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Linguistic research (differences and similarities between spoken and written language) -- Features of production (coordinating conjunctions, hedges, neuter pronouns, collocations, etc.) -- Features of interaction (personal pronouns, hyperbole, emphatics) -- Textual analysis evaluation -- Comparison of written words, oral features, and essay grades or scores received.

No description available.

Currently, too many pupils complete meaningless one-way writing tasks, which only their teachers receive, which makes increasing authenticity in the language contexts crucial for learners. The purpose of this study is to investigate: the experiences and opinions of two ESL 7-9 teachers in two schools in southern Sweden regarding their practices of authenticity in learning task instructions, the views of their pupils towards these writing tasks, and the benefits and challenges of integrating an authentic writing task. The Swedish steering documents emphasize that pupils should confidently adapt their languages to various purposes and learn how English is used across cultures and settings; however, authenticity does not feature heavily in the steering documents. This study used a Passion Project that incorporated explicit instructions, a recursive writing process, and a genre-based process for writing to an authentic audience. Against that background, this study seeks to answer the research questions by analyzing two teachers’ experiences and opinions, the pupils’ views toward authenticity in writing tasks, and the possible benefits and challenges. In order to collect empirical data, a mixed methodology method was applied, which included questionnaires and interviews with teachers and pupils. The results indicate that although the authentic audience is a new concept to the L2 learners, introducing it explicitly and providing examples help to reduce pupils’ nervousness. Furthermore, introducing the pupils to a new concept piques their interests and teaches them new ways to write. Therefore, writing strategies that incorporate an authentic audience are important. Despite the change from traditional to modern instructions, the pupils’ attitudes were highly favorable. Last but not least, the benefits are that pupils can relate what they are learning in the classroom to the outside world. However, there are challenges as not all pupils feel comfortable sharing something they write with others, and teachers do not always have the time to plan, organize, and execute tasks that include authentic audiences.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This study explored how to best incorporate peer response activities into the high school classroom. Three honors 10th grade classes completed peer response activities at different places in the research paper writing process, modeling Elbow and Belanoff's "bones, muscles, and skin" analogy. Surveys and final draft grades were used to evaulate where and how peer response can have the most benefit.

Forskning visar att representation och skriftlig kommunikation är två viktiga komponenter i utvecklingen av elevers matematiska förmåga. Denna studie avser att öka kunskapen om elevers användning av olika representationsformer i deras skriftliga kommunikation i matematik på gymnasieskolan. En riktad kvalitativ innehållsanalys av elevlösningar från ett matematikprov har genomförts med utgångspunkt i ett teoretiskt ramverk för elevers användning av representationsformer. Analysen av elevlösningar tyder på att det finns en stor variation i elevers användning av representationsformer, både vad gäller vilka representationsformer som kan identifieras samt i vilket syfte de olika representationsformerna används. Variationen i elevers representationsanvändning påverkas av hur olika representationsformer kombineras med varandra för att uppnå olika syften i elevers matematiska lösningar. Resultatet är ett viktigt kunskapsbidrag till undervisande matematiklärare, eftersom kunskapen kan användas vid utformning av undervisning som avser att utveckla elevers skriftliga matematiska kommunikation. / Research demonstrate that representation and written communication are two important components in developing students’ mathematical literacy. This study aims to add knowledge about students’ using different representations in their written mathematical communication in high school. A qualitative content analysis of students’ mathematical solutions has been made based on a theoretical framework for students’ use of representations. The analysis of students’ mathematical solutions indicates a big variation in students’ use of representations, both according to which representations can be identified and to the different uses to which the representations are put. The variation in students’ use of representations is influenced by how different representations are combined in different uses in students’ mathematical solutions. The result is an important contribution of knowledge to mathematics teachers because the knowledge can be used to design teaching that aims to develop students’ written mathematical communication.

This study describes young writers' conferences in school districts in the state of Texas. The study proposed: (a) to describe the characteristics of young writers' conferences; (b) to determine how young writers' conferences were created and implemented; (c) to identify the purpose of writing conferences; (d) to identify the population served; (e) to describe the unique contribution of conferences; (e) to determine the perceived value of conferences to school district personnel. A 26 item survey was developed and distributed to 133 Texas school districts. One hundred percent of the districts responded to the survey or telephone interview Data was collected from the ten districts that provided young writers' conferences for young writers during the 1994-95 school year. Eighty percent of the school administrators surveyed rated their program as very beneficial for young writers. Twenty percent rated their program at the second highest rating, or beneficial. All of the districts reported that as a result of the workshop, writing has become more important in the districts. In addition, the majority of the districts reported that parents are more aware of the importance of writing and that teacher attitudes toward writing have improved as a result of participation in the workshop Districts also reported that students have a more positive attitude toward writing and are more interested in writing after having attended the workshop. It can be concluded from the study that students in grades nine through twelve were largely undeserved by the districts in the sample. Therefore, the researcher suggests that districts serve this population in future conferences. The researcher also recommends that a democratic process be established that would maximize the number of participants attending young writers' conferences in each district. Information obtained from the study can inform educational policy makers, educators, parents and citizens about young writers' conferences and can also serve as a resource for conference planners and participants as similar programs for young writers are created, implemented and evaluated.

The aim of this dissertation is to present a critical literature review and conceptual analysis of selected genre-based research materials from 1960-2002 on the theoretical and pedagogical issues involved in teaching reading and writing to students of English for Science and Technology. Methodologically, the comparative data-analysis is aimed at identifying commonalities and differences between the various data texts in terms of their definition, orientations, and pedagogical uses. Based on the analyses, suggestions are made for the additional practical applications of the approaches within a learning-centred, communicative framework. The main conclusion is that genre analysis is a fusion of textual-contextual orientations on a structural-linguistic, social-ethnographic cline, which involves simultaneous microlinguistic and macrorhetorical, social-ethnographic processing. Owing to the scope of genre analysis, it is suggested that a considerably expanded, in-depth investigation is needed to clarify the dynamic tensions between and within the individual genre-based approaches, as well as their pedagogical applications. / English Studies / MA (TESOL)

Thesis (MPhil (Afrikaans and Dutch))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / This study investigates the role of that which the style concept people‐orientation plays with regard to image formation and image projection in documentation, with specific reference to the Stellenbosch University’s registration forms. The goal of this study was firstly to determine how the concept people‐orientation could be operationalized within this specific case study. Regarding image formation and image projection, the researcher aimed to determine (a) what students’ current image of the University Stellenbosch is, (b) if students regard peopleorientation as an important style aspect within communication and (c) if the presence or absence of people‐orientation has an effect on the image of an institution. The Integrated Model for Image Formation and Projection (IFP‐model), whereupon this study is based, suggests that different messages in a document can have an effect on the image of an institution. These messages can however be manipulated in order to determine or adjust the image of an institution. In reference to this, this study investigated the effects of a presence or lack of people‐orientation as an aspect of style in communication. The researcher defines people‐orientation as a concept that bears reference to those aspects which directly or indirectly writes the human role player (including the writer and the reader) into the text. In other words, it refers to communication that puts the role of the person in the foreground of the communication situation. The concept of people‐orientation is however very complex in the sense that it can be created by a number of document design aspects. Thus the best way to test people‐orientation was to identify a number of operationalizeable design aspects. The researcher selected five style aspects which at core has relevance to people‐orientation. These five aspects were forms of address, reference to self, the use of passive or active voice, the use of politeness and empathy markers and the use of graphical illustration, which for the purpose of this study also classifies as a stylistic signal. Thirty‐two respondents from the Humaniora faculties were selected to participate in this study. Although the faculty of Economical and Management Sciences and the Faculty of Law traditionally fall under this division, only the Faculty of Theology, the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Education were used. Gender and race were incorporated as independent variables of this study. Respondents’ attitudes were tested using interviews as the primary methodology, aided by informal questionnaires as secondary methodology. Questionnaire results were however not processed by use of the traditional statistical methods, mainly because the sample of the study was too small. These results were only functional as a basis from which tendencies could be identified. Interview results had a very multi‐dimensional quality and the researcher therefore decided that it would be best to discuss these results in a thematic order rather than listing responses in tables. The results clearly demonstrate that students have a preference for forms which contain people‐orientation and that they dislike forms which lack people‐orientation. Their responses indicate that style aspects which promote people‐orientation have a relative to high probability to positively effect an institution’s image . Thus, Afrikaans‐speaking students from the Humanioria‐faculties regard people‐orientation as an important component in the management of effective communication, especially that of a positive image.

Integrated writing tasks that combine reading, listening, and writing have become increasingly popular in assessing academic writing. These tasks are seen to offer more authenticity, improve fairness, and provide positive washback effects of the test on learning and teaching of English around the globe. However, the integrated nature of these tasks can pose some issues, such as construct-related validity and verbatim source use. Given that the inferences made from test scores depend upon the construct of the measure, it is important to have a working knowledge of how strategies are used on integrated writing tests as part of the process of construct validation. This study investigates the relationship between second language writers’ strategy use and performance on an integrated reading-listening-writing test using structural equation modeling and qualitative approaches. Data were collected from 161 non-native English-speaking students. The students first took an integrated reading-listening-writing test and followed by a strategy inventory on how they thought while completing the test. Twenty students, ten in the high-performance group and ten in the low-performance group, participated in a retrospective interview. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to identify the clusters of items based on three hypothetical factors: Rhetorical, Self-Regulatory, and Test-Wiseness Strategy Use. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was then utilized to test the hypothetical relations between observed and latent variables. Subsequently, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to model the relationship between students’ self-reported strategy use and their test performance. The data collected from retrospective interviews, an open-ended questionnaire, and planning sheets were analyzed to triangulate quantitative results and provide supplementary information in interpreting the quantitative data. The study illuminates the nature of integrated writing strategy use, the nature of integrated writing performance, and the relationship between strategy use and performance on an integrated reading-listening-writing test. The results of the study have implications for second language writing assessment and instruction as well as theory in second language academic writing. / text