This study examined curriculum and instructional strategies that would address the educational needs of African American males in a college composition course. Traditional roles of didactic teacher expecting students to absorb facts are unbeneficial for African American males. As I began teaching a composition course, with a predominant population of African American male students, I understood the modern curriculum model was ineffective in engaging students and developing academic and personal potential. I searched for another curriculum, which accommodated Afrocentric ideals of the African American community and the learning styles of the men. Central to Afrocentric values are cooperation, a spirit of collectivity, relationships, and respect; these values can be incorporated into a post-modern approach to curriculum development for a college composition course. The question, ‘What is College Level Writing’ posed by Sullivan and Tinberg, provided four principles that college writing possess. These principles were used to evaluate whether components of Afrocentric and Doll’s curriculum supported college writing skills. Hip hop is one literary life experience to utilize in the classroom. The learner is asked to reflect, interact and question cultural and academic concepts through discussions and student based learning. Incorporation of Afrocentric ideals through dialogue, alternative viewpoints and information strengthen instruction and learning. Doll encourages thinking and self-identity growth. By utilizing Doll post-modern curriculum, Sullivan’s four principles of college composition and Afrocentricism for my African American male students, I am able to design a culturally responsive pedagogy. / Department of Educational Studies

Research in psychological type theory – especially that done by Jensen and DiTiberio on type and composition – has offered writing teachers another way to understand the different writing processes of their students. One aspect of composition that has not been researched with regard to psychological type theory is the writing style of students. This study proposes a relationship between psychological type theory (specifically the sensing and intuition continuum) and the writing styles of First Year Composition students. Seventy-two students participated in the study, taking the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) and submitting their diagnostic essays to be analyzed using Corbett's stylistic analysis. The results suggest a relationship between writing style and personality type that teachers can use to tailor lesson plans for students (in areas such as revision and audience awareness) to increase student growth. / Department of English

This dissertation investigates the expression of contrastive transitions in the ESL/EFL (English as a Second Language/English as a Foreign Language) writing of university students of Arabic language background. For this purpose, an experimental group of 30 freshmen at Sohar University in Oman whose native language is Arabic served as the experimental group. They did three tasks, two writing activities and a cloze test, ranging from semi controlled (free writing) to the highly controlled cloze test. A control group of 30 Ball State University freshmen in Muncie, Indiana who speak English as a native language performed the same three tasks.For the first task, the subjects wrote about one of 15 possible topics. They then performed the second task, which was writing about a different topic, and were also provided a list of 35 contrastive transitions to use at their discretion. For the third task, the subjects inserted contrastive transitions in the blanks of the doze test, marking the confidence in their choices on scales provided in the margins.This study indicates that the Arabic ESL/EFL students use contrastive transitions when writing contrastively in English. However, the expression of these contrastive transitions is relatively inadequate and limited compared to that of their native-English speaking peers. The Arabic students show a high rate of success in their expression of but as a contrastive transition. However, they show a lower rate of success in their expression of other contrastive transitions. Furthermore, the difference in the levels of confidence in the choices between appropriate and inappropriate contrastive transitions used in a controlled context shows they have little or no idea if their choices are correct or not. / Department of English

The study implied that a basic writer's overall abilities, shown through a type of "emotional intelligence quotient" [EQ], could help in determining that individual's inherent abilities in the writing classroom. Using prompted and timed writings plus two EQ surveys, developed by the investigator, the study analyzed students' emotional cognition in their writing environments. EQ qualities displayed while interacting with their instructor and peers or self-disclosed EQ qualities displayed in surveys or metacognitive writings were interpreted and compared to portfolio assessments by outside readers.During the spring semester of 1996, 409 students enrolled in 27 Ball State University English 102 basic writing classes. From 7 classes, 108 sample subjects accomplished surveys and prompts. Fifty randomly-selected subjects of the 108 were scrutinized. Comparisons of the two samples were detailed. Providing a close look at the 50 random-sampled group, 13 students occupying opposing levels at particular scoring-range margins were further detailed. Portfolio results, course grades, and how classroom teachers viewed their classroom students' emotional intelligence skills were the quantitative data compared with two EQ surveys' results.The study's governing gaze revealed self-disclosed, emotional dynamics of basic writers. It surrounded those disclosures with particulars on the biology of emotions. It extended the views on students' personality types as determined by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. The study combined the conceptual knowledge of the biology of our emotions and the specific knowledge of personality traits to explain certain dimensions of the composing process. With the beginnings of a comprehensive synthesis, we may better understand how basic writers begin to evolve as effective writers and thinkers.Whether two surveys and portfolio assessments can determine a relationship between basic writers' emotional intelligence and how appropriately they write is still undecided. The statistical results are not as convincing as would be desired for any clear breakthrough. However, the descriptive information, written by the students themselves, coupled with information about preferred and inferior traits, displayed a nucleus of support for the hypothesis: a predisposition toward the four categories of emotional intelligence relates to basic writing skills and composing processes. / Department of English

In this creative project, I propose that comics can be used fruitfully to introduce undergraduates to the image-word dynamic, helping them become betters critics, more thoughtful consumers, and more effective creators of images. In addition, I argue that such a course of study be housed in an undergraduate rhetoric and composition major. Therefore, this project accomplishes three goals: it explores the rhetorical function of comics; second, it justifies the inclusion of comics in an undergraduate rhetoric-composition program; and, third, it provides a master syllabus for four classes that would provide the experience necessary to students wishing to study visual, verbal, and visual-verbal rhetorics. / Department of English

This dissertation identifies if and how graduate teaching assistants and instructors working in the field of rhetoric and composition teach multimodal assignments in first-year composition (FYC) courses. The research questions for this study were as follows: 1) In what ways do graduate teaching assistants and faculty teach multimodal assignments in FYC courses? 2) Are graduate teaching assistants, adjuncts, and contract faculty equally as likely as assistant, associate, and full professors to teach multimodal assignments in FYC courses? 3) What kinds of training do graduate teaching assistants and faculty receive to prepare them to teach multimodal assignments in FYC courses? 4) Do graduate teaching assistants and faculty feel the kinds of training they receive adequately prepare them to teach multimodal assignments in FYC courses? If not, what needs to change? These research questions were investigated using a combination of online survey research methods and follow-up interviews. This study provides a broad and current analysis, as well as a reflective picture, of the teaching of multimodal assignments in FYC courses. As a result of quickly evolving technologies, instructors have potentially more opportunities to teach multimodal assignments. However, in some cases, writing program policies and curriculum limit or make it difficult for graduate teaching assistants and instructors to assign multimodal assignments in FYC courses. Thus, this study investigated the ways current graduate teaching assistants and/or instructors teach multimodal assignments despite difficulties and limitations. It also investigated whether or not graduate teaching assistants and instructors receive any training or help in shaping their multimodal pedagogy and whether or not they feel this training or help was adequate. The findings indicate instructors are more willing than their departments to implement multimodal composition pedagogy. The findings also show that instructors teach multimodal assignments in their classrooms in various ways, including the use of different technologies and resources. Evidence suggests that despite their desire for more help from their departments, instructors teach themselves how to use such technologies and resources to implement their multimodal composition pedagogy. The study concludes that how multimodal composition pedagogy is implemented in a writing classroom is more likely an individual instructor’s decision rather than a department’s decision. / Department of English

Freshman composition instructors at Christian institutions face a disturbing predicament: competing pedagogies, administrative pressure to prove freshman composition’s merit, public clamoring for greater return on the college investment, technology redefining what “writing” is, a postmodern audience, and most concerning, the challenge to find an instructional model in a sea of pedagogies void of Christian ideology. The field of composition and rhetoric, unlike literature and other disciplines, does not have a pedagogy that successfully reconciles faith and scholarship. The purpose of this Doctor of Education thesis is to ignite a conversation among Christian composition faculty by introducing a prototype Christian freshman composition pedagogy built on a Christian theological, philosophical, and educational foundation rather than maintaining the common practice of overlaying Christian ideas on secular pedagogies. The proposed writing pedagogy is beyond a perfunctory skills and service course because communication through writing is not only divinely modeled, it is essential for human flourishing. The structure of this Trinitarian writing theory is dually aimed at both the writing pedagogue, by providing the resources from which the teacher can develop an instructional pathway, and the student writer, by providing the resources from which the learner develops functional writing strategies encased within a biblically-grounded motivation for writing. Rooted in Kevin Vanhoozer’s Trinitarian Theology of Communication, this Christian writing pedagogical theory unfolds through a series of similarly-shaped triune-based structures that move from theological formation to methodological practice. Chapter 1 argues that composition pedagogy is in crisis, not only at Christian colleges and universities, but secular institutions as well. Providing a context for the aforementioned crisis, chapter 2 historically traces composition instruction trends in America. While Christian scholars have proposed ways to apply faith and learning in other academic fields, no thoroughly Christian writing pedagogy has yet been created. Chapter 3 overviews secular strategies developed in response to the composition instruction crisis and those strategies’ lack of effectiveness. Chapter 4 serves to build the theological and philosophical foundation of a new instructional design theory. Chapters 5-9 provide a detailed progression of the new writing theory from its theological inception to the methodological and practical culmination as an act of worship for the student writer. Craig Bartholomew’s Tree of Knowledge provides the systematic method this project uses to rebuild composition theory; Kevin Vanhoozer's Trinitarian Theology of Communication model is the theological base that provides the key theoretical categories of the new writing pedagogy. Chapters 10-12 examine how the theory’s biblically-based distinctives translate to the classroom.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This thesis was a critical analysis of students academic second language writing at Sokoine University of Agriculture. Student writing in English as a second language in higher education has excited much interest in the English as a Second Language writing research and discussion in Tanzania. The interest was motivated by frequent criticisms from examiners regarding students literacy performance in the English as a Second Language writing in the post primary and higher education where the language of instruction is English as is configured in the Tanzanian language policy. / South Africa

South Africa‟s racialised history dates back to a colonial period where South Africans were separated by race, language and laws which prevented people of colour from mixing with those who were termed White. 22 years after the end of apartheid, race and language remain a painful part of history and a topic which is always visible in our private and public discourses. Students, as of recent, have pointed to the challenges and legacies of apartheid they face in higher education and broader society. The lack of broader transformation and racial prejudice leave a great divide amongst different groups of students. Given this background, this study sought to examine how students were making sense of themselves and others. The participants of this study included 50 second year students from the Department of Language Studies at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth. This research study focused on the identity development of students and how these factors impacted their identities taking into account aspects of race, language, sense of agency and those impacting their sense of agency and sense of self. This study used a qualitative research method which involves an interpretive approach to research as this method was best suited for this study‟s analysis of student narratives. This study is a case study of the single case of second year students. The research, furthermore, used a Poststructuralist approach as theoretical underpinning and Critical Discourse Analysis for analysis of the data. Relevant literature were read and reviewed to determine what studies were saying about factors impacting on youth identity. Student narratives were analysed in order to determine which factors impacted on their identity formation, as well as the perceptions of their own identities and those of others. The results of the findings showed that students‟ identity development was affected by factors such as cultural background, parents, death of loved ones, aesthetic interest, race and language. Socio-economic inequalities in South Africa, race and language strongly defined student identities. Identities were found to be multiple and dynamic. The impact on student agency was as a result of the influences of their parents but also because of the inequalities in society. The only commonality students identified as having with other students was study. Students revealed that they did not cross racial or language boundaries to socialise with other students. There were students who indicated that they resisted racial categorisations and spoke of the celebration of diversity in South Africa but these were in the minority. Unlike previous studies that showed students wanting to move on to a new unified South Africa while simultaneously using old apartheid discourses, this study showed that students remained rooted in these discourses but reverted to these discourses because of societal inequalities. They did not foresee any moves to a new unified South Africa if inequalities not addressed. They were more radical about what a new future looks like with the battle against privilege won. Language was identified as a barrier and the fallacies of English being linked to superior intelligence was pointed out. The divides between White and Black students were apparent in the data. The study therefore recommended that curriculation of modules be undertaken with teaching of fluidity of identities and providing of critical tools for students to deconstruct race and language. The South African context should be foregrounded in all faculty study areas so that students work to a public good that seeks to eradicate inequalities. Safe spaces need to be provided for debating of these issues as well as social spaces for interaction across racial divides.

Kong, Ying Yuk. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 287-304). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in Chinese.