Today's global culture makes communication through writing in a foreign language a most desirable tool to expand personal and professional relations. However, teaching writing is a complex, time-consuming endeavor in any language. Foreign language teachers at every level struggle to fit writing into an already full curriculum and need the most effective methods and tools with which to teach. Technology may provide a viable scaffold to support writing instruction for teachers and students. The purpose of this research was to determine any benefits of weekly/structured, in-class, computer-assisted grammar drill and practice on the composition quality and quantity of intermediate university Spanish learners. A related purpose was to determine whether students who participated in such practice would access a computer-based writing assistant differently during writing than students without the treatment. The research design was a nonequivalent groups pretest-posttest design. Fifty-two subjects' compositions were graded with both holistic and analytic criteria to analyze composition quality and quantity, and statistical analyses assessed interactions of treatment and effects. The computer-based Atajo writing assistant, which could be accessed during composition, had a logging feature which provided unobtrusive observation of specific databases accessed by each student. There were no statistically significant differences found between the two groups in overall composition scores or in subscale scores. Improvements across time were observed in composition performance for both the experimental and control groups. The implementation of computer-based grammar and vocabulary practice did show a small to moderate positive effect; that is to say, students who received weekly, structured computer grammar and vocabulary practice had higher scores for composition quality and quantity on the posttest measure and accessed the databases less than the control group. The consistent positive trends in the composition data results intimate that over a more extended period of time, computer-based grammar instruction might enhance the quality and quantity of written composition in the foreign language classroom.

The purpose of this study was to explore the efficacy of using a computer word processing program in the assessment of written expression with college-bound individuals who had been diagnosed with a learning disability (LD) and/or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Fifty-six (35 eleventh and 21 twelfth) graders, attending a private college-preparatory school for students with LD and/or ADHD, were administered the Spontaneous Writing composite of the Test of Written Expression - Third Edition (TOWL-3). The TOWL-3 has equivalent forms, Form A and Form B. One form was administered in accordance with the test manual, using paper and pencil (standard format). The other form (i.e., alternate format) was administered with word processing access. Paired samples tests (repeated measure) and bivariate correlation designs were computed to explore the relationships between measures. Results of the study revealed significant increases (p<.01) in the subtest and composite scores when participants were administered the test in the alternate format. Other components of the research study did not reveal strong meaningful relationships when cognitive ability, graphomotor speed, and keyboarding rate were compared with the standard and/or alternative formats of the writing composite. A high rate of comorbity was exhibited with the majority of participants (75%) having two or more LD and/or ADHD diagnoses. On an informal questionnaire, the participants endorsed a strong preference for the use of word processors in the majority of their written academic tasks. The study concludes that for students who are accustomed to producing written work on a word processor, restriction from this writing tool can adversely affect the results of their product, leaving a false impression, underestimating their writing skills, ability, creativity, and subject knowledge. In addition, having access to a word processor during high stakes testing is paramount. Inaccurate results can affect future opportunities, such as admission to postsecondary educational settings. In summary, future and more extensive studies are needed to continue to increase the understanding of assessment, diagnosis, instruction, and assistive technology (AT) options for individuals with written language disorders.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-01T18:24:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 michele_elias_carvalho.pdf: 12962120 bytes, checksum: da9f4fd8d98f62db91a418fe3ab3f92f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-08-28 / The social changes experienced by contemporary societies have directly affected the forms of interaction and , consequently , has brought new demands for education which has among its tasks , prepare the new generations to interact socially. Such educational demands require new teachers teaching knowledge. In relation to mother tongue teaching, writing mode, there is an urgent need to redirect the teaching practice to a conception of writing as interaction. Thus, the present work is the result of a case study of the practice of a literacy teacher who had as main objective to investigate the design of writing that underlies the practice of teaching literacy teacher regarding the production of written texts before and after training continued in order to identify the impact of a continuing education program. To substantiate theoretically analyzes and reflections were used studies ANTUNES (2003); FERREIRO (2009); KLEIMAM (1995); ELIAS and KOCH (2009); MARCUSCHI (2007, 2008); MORAIS (2012); MORTATTI (2004); ROJO, (2005, 2009); SANTOS and ALBUQUERQUE (2007); SCHENEUWLY and DOLZ (2004); SOARES (1998, 2004, 2006, 2012); STREET (2010); TARDIF (2011); VEIGA and VIANA (2012),among others. The composition of the materials that comprise the corpus database UNICAP, they are responses to questionnaires and footage of textual production classes taught by a teacher literacy were used. With the results of the analysis , assuming that the continuing education constitutes an important tool for updating and qualification was possible to see that the modifications made on the design of writing adopted by Professor researched and therefore the mediation of activities textual production, were small . Situation that can be justified by the disregard of teaching knowledge at the time of preparation of the continuing education program offered by the teacher or researched little flexibility Program which was part of the teacher. Therefore, it is necessary to consider at the time of preparation of continuing education programs, teaching knowledge already constructed in his career to enable the reworking of ideas and therefore practices. / As mudanças sociais vividas pelas sociedades contemporâneas têm afetado diretamente as formas de interação e, consequentemente, vem trazendo novas demandas para a educação escolar que tem entre as suas atribuições, preparar as novas gerações para interagir socialmente. Tais demandas educacionais exigem dos professores novos saberes docentes. Em relação ao ensino de língua materna, na modalidade escrita, urge a necessidade de redirecionar a prática docente para uma concepção de escrita como interação. Diante disso, o presente trabalho é fruto de um estudo de caso da prática de um professor alfabetizador que teve como objetivo geral investigar a concepção de escrita que fundamenta a prática de ensino do professor alfabetizador em relação à produção de textos escritos antes e após a formação continuada, de modo a identificar os impactos de um programa de formação continuada. Para fundamentar teoricamente as análises e reflexões foram utilizados os estudos de ANTUNES (2003) FERREIRO (2009); KLEIMAM (1995); KOCH e ELIAS (2009); MARCUSCHI (2007, 2008); MORAIS (2012); MORTATTI (2004); ROJO, (2005, 2009); SANTOS e ALBUQUERQUE (2007); SCHENEUWLY e DOLZ (2004); SOARES (1998, 2004, 2006, 2012); STREET (2010); TARDIF (2011) e VEIGA e VIANA (2012), entre outros. Na composição do corpus foram utilizados materiais que compõem o banco de dados da UNICAP, sendo eles respostas dadas a questionários e filmagens de aulas de produção textual ministradas por um professor alfabetizador. Com os resultados das análises, partindo do pressuposto que a formação continuada se constitui em um importante instrumento de atualização e qualificação profissional foi possível perceber que as modificações apresentadas em relação à concepção de escrita adotada pelo professor pesquisado e, consequentemente, a mediação das atividades de produção textual, foram pequenas. Situação que pode ser justificada pela desconsideração dos saberes docentes no momento da elaboração do programa de formação continuada oferecido ao professor pesquisado ou pela pouca flexibilidade do Programa o qual o professor fazia parte. Nesse sentido, é preciso considerar, no momento da elaboração dos programas de formações continuadas, os saberes docentes já construídos em sua trajetória profissional de modo a possibilitar o reelaboração das concepções e, consequentemente, das práticas.

Holistic approach--Whole language approach.

Educational equality -- Composition studies -- Lack of feminist articles in professional journals of composition/writing.

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Imitation was one of the five teaching methods passed down from the Greeks and was, from antiquity down to the nineteenth century, highly respected among scholars and educators. However, imitation has lost status as a viable pedagogy, and especially perhaps in the field of composition studies.

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