This paper explores the history of Robert L. Vann Elementary, an elementary school in Pittsburghs Hill District, which was once one of the highest achieving schools in the city. During Vanns most successful years, Principal Doris Brevard implemented specific procedures and developed rules to ensure that Vann studentswho were predominantly black and impoverishedwould achieve at the highest level. After Brevards retirement in 1995, and a series of educational reform laws and practices were put into effect, Vanns success ended. This paper examines why those changes occurred and questions if the practices that principal Brevard once used could be put into place today to close the achievement gap between black and white students.

Drawing on a sociocultural perspective of genre as a social action situated in a particular context, this study examines the functions and genres of four second-grade ESL (English as a Second Language) children’s writing at home and at school. The two boys and two girls were born and raised in Canada, speaking English at school and with their siblings, and Cantonese at home with their parents who were immigrants from Hong Kong or China. A total of 67 pieces of school writing and 54 pieces of home writing were collected over a five-week period. Findings show that home writing exhibits a wider range of functions and genres than school writing. In the home context, the participating children wrote for more personal purposes, to entertain themselves, or to engage in social interactions with a real audience. In contrast, school writing narrowed the children’s choice of functions because of the teaching context, teacher expectations, and instructional objectives. Similarly, there was a greater variety in home genres, including greeting cards, diaries, notes, poems, and jokes in comparison to school genres that were confined to stories, journals, and list items. There was a strong relationship between the enactment of specific functions and particular genres while personal and social functions were more prevalent in their home-based than in their school-based writing. Qualitative analysis of the children’s writing shows that they constructed meaning with written language in individual ways in their enactment of functions and choice of genres and the use of different modes to represent meaning. The study suggests that teachers should be aware of the value of the writing opportunities and contexts children have at home and, therefore, incorporate such home experiences into classroom teaching. It also has implications for parents to conceive writing as a sociocultural as well as language practice, and to recognize the role of the home environment in their contributions to their children’s constructing meaning with written language. They should be aware of the need to build on the children’s interests and needs while encouraging them to write, and to make connections with school in working towards their writing development.

Drawing on a sociocultural perspective of genre as a social action situated in a particular context, this study examines the functions and genres of four second-grade ESL (English as a Second Language) children’s writing at home and at school. The two boys and two girls were born and raised in Canada, speaking English at school and with their siblings, and Cantonese at home with their parents who were immigrants from Hong Kong or China. A total of 67 pieces of school writing and 54 pieces of home writing were collected over a five-week period. Findings show that home writing exhibits a wider range of functions and genres than school writing. In the home context, the participating children wrote for more personal purposes, to entertain themselves, or to engage in social interactions with a real audience. In contrast, school writing narrowed the children’s choice of functions because of the teaching context, teacher expectations, and instructional objectives. Similarly, there was a greater variety in home genres, including greeting cards, diaries, notes, poems, and jokes in comparison to school genres that were confined to stories, journals, and list items. There was a strong relationship between the enactment of specific functions and particular genres while personal and social functions were more prevalent in their home-based than in their school-based writing. Qualitative analysis of the children’s writing shows that they constructed meaning with written language in individual ways in their enactment of functions and choice of genres and the use of different modes to represent meaning. The study suggests that teachers should be aware of the value of the writing opportunities and contexts children have at home and, therefore, incorporate such home experiences into classroom teaching. It also has implications for parents to conceive writing as a sociocultural as well as language practice, and to recognize the role of the home environment in their contributions to their children’s constructing meaning with written language. They should be aware of the need to build on the children’s interests and needs while encouraging them to write, and to make connections with school in working towards their writing development.

Writing has increasingly been emphasised in EFL classrooms in recent years, and Korea is no exception to this trend. The literature indicates that L2 writers experience language problems and attempt to solve them while converting their thoughts into another language. At the moment when learners struggle with a linguistic feature, they become aware of their lack of linguistic knowledge, and try to resolve the problem either by employing their own previously acquired knowledge sources, or by trying to access external knowledge sources. This problem-solving process may occur repeatedly during the L2 writing process. The aims of the current research are threefold: first, it investigates what Korean university learners of English notice while they are writing in L2; second, it attempts to examine what variables are related to and affect learners' noticing during the L2 problem-solving process and; third, the knowledge sources employed by learners when they face language problems are analysed. In order to achieve these aims, 108 English major students were recruited from three high ranked universities in Korea; think-aloud protocols and stimulated-recall interviews comprised the primary means of data collection. All participants were asked to do a writing task in L2 and to verbalise their thoughts while producing written text. Building on the data gathered from the writing task, stimulated recall interviews were carried out in order to identify the sources of knowledge employed to resolve language problems. The results of quantitative data analysis showed that the 108 participants in this study noticed approximately five language problems while writing an L2 text for 20 minutes, and verbally expressed many more lexical episodes than grammatical episodes. Regarding the relations between learner-related variables and noticing during the L2 writing process, previous study abroad experience and L2 proficiency affected learners' noticing. It was also found that L2-based verbal working memory had an effect when learners notice language problems in L2 text production, while L1-based verbal working memory had no effect. Moreover, qualitative data analysis indicated that the participants employed various types of knowledge sources in order to solve lexical or grammatical problems. It was found that both explicit linguistic knowledge sources, such as previously acquired L1-L2 translation word pairs, aspects of word knowledge (i.e., form, meaning, or use), episodic memory or analogy, and implicit knowledge sources, such as intuition, were used during the L2 problem-solving process. Based on these findings, possible implications for L2 writing teaching are discussed, stressing the importance of providing many writing opportunities for students, and suggestions for future research are presented.

Drawing on a sociocultural perspective of genre as a social action situated in a particular context, this study examines the functions and genres of four second-grade ESL (English as a Second Language) children’s writing at home and at school. The two boys and two girls were born and raised in Canada, speaking English at school and with their siblings, and Cantonese at home with their parents who were immigrants from Hong Kong or China. A total of 67 pieces of school writing and 54 pieces of home writing were collected over a five-week period. Findings show that home writing exhibits a wider range of functions and genres than school writing. In the home context, the participating children wrote for more personal purposes, to entertain themselves, or to engage in social interactions with a real audience. In contrast, school writing narrowed the children’s choice of functions because of the teaching context, teacher expectations, and instructional objectives. Similarly, there was a greater variety in home genres, including greeting cards, diaries, notes, poems, and jokes in comparison to school genres that were confined to stories, journals, and list items. There was a strong relationship between the enactment of specific functions and particular genres while personal and social functions were more prevalent in their home-based than in their school-based writing. Qualitative analysis of the children’s writing shows that they constructed meaning with written language in individual ways in their enactment of functions and choice of genres and the use of different modes to represent meaning. The study suggests that teachers should be aware of the value of the writing opportunities and contexts children have at home and, therefore, incorporate such home experiences into classroom teaching. It also has implications for parents to conceive writing as a sociocultural as well as language practice, and to recognize the role of the home environment in their contributions to their children’s constructing meaning with written language. They should be aware of the need to build on the children’s interests and needs while encouraging them to write, and to make connections with school in working towards their writing development. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

有許多的研究已經證實圖片提示提供具體且相關的訊息有助於英文寫作。本研究的目的是要探討使用圖片提示對於高低成就高中學生英文作文的內容、結構、字彙及整體寫作表現之影響。本研究的對象是108位屏東縣某所高中的高三學生，根據全民英檢寫作測驗的成績，他們被均分成兩個高成就群和兩個低成就群。他們填寫問卷(一)提供他們的背景資料。接著實施兩型記敘文寫作測驗，高成就群(一)及低成就群(一)接受只有引導句的寫作測驗；高成就群(二)及低成就群(二)則接受另一型提供引導句加圖片提示的寫作測驗。所有的研究對象填寫問卷(二)提供他們對英文寫作的態度，而高成就群(二)及低成就群(二)接著再填寫問卷(三)提供他們對圖片提示的看法。最後的小組訪談旨在更進一步瞭解學生對於圖片提示的觀感及寫作態度動機的轉變。 本研究的主要發現如下：（1）圖片提示對於高分群學生的寫作的內容、結構，及整體的寫作表現有幫助，但是對於單字沒有明顯的幫助。（2）圖片提示對於低分群學生的內容、結構、字彙及整體寫作表現都無任何明顯的幫助。（3）高低成就學生都對圖片提示抱持正面的態度，並且因為有圖片提示更願意從事英文寫作。 / Lots of studies have proved that picture prompts elicit English writing with concrete and relevant information. This present study aims to investigate the effects of using pictures as prompts on English writing performance of high and low achievers in senior high school in content, organization, vocabulary and overall writing performance. Participants in this study were 108 third graders in a senior high school in Pingtung County who were divided into two groups of high achievers (HA1 and HA2) and two groups of low achievers (LA1 and LA2) based on their scores in a GEPT writing test. Questionnaire I was done to know the participants’ background information. Two types of narrative writing tests were administered to the 108 participants. One with verbal prompt was taken by HA1 and LA1 and the other with verbal-plus-picture prompt was taken by HA2 and LA2. Questionnaire II regarding the participants’ attitudes toward English writing was filled out by all subjects. Questionnaire III was done by HA2 and LA2 to express their opinions on picture prompts. In-depth group interviews were conducted to further explore students’ perception of and attitude toward picture prompts. The findings of the study are summarized as follows. First, picture prompts had significant effects on the content, organization and overall writing performance of the high achievers but no significant effect was found on the vocabulary. Second, picture prompts had no significant effects on low achievers’ writing in content, organization, vocabulary and overall writing performance. Third, both high and low achievers kept a positive attitude toward picture prompts and were better motivated to write when guided by picture prompts.

本研究旨在探討高中英文教師對於英文作文教學的信念與其實際教學情形。文獻回顧內容涵蓋英文作文教學理論以及教師信念與實踐。 本研究的對象為台北市的高中英文教師，研究方法採用量化的教師問卷輔以質化的教師訪談，問卷回收171份，採用兩種統計方法分析：描述性統計及單因子變異數分析；訪談人數為6人，訪談結果用來支持、解釋問卷結果。研究重點如下：(一)教師信念及教學情形：包含教學目標、教師角色、教學內容及教學方式、（二）教師信念與實踐的符合度與造成不相符合的原因以及（三）影響教師信念與實踐的因素。 本研究的主要發現如下： 1. 大考會左右老師的教學方向，但老師教學時目標不只侷限於此。 2. 老師的教學信念與實踐皆綜合成果導向與過程導向的教學法原則，而非單一教學法。 3. 教師教學上面臨課程、學生、教學準備及批閱作文等方面的困難，這些困難會阻礙老師遵循其信念教學。 4. 教師背景經驗確實會對其信念與實踐有所影響。 本研究有助於認識高中英文教師教寫作的信念與教學情形。研究者根據研究發現，分別對高中英文教師、教師培育機構、教育部及作文教學教材編寫者提出建議，以期讓高中英文作文教學更進一步。 / The purpose of this study was to explore what beliefs senior high school English teachers hold toward writing instruction and their practices of the beliefs. Literature review covered the approaches of ESL/EFL writing instruction and teachers’ beliefs and practices. The participants of this study were senior high school English teachers in Taipei city. Two data collection instruments were adopted, the quantitative questionnaire and the qualitative interview. In total, 171 questionnaires were gathered and analyzed by means of descriptive statistics and one-way ANOVA. In addition, six interviews were conducted, whose results were utilized to further support and explain the questionnaire results. There were three research focuses. The first one was on teachers’ beliefs and practices in the goals of writing instruction, the roles they played, and the content as well as the teaching procedures of writing instruction. The second one was on the consistency between teachers’ beliefs and practices and possible reasons for the inconsistency. The third one was on influential factors on teachers’ beliefs and practices. Based on the results of this study, major findings are summarized. First, for the teachers in this study, entrance exams were approaching, so the test-oriented trend seemed to be inevitable. However, teachers believed that to familiarize students with English writing structure and to enable them to express in written English could also be possible goals, and they did teach accordingly. Second, the goals, roles teachers played, content, and teaching procedures reflected a mixture of product-oriented and process-oriented approaches. Third, the difficulties originating from curriculum, students, teaching preparation, and composition evaluation might hinder teachers’ practices of their beliefs. Finally, teachers’ background experiences were found to play a part in influencing teachers’ beliefs and practices. It is hoped that this study can contribute to more understanding of senior high school English teachers’ beliefs and practices in writing instruction. With the results of this study in mind, the researcher further made suggestions toward senior high school English teachers, teacher education institutes, the Ministry of Education, and writing instruction material designers. This might help refine senior high school English writing instruction.

Thesis (M. A. (Language Education)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / The study focused on the grammatical errors made by learners in writing descriptive essays: A case study of Mmakgabo Senior Secondary School, Koloti circuit, Limpopo, South Africa, paying much attention to the use of grammatical rules features specifically, in their academic piece of writing (descriptive essay). The study aimed at finding out the patterns of grammatical errors that are present in learners’ essays and the effective approach that one can use to trace the grammatical errors made by school learners in descriptive essays. The nature of the study and type of data to be collected motivated the researcher to use qualitative approach. Therefore, the researcher deployed qualitative method to collect and analyse data for this study. This method gave the researcher a wide range of opportunities to collect invaluable data which made him to gain in-depth insight of the study and the problem researched. As data collection instruments, the research firstly relied on document analysis by analysing English essay scripts of learners. In addition, the researcher conducted structured interviews by asking relevant questions to English teachers in order to ascertain their experiences and knowledge of the kind of grammatical errors learners make when they write English texts. The researcher found from document analysis that learners commit grammatical errors such as the use informal language, sentences fragment, spelling errors, incorrect use of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions. The interview findings also presented similar findings and the interviewees ranked learners’ adherence to grammatical rules to average level. The researcher relied on the findings of both the interviews, and document analysis interpreted in conjunction with recent empirical studies to conclude that learners still have many challenges with regard to following grammatical rules when they write in English. Therefore, the researcher recommends that teachers put extra effort to teach learners how to write coherently in English

本研究旨在探討「中英文段落翻譯策略」對於高職學生在英文寫作中習得篇章連貫性的效用。本研究以新竹市新竹高商二年級，三十七位學生為研究對象， 每位寫四篇英文寫作及修改兩篇前測作文; 以148篇作文以及74篇修改後之作文為分析樣本; 並採用量的分析方法來驗證其效用。 本研究以兩階段驗證假設 : 第一階段以SPSS 10.0中之成對樣本T檢定(paired-samples t-test)來分析74篇前測與74篇後測英文作文; 第二階段用同樣的方式來分析74篇前測寫作與74篇學生修改前測後之作文。本研究結果顯示：（一）中英文段落翻譯練習，有助於學習者習得並運用凝結性(cohesion)技巧來提升寫作上篇章之連貫性(coherence)。（二）中英文段落翻譯練習，有助於學習者習得並運用凝結性(cohesion)技巧來修改寫作上缺乏篇章連貫性之部分。 總言之，本研究中所設計之中英文段落翻譯練習，能夠幫助高職學生習得篇章的連貫性並提升其寫作能力。翻譯練習中的凝結性技巧的設計，為學習者奠定了在寫作上習得篇章連貫性的基礎。本研究在最後，針對研究主題提出一些在英文寫作教學上的建議。 / This study aims to explore the effectiveness of Chinese-English paragraph translation device for vocational senior high school students in acquiring the coherent writing expertise. Subjects in this study are thirty-seven second-graders in Hsin-chu Commercial Vocational Senior High School in Hsin-chu city. Participants are required to finish four English compositions and two revision compositions. In total, 148 compositions and 74 revision compositions are analyzed to test the effectiveness on the basis of quantitative research. There are two stages of verification procedure. First, paired-samples t-test of SPSS 10.0 for Windows is used to analyze the seventy-four pre-test and seventy-four post-test compositions. Second, it is also used to analyze the seventy-four pre-test and seventy-four post-test revision compositions. Findings are summarized as follows: First, Chinese-English translation practice helps learners perform better in coherent writing. They acquire cohesive devices and better apply them to promoting their writing coherence. Second, Chinese-English translation practice helps learners perform a good job in revising incoherent parts of compositions. They acquire cohesive devices, apply them to revising compositions and thus promote writing coherence. To sum up, the findings show that Chinese-English paragraph translation practice in this study is effective to vocational senior high school students in acquiring coherent writing expertise and promoting their writing proficiency. The translation practice of the cohesive devices functions as a basis of acquiring coherent writing expertise for learners. Finally, some pedagogical suggestions based on this study are provided.

在英語寫作教學上，長久以來對於範文的使用，有很大的爭議。有些學者認為學習者可以透過分析與模仿範文的結構學會英文的組織結構；另一方面，有些學者則認為寫作是複雜的，非直線的過程，應包含了構思、寫作、修改、重寫等活動，範文的使用會阻礙學生自主思考。因此，在此提出一套寫作教學法，融合上述兩派的優點，透過範文使學生熟悉英文的修辭結構，同時以同儕修改、重寫、教師回饋等活動來輔助寫作的過程。本研究的目的是探討以範文演示法教學對高中生寫作的成效。 研究對象是台北縣某所高中39位三年級學生。主要研究工具包括：用以評估學生寫作能力的前後測寫作、兩份問卷用以調查學生對於英文寫作之結構的認知，及最後進行訪談以了解教學成效。研究過程分為三個步驟：(1)前測---前測寫作及問卷。根據大考中心的英文寫作標準，以前測成績將學生分成中等能力組(MPG)和低能力組(LPG)，以調查寫作教學對不同程度學生的影響。問卷則是調查學生之寫作習慣，及對英文寫作之認知。(2)教學實驗---為期十週的寫作教學 ，教學主題為記敘文及因果關係的寫作。(3)後測---後測寫作問卷與訪談，透過後測寫作以檢視學生之寫作成效；問卷與訪談則是為了進一步了解學生對英文寫作教學課程之觀感。 研究結過發現，此教學實驗對學生的英文寫作有正面影響。尤其在寫作結構及整體寫作品質方面，有明顯進步。此外，低能力組的進步大於中等能力組，而學生也反映，在上完英文寫作課後，對英文寫作較有信心。 / In the history of English writing pedagogy, there has long been a dispute over the use of models in English writing. Some researchers propose that learners can learn English organizational structures through the analysis and imitation of organization and logical arrangement in model paragraphs or essays. On the other hand, some process-oriented researchers argue that the use of models will prevent students from thinking on their own. An integrated approach was thus proposed to incorporate the strengths of the two approaches. Models were used to familiarize students with the rhetorical organization in English written discourse. In the meantime, peer-editing, revision and teacher feedback were used to facilitate the writing process. The present study examines the effects of model-based instruction in organization on the writing of senior high school students. Thirty-nine subjects, who were senior high students in the third year, participated in this study. A pretest writing was used before the instruction to group the subjects into different proficiency levels according to the criterion set by the College Entrance Examination Center (CEEC). Two proficiency groups, namely, the middle proficiency group (M.P.G) and low proficiency group (L.P.G), were found among the subjects. A Writing Habit questionnaire was applied to investigate the subjects’ conception and habits about writing before the instruction. Then, a ten-week model-based writing instruction was conducted on all the participants in the study. Description and cause-effect writing were the two genres for instruction. After the instruction, a post-test writing was conducted to compare with the pre-test to examine whether students had made progress in their writing after the instruction. The Response Questionnaire and three in-depth interviews were conducted to further explore students’ perception and attitude toward the model-based writing. The results of the study reveal that the instruction helps to improve students’ abilities to organize ideas more effectively and logically. The significant increase in scores on overall writing quality in the posttest also show that the model-based writing instruction helps to yield higher quality in students’ overall writing. In addition, subjects in the L.P.G. seem to make more progress than those in the M.P.G. Moreover, the subjects seem to have more confidence in writing after the treatment.