Paraphrasing is taught to postsecondary students to help them avoid plagiarism in their academic essays, but it can be challenging for native speakers (L1) as well as nonnative speakers (L2) of English. To examine these challenges I analyzed 35 paraphrases written by 4 English-Canadian students and 5 Japanese international students at an English-medium community college in Ontario. I evaluated paraphrase quality through a modified replication of Keck’s (2006) analytic method, and I analyzed paraphrase appropriateness through a set of criteria I developed and verified with a second rater. I then analyzed 6 concurrent and post-task reports of 3 L1 and 3 L2 students, who used a variety of paraphrasing strategies. All participants wrote relatively inappropriate paraphrases which did not always correspond with perceived appropriateness. L1 students tended to copy directly from the original text excerpts more often than the L2 students did. Implications for teaching and further research are discussed.

This study built and supported arguments for the use of diagnostic assessment in English as a second language (ESL) academic writing. In the two-phase study, a new diagnostic assessment scheme, called the Empirically-derived Descriptor-based Diagnostic (EDD) checklist, was developed and validated for use in small-scale classroom assessment. The checklist assesses ESL academic writing ability using empirically-derived evaluation criteria and estimates skill parameters in a way that overcomes the problems associated with the number of items in diagnostic models. Interpretations of and uses for the EDD checklist were validated using five assumptions: (a) that the empirically-derived diagnostic descriptors that make up the EDD checklist are relevant to the construct of ESL academic writing; (b) that the scores derived from the EDD checklist are generalizable across different teachers and essay prompts; (c) that performance on the EDD checklist is related to performance on other measures of ESL academic writing; (d) that the EDD checklist provides a useful diagnostic skill profile for ESL academic writing; and (e) that the EDD checklist helps teachers make appropriate diagnostic decisions and has the potential to positively impact teaching and learning ESL academic writing. Using a mixed-methods research design, four ESL writing experts created the EDD checklist from 35 descriptors of ESL academic writing. These descriptors had been elicited from nine ESL teachers’ think-aloud verbal protocols, in which they provided diagnostic feedback on ESL essays. Ten ESL teachers utilized the checklist to assess 480 ESL essays and were interviewed about its usefulness. Content reviews from ESL writing experts and statistical dimensionality analyses determined that the underlying structure of the EDD checklist consists of five distinct writing skills: content fulfillment, organizational effectiveness, grammatical knowledge, vocabulary use, and mechanics. The Reduced Reparameterized Unified Model (Hartz, Roussos, & Stout, 2002) then demonstrated the diagnostic quality of the checklist and produced fine-grained writing skill profiles for individual students. Overall teacher evaluation further justified the validity claims for the use of the checklist. The pedagogical implications of the use of diagnostic assessment in ESL academic writing were discussed, as were the contributions that it would make to the theory and practice of second language writing instruction and assessment.

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of Ontario’s Primary/Junior teacher preparation programs on graduates’ knowledge and ability to apply what they know about literacy education. The research examined the content of the programs, the extent to which this content reflected evidence-based components of literacy instruction, and the degree of variability across programs. A range of strategies including self-reporting by graduates, interviews, and reviews of course materials (e.g., course outlines, course topic schedules, reading lists) were used to examine the breadth and depth of what was covered in the required literacy courses. A proportional sample of 210 graduates representing all nine English-speaking faculties of education in Ontario completed surveys and submitted course materials. Twenty-nine of these also participated in in-depth interviews. Interviewees were asked to reflect upon their understanding and ability to apply what they had learned, as well as to offer their impressions of their programs and to discuss their personal feelings of preparedness to teach literacy. Quantitative and qualitative research methods were used to describe and summarize findings. Process/Outcome Matrices revealed various themes. In summary, faculty literacy programs varied greatly with respect to both length and content. Course materials and descriptions from graduates also suggested that variability across sections within programs was as great as that across programs. Although courses covered theories of child development they generally lacked a theoretical framework for literacy instruction. Moreover, many respondents reported learning little about how to teach reading and writing. Such responses were more prevalent in certain programs. Many graduates believed that explicit instruction is a necessary component of “good” literacy teaching, however, most graduates were not able to demonstrate an understanding of the complexities of language and literacy, and many could not describe how to implement effective literacy instruction, or to address the diverse needs of students. Recommendations include: lengthening the required faculty literacy courses in order to provide more breadth and depth of coverage; refining the manner in which instruction in literacy education is provided at faculties; increasing the vigilance with which governing bodies oversee faculty literacy course content; and improving practicum placement experiences.

Stories are complex linguistic constructions through which we share our interpretations of the social world. The ability to comprehend and produce stories is referred to as narrative competence. Narrative competence is rooted in social interactions in the preschool years that foster a sense of story structure and familiarity with story language. It has been shown to play a critical role in reading and writing achievement in the elementary school years since the language of literacy, like the language of storytelling, is predominantly decontextualized. The mastery of decontextualized language poses a significant challenge for children who enter kindergarten with little previous exposure to the majority language. The storytelling ability of these children was the focus of the present study. The study's primary aim was to examine second language narrative competence across the kindergarten years by comparing the fictional stories generated by a cross-section of EL1 and ELL junior and senior kindergarten children in response to a wordless picture book from the point of view of macrostructure (story structure), microstructure (story language), and the use of evaluative language. Grade and gender differences across and within language groups were also considered. A second aim of the study was to examine the relationship between narrative competence and receptive vocabulary and between narrative competence and print-based emergent reading skill. Overall, the results suggested that the ELL children's narratives were comparable to those of their EL1 counterparts with respect to most measures of microstructure, and with respect to macrostructure and evaluative language use. The one clear language-based difference favouring the EL1 children related to morpho-syntactic quality. Age-related differences were obtained on most measures and the results suggested parallel developmental trajectories across language groups. Gender was found to play a more prominent role in ELL than EL1 narrative performance. Few aspects of narrative were predicted by receptive vocabulary, suggesting dissociation between word- and discourse-level skills, particularly among the ELL children. On the other hand, emergent literacy scores predicted several aspects of microstructure, macrostructure and evaluative language use. The study provides evidence that various aspects of narrative competence might be differentially related to vocabulary and emergent literacy skills in ELL and EL1 kindergarten children.

Psychologists have proposed that schools should teach for wisdom, but this proposal has rarely been investigated. The present study examines secondary school English language arts as a site of wisdom learning. This qualitative study investigates the instructional goals and beliefs of 16 secondary English teachers (8 beginner, 8 experienced). Interviews were analysed using techniques based in Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Results are discussed in light of psychological research, studies of English teaching, and the Ontario curriculum. Some elements of wisdom teaching appear to be supported in English education. Teachers connected literature teaching and classroom practices to students' life learning, emphasizing life themes, connections to self and experience, self-reflective learning, and individual needs. Experienced teachers frequently made direct connections between life/wisdom learning and student engagement, while beginners voiced concerns about negotiating supportive student- teacher relationships. Implications for proposals to teach for wisdom in schools are discussed, including a possible role for critical literacy.

Psychologists have proposed that schools should teach for wisdom, but this proposal has rarely been investigated. The present study examines secondary school English language arts as a site of wisdom learning. This qualitative study investigates the instructional goals and beliefs of 16 secondary English teachers (8 beginner, 8 experienced). Interviews were analysed using techniques based in Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Results are discussed in light of psychological research, studies of English teaching, and the Ontario curriculum. Some elements of wisdom teaching appear to be supported in English education. Teachers connected literature teaching and classroom practices to students' life learning, emphasizing life themes, connections to self and experience, self-reflective learning, and individual needs. Experienced teachers frequently made direct connections between life/wisdom learning and student engagement, while beginners voiced concerns about negotiating supportive student- teacher relationships. Implications for proposals to teach for wisdom in schools are discussed, including a possible role for critical literacy.

The present study investigated how 6 Korean graduate students at a Canadian university used a suite of multiple Web-based reference resources (named i-Conc), consisting of concordancers and dictionaries, as a cognitive tool for solving linguistic problems encountered over the course of completing—in English, their second language (L2)—an academic writing assignment for one of their graduate courses. Using a mixed methods design employing surveys, interviews, screen recordings, a query tracking log, and detailed case studies, the thesis provides rich descriptions of (a) the processes, and outcomes of the 6 participants’ uses of i-Conc as a reference tool for their writing authentic academic tasks and (b) their perceptions of the suite as a means of writing assistance. Overall, i-Conc served as an intellectual partner that aided the participants in strategically solving lexical and grammatical problems during their writing assignments: About 70 % of the problems they addressed with i-Conc resulted in correct text formulations or revisions. The different resources in i-Conc were each shown to have unique functions for which they were best suited, suggesting that concordancing may optimally be consulted in combination with, not in place of, other resources. The benefits of consulting i-Conc for L2 writing went beyond simply helping the participants’ problem solving to potentially facilitating their language acquisition. Input-feedback interactions with the reference suite prompted the participants to carry out robust meaning negotiations in their efforts to verify their intuitive hypotheses and to venture beyond their current linguistic repertoires. Participants acted on these potential benefits somewhat differently. Case studies and cross-case analyses demonstrated complex interactions between the participants’ individual traits and goals, the educational contexts for which they were writing, and their perceptions and evaluations of particular affordances provided by i-Conc. These findings imply that to build meaningful cognitive partnerships with reference tools, L2 writers should receive progressive guidance on principles for effective reference resource consultation along with training in strategies for using different types of resources, contingent on individuals’ abilities and ongoing needs arising from their macro and micro contexts for writing and for language learning.

The present study investigated how 6 Korean graduate students at a Canadian university used a suite of multiple Web-based reference resources (named i-Conc), consisting of concordancers and dictionaries, as a cognitive tool for solving linguistic problems encountered over the course of completing—in English, their second language (L2)—an academic writing assignment for one of their graduate courses. Using a mixed methods design employing surveys, interviews, screen recordings, a query tracking log, and detailed case studies, the thesis provides rich descriptions of (a) the processes, and outcomes of the 6 participants’ uses of i-Conc as a reference tool for their writing authentic academic tasks and (b) their perceptions of the suite as a means of writing assistance. Overall, i-Conc served as an intellectual partner that aided the participants in strategically solving lexical and grammatical problems during their writing assignments: About 70 % of the problems they addressed with i-Conc resulted in correct text formulations or revisions. The different resources in i-Conc were each shown to have unique functions for which they were best suited, suggesting that concordancing may optimally be consulted in combination with, not in place of, other resources. The benefits of consulting i-Conc for L2 writing went beyond simply helping the participants’ problem solving to potentially facilitating their language acquisition. Input-feedback interactions with the reference suite prompted the participants to carry out robust meaning negotiations in their efforts to verify their intuitive hypotheses and to venture beyond their current linguistic repertoires. Participants acted on these potential benefits somewhat differently. Case studies and cross-case analyses demonstrated complex interactions between the participants’ individual traits and goals, the educational contexts for which they were writing, and their perceptions and evaluations of particular affordances provided by i-Conc. These findings imply that to build meaningful cognitive partnerships with reference tools, L2 writers should receive progressive guidance on principles for effective reference resource consultation along with training in strategies for using different types of resources, contingent on individuals’ abilities and ongoing needs arising from their macro and micro contexts for writing and for language learning.

This thesis explores the influences of social networks and social support on the literacy engagement of 7 high school students from a multicultural, multilingual, and economically disadvantaged urban neighborhood in a large, diverse North American city. Specifically, this study describes (1) students’ social networks and social literacy interactions; (2) the types of social support the network relationships provide for participants’ literacy; and (3) the ways in which this socioliterate support might affect participants’ literacy engagement. Guided by Ecological Systems Theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, 1992/2005), at three times during an 18-month period the 7 participants completed social network maps and interviews, checklists about their reading and writing choices, and retrospective interviews about their reading and writing practices on self-selected texts. These data were analyzed on the basis of Tardy’s (1985) typology of social support and the tripartite model of engagement proposed by Fredricks, Blumenfeld, and Paris (2004), then individual case reports were created for each participant. For cross-case analysis (Stake, 2006), the individual reports were compared across similar, predetermined themes. Two primary conclusions are supported by the data and analysis: These adolescents received varying amounts and types of socioliterate support from certain members of their social networks, particularly teachers and family members, and this support positively influenced their literacy engagement when they were facing difficult or uninteresting tasks. The study provides an understanding of the relationship between social support, motivation, and engagement in single literacy events, including proposed relationships between these three concepts, as well as perspectives on the role of technology in adolescent social network formation and on the sources from whom adolescents seek literacy-based social support. The study describes pedagogical spaces that can provide and activate such literacy support and suggests topics for future research relating to adolescent literacy, socioliterate networks and support, and literacy engagement.

In this thesis I explore writers and their writing practices as embodied, contingent, and affected by aesthetic environments and contemplative practices. I discuss contemplative practices as techniques for recognizing the co-dependent origination of the self/world, and as tools for disrupting the trifurcation of body, mind and word. I explore the written word’s role in the continuous production of new meaning, and as part of the continuous production of new “selves” for writers, and readers. I use narrative auto-ethnography to situate myself as a researcher, sensory ethnography and interviews to profile four practicing writers, and arts-informed Research-creation to document my own writing and contemplative practices. I also consider whether a post-pedagogy view of educational research might produce/allow space for more creative approaches to educational theorizing.