first language (L1) while writing in their second language (L2). Twenty students each wrote four short argumentative essays in their L1 (Dutch) and four in their L2 (English) under think-aloud conditions. We analysed whether L1 use varied between writers and tasks, and whether it was related to general writing proficiency, L2 proficiency, and L2 text quality. The analysis focused on the occurrence of a number of conceptual activities, including Generating ideas, Planning, and Metacomments. Results indicate that all participants used their L1 while writing in their L2 to some extent, although this varied among conceptual activities. In addition, L2 proficiency was directly related to L2 text quality but was not related to the occurrence of conceptual activities either in L1 or L2. General writing proficiency, on the other hand, has a negative influence on L1 use during L2 writing and a positive effect on L2 use during L2 writing. L1 use during L2 writing is negatively related to L2 text quality, at least for Metacomments. Finally, L2 use appears to be positively related to L2 text quality for Goal setting, Generating ideas, and Structuring, but negatively related to L2 text quality for Self-instructions and Metacomments. The theoretical relevance of these findings is also discussed. # Earlier L2 writing research has shown that L2 writers use their first language (L1) while writing in L2, although the extent to which they do so clearly varies (see for example, . Studies to date have also found that adult writers use their L1 while writing in their L2 for a wide variety of purposes, such as planning (Studies which reported on L1 use, such as those above, were carried out for a number of different reasons and with varying research goals. First of all, some studies focused on comparisons of L1 and L2 writing (e.g., or on the extent to which writers transfer their L1 strategies to L2 writing (e.g., . These studies see L1 use as a strategy which writers employ during L2 writing, mainly in the form of translating from L1 to L2. This view is also shared by other studies, which have focused on the influence of learner characteristics such as writing expertise and L2 proficiency on L2 writing (e.g.

- by Gert Rijlaarsdam and +1
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- Second Language Writing, Linguistics, Goal Setting, Second Language

Abstract: The argument I will develop in this essay is that the foreign students are a latent human resource who can assist with overcoming English monolingualism in the Australian population. Foreign students, properly rewarded, can be a major source of skills transfer. Every one of those students is a walking compendium of language and cultural skills that Australians need to know.

- by Thorold (Thor) May
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- Discourse Analysis, Sociology, Psychology, Social Psychology

The number of international ESL students completing their degree programs in Australia has risen dramatically in the past decade. One factor that may be motivating students to undertake tertiary studies in Australia is the expectation that this form of immersion will lead to improved English language skills. However, existing research, such as research on the impact of study abroad programs on learners ’ L2 skills, has produced mixed findings. Furthermore, most of this research has tended to focus on progress in L2 speaking skills. To date there has been very little research on the impact of living and studying in the L2 environment on learners’ L2 writing development. This paper reports on a study (part of a larger project) which used a test – re-test design to investigate changes, if any, in the learners ’ academic writing after one semester of study in an L2-medium university. The writing scripts of 25 students who did not access the formal language support programs offered by th...

- by Neomy Storch
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- English language, Academic Writing, Statistical Analysis, Second Language Writing

The present article reports on an action research study that explores the implications of applying three vocabulary strategies: word cards, association with pictures, and association with a topic through fables in the acquisition of new vocabulary in a group of EFL low-level proficiency teenagers in a public school in Espinal, Tolima, Colombia. The participants had never used vocabulary strategies to learn and recall words. Two types of questionnaires, a researcher’s journal, and vocabulary tests were the instruments used to gather data. The results showed that these strategies were effective to expand the range of words progressively and improve the ability to recall them. The study also found that these strategies involve cognitive and affective factors that affect students’ perception about the learning of vocabulary. The implementation highlighted the need to train teachers and learners in strategies intended to teach and learn vocabulary and to subsequently include them in the ...

Supplementary materials, whether created by English language instructors themselves or borrowed from other resources, play a significant role in teaching writing to English language learners. In both cases, the development and/or selection process involves certain stages that challenge materials developers at different levels and with varying intensities. Research on writing instruction and SLW has extensively discussed strategies and techniques for materials development, but the difficulties that materials developers face during this process have not been given due consideration. This brief report provides an overview of the challenges and issues faced by material developers in second language writing courses and looks at these processes through the lens of language acquisition theory that adapts teaching strategies to meet the socio-cultural needs of the students. First, the article discusses the phases and stages of materials development. Then it describes the challenges and issues faced in writing materials development and how they manifest themselves in every day teaching and learning. Finally, the report suggests how to develop effective and relevant writing materials as well as strategies to modify them according to student and course needs.

- by Kashif Raza and +1
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- Teaching English as a Second Language, Contextual Theologies, Applied Linguistics, Second Language Writing

This case study presents the implementation of a genre-based pedagogy informed by systemic-functional linguistics (SFL) with the goal of scaffolding the teaching of procedural recounts in the content area of science in a 4th grade classroom with several English language learners (ELLs). We use one L2 writer representative of the mainstreamed ELLs to demonstrate how the genre work impacted the focal student's writing development. This article addresses a major need in the field of second language writing: identifying instructional practices for teaching upper elementary ELLs to write school-based genres. #

- by S. Lan
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- Second Language Writing, Linguistics, Curriculum and Pedagogy

Recent migration towards Europe is characterized by the massive presence of adults whose educational paths have been interrupted and who are thus developing literacy for the first time in a new language. A literacy test elaborated at the University of Palermo, Italy, showed that, on a sample of 774 migrants, about 30 percent could not read and/or write short words. This test assessed the learners’ abilities to read and write, whether in the Roman alphabet or in other writing systems, and whether in Italian or in other languages of learners’ repertoires. These learners with emergent literacy mostly came from sub-Saharan Africa, an area characterized by diverse forms of multilingualism, and are representatives of “connected migrants” due to the centrality of digital communication practices in their migration experience; hence, the importance of research on such communication practices. This study examined the multilingual writing on Facebook of 10 migrants in Italy with emergent liter...

- by Mari D'Agostino
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- Sociology, Literacy, Second Language Acquisition, Multilingualism

Teachers’ understandings of second language learning influence their practices in the classroom. This paper analyzes interview and classroom data collected during a year-long ethnographic study of two high school English language development classes to identify (1) what the teachers understood about second language (L2) development and L2 academic writing, and (2) to what extent these perspectives manifested in the teachers’ writing instruction. Analyses suggest that both the teachers felt that language could be learned inductively through exposure to models and that writing instruction should focus on essay structure and correctness. Their teaching, however, was also constrained by accountability pressures from high stakes writing assessments. I argue that the teachers’ approaches reflected a restrictive understanding not aligned with a situated perspective on language and writing development and therefore denied their multilingual students’ opportunities to learn academic language for writing.

The ability to write a successful conference abstract seems to be one barrier preventing new researchers from disseminating their research work in their particular disciplinary community. However, very few studies on how conference abstracts are structured have been conducted in order to help such novice researchers. This study, thus, aims to examine the rhetorical structure of conference abstracts in two TESOL conferences in Asia with the purpose of informing a particular group of new researchers in Asian settings about the actual practice of writing this particular genre. The findings from the open-ended questions and the move analysis of 137 abstracts indicated that there was a mismatch between these potential conference abstract writers’ knowledge and the actual composition of these conference abstracts. Besides the rhetorical structures of conference abstracts, this paper also provided some pedagogical suggestions on dealing with this mismatch.

- by Thi Thuy Loan Nguyen and +1
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- Second Language Writing, Genre Analysis, Genre based approach

CITATION / REFERENCE - Ab Manan, N. A., Zamari, Z. M., Pillay, I. A. S., Adnan, A. H. M., Yusof, J., & Raslee, N. N. (2017). Mother Tongue Interference in the Writing of English as a Second Language (ESL) Malay Learners. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 7(11), 1294-1301. https://dx.doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v7-i11/3566 ABSTRACT - The objective of this study is to identify the errors in writing committed by Malay ESL learners which can be attributed to mother tongue interference. Twenty pre-degree quantity surveyor students from Universiti Teknologi MARA Perak campus participated in the study. They were instructed to write between 200-to 300-word essays on a given topic in English and in Malay. Their compositions were analyzed using the algorithm for conducting error analysis (EA) proposed by James (1998) which are practiced by current EA practitioners. Since the main focus of the study is mother tongue interference, only errors related to L1 ...

Despite increased attention to social and historical dimensions in language teacher cognition research, the second language writing teacher cognition literature remains dominated by the cognitivist tradition that separates teachers’ beliefs from their practices. To address this mismatch, this paper proposes to view second language writing teacher cognition through the lens of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, especially its genetic method and concept of mediation. Based on these frameworks, the study aims to reveal the major shifts in a Vietnamese English language teacher’s cognition about second language writing and the mediating resources involved. Following the narrative design, the participant’s professional life story was first constructed with data from a series of interviews and various national and institutional documents. Her narrative was then subject to thematic analysis guided by the sociocultural theory concepts. It was found that her cognition changes followed a complex, non-linear trajectory, and there were dialectical interrelationships between these shifts. Moreover, these shifts were mediated by humans, concepts, and artifacts, whose influence was simultaneous and dialectical. Via analytic generalization in case studies, the paper proposes two models to illustrate firstly the chronological developments and secondly the socially mediated and dialectical nature of second language writing teacher cognition.

- by Xuan Minh Ngo
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- Sociocultural Theory, Second Language Writing, Vietnam, Narrative Inquiry

Second language writing scholars have undertaken descriptions of English-language writing instruction in a variety of international settings, describing the role of various contextual factors in shaping Englishlanguage writing instruction. This article describes English-language writing instruction at various levels in Poland, noting how it is both limited and enhanced by a variety of factors, including the prestige enjoyed by English in Poland, due in part to the perception that English will help advance one's career; a perceived need to ''catch up'' with other European countries that have stronger traditions of English-language teaching; and the resulting motivation among many Poles for learning English. This article also describes how EFL writing instruction in Poland is influenced by pressure to prepare students for the writing sections of various English-language exams, by the lack of developed traditions of L1 and EFL writing instruction, and by the use at the university level of EFL writing teachers from English-dominant countries. # Scholars in the field of world Englishes have undertaken a plethora of descriptions of the role of English in various settings and of how English is shaped by many contextual factors, including history, politics, geography, culture, and other sociolinguistic factors (see, e.g., ). Similarly, second language (L2) writing scholars have shown interest in how various contextual factors shape English-language writing instruction around the world. Some of this work has grown out of the area of contrastive

- by Melinda Reichelt
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- English language, Second Language Writing, Linguistics, Curriculum and Pedagogy

Coherence is viewed as an important yet abstract concept associated with writing quality. While earlier studies have investigated writing coherence for L1 children and university ESL students, our case study is the first that adapts Lee's (2002a) pedagogical framework to teach writing coherence to lower secondary school students in expository essay writing. The case study was conducted in a secondary school in Singapore. It involved seven students, aged 15 in Secondary Three (Grade 9). All of them were Chinese except for one Filipino. The study examines the impact of an intervention programme on students' writing coherence in expository essays. The findings suggest that the lower secondary school writers were able to write locally and globally more coherent expository essays after the intervention programme. Specifically, the essays became more coherent with significant differences reported in the number of sentences written per topic and proportion of extended sequential progressions. Our study has advanced knowledge of how writing coherence can be taught to EFL students in the context of an exposition genre. It extends previous research by providing further evidence that coherence is not necessarily an elusive concept, but EFL teachers can use a set of tangible coherence-creating mechanisms to teach it in classrooms and students can learn to apply it in their essays. We conclude by suggesting pedagogical implications of this study, and possible future directions in research on coherence in writing.

- by Yin Ling Cheung
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- Second Language Writing, K-12 writing instruction

Plagiarism is regarded as a heinous crime within the academic community, but anecdotal evidence suggests that some writers plagiarize without intending to transgress academic conventions. This article reports a study of the writing of 17 postgraduate students. Source reports in the student-generated texts were compared to the original sources in order to describe the relationship between the two. Interviews were also conducted with the student writers and their supervisors. The student writing was found to contain textual features which could be described as plagiarism, but the writers’ accounts of their work and the textual analysis strongly suggest absence of intention to plagiarize, thus providing empirical verification of similar suggestions in the literature. Implications of these findings are discussed and include a recommendation that the focus on preventing plagiarism be shifted from post facto punishment to proactive teaching.

In order to be able to select and use appropriate procedures and materials, as well as assess their learners’ needs and progress, teachers need to be clear regarding the desirable outcomes of a writing programme and the processes involved in good writing. In Part 1, I look at two typical examples of student writing and identify common problems. In Part 2, I outline the two aspects of good writing: product and process. In Part 3, I present a framework for teaching writing skills, as well as teaching procedures and materials.

Notes from my talk to United Theological students at orientation on plagiarism and academic virtue and vice.

More and more ESL students are seeking writing help at U.S. college and university writing centers. This trend emphasizes the complementary role of the writing center and ESL writing instruction in improving ESL writing skills. Writing center and ESL writing pedagogy share the process and collaborative approaches, which emphasize the writing process using revision and reader feedback. Often difficult to implement in a classroom setting, these approaches can be used successfully with ESL students in the writing center. However, many writing center instructors, unfamiliar with the needs of ESL students, are often illequipped to work successfully with this special population. This has caused writing center faculties to turn to the ESL profession for help in establishing suitable strategies. The growing need for ESL expertise in the writing center has created a variety of capacities to which ESL instructors can contribute.

- by Lynne Ronesi
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- Literacy, English language, Second Language Writing, Knowledge Transfer

With the globalization of technology, the notion of traditional literacy has been transformed into a new literacy practice, known as digital literacy, in which people simultaneously draw on different resources, or modes, to consume and produce information (including textual, visual, audio, and/or gestural modes). In this article, the authors introduce digital storytelling (DST), a form of a digital literacy practice that can empower EFL students to develop the necessary language and literacy skills to successfully communicate with other native and non-native English speakers across digital and non-digital platforms. Although DST seems to be a promising tool, the authors review existing literature to analyze the implications and limitations of DST tasks in the EFL context, and present three examples of DST activities that EFL educators can implement to foster the development of writing, speaking, vocabulary, grammar, and reading. In each task, the authors provide the reader with suggestions of other user-friendly technological tools that students can employ to produce compelling digital stories.

- by Marie-Louise Koelzer and +1
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- Digital Literacy, Second Language Writing, Digital Storytelling, ESL/EFL Writing

Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Vol.6. No.4 December 2015 Pp.... more

Después de presentar la perspectiva sociocultural en la investigación y la enseñanza de la comprensión lectora y de defender la necesidad de adoptarla en ELE y también con textos de especialidad, analizamos algunas de las características que presenta la lectura en Internet y resumimos dos estudios de caso en los que lectores de diferentes edades leen y valoran varios materiales de la red sobre temas especializados. Los resultados muestran que los informantes tienen importantes dificultades para
distinguir la ideología de los textos y para valorar su fiabilidad y utilidad. Las dificultades proceden de su desconocimiento del medio digital, de la ignorancia de la cultura de la lengua meta y de la falta de práctica en este tipo de lectura.

- by Daniel Cassany
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- Spanish, Academic Writing, Second Language Writing, ESP

Using John Holland’s model of complex adaptive systems, this paper explores how nonnative speakers of English learned to participate and to write in a first-year university rhetoric and composition course. Of particular interest is the emergence of students’ internal models for writing and other class tasks through the reproduction and cross-over of conceptual building blocks, showing that much of learning and creativity is due to recombining what is known rather than invention de novo. The findings in this paper suggest that educators should design curricula around core conceptual building blocks that can be combined in various ways across novel situations and that can lead to an ongoing emergence of new building blocks.

- by Charles Nelson
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- Complexity Theory, Second Language Writing, Composition