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Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The purpose of the present study was to investigate the influence of rhetorical specification in writing assignments on the writing performance of EFL students from above average universities in Taiwan. Rhetorical specification refers to the amount of information provided in the writing assignment with regard to the purpose of a composition, its topic, audience, and ways of presenting ideas. The research questions were (1) How do writing assignments with varying degrees of rhetorical specification affect the overall writing quality, the content, and the rhetorical structure? (2) How do writing assignments with varying degrees of rhetorical specification affect EFL writers with varying amounts of writing instruction? (3) How do writing assignments with varying amounts of rhetorical specification affect the use of Chinese writing features in EFL students' English texts? (4) How do students assess the usefulness of rhetorical specification? Participants were assumed to be at three levels of proficiency, ranging from basic to advanced: 60 Non-English major freshmen, 50 English major freshmen, and 57 English major juniors. Each participant composed two essays in response to two writing tasks: a writing assignment that contained specific information about topic, purpose, and audience, and a task that contained little rhetorical information. Repeated measures ANOVA, paired-samples T-tests, and Chi-square statistic were undertaken to examine the effects of prompt types on several writing features. Also, the researcher interviewed 12 participants to explore their evaluations of the rhetorical information. The findings of the study are: (1) EFL students across groups benefited from rhetorical specification with regard to content richness and effective rhetorical structure. (2) English junior students were the most successful in utilizing the rhetorical information to represent a developed rhetorical problem and to compose better texts. (3) Rhetorical specification enabled Chinese-speaking EFL students to conform to English writing norms with less transference of Chinese writing features. (4) Most students indicated that among the rhetorical elements, purpose specification was considered most valuable in composing more effective essays, although they also reported that addressing the purpose demands was a challenging task. / 2031-01-01

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This is a case study that seeks to investigate how two teachers in grade 3 work with instructions to a written assignment in Swedish. The study is grounded in a sociocultural perspective on learning, and is based on observations in a classroom setting. The results show that the two teachers use different forms of mediating tools in their instructions. It was also found that the teachers use different speech acts in the instructions and that the instructions vary depending on which speech acts are included. Neither of the teachers made any adjustments to the collective instructions, instead they made individual adaptations outside the general instruction.

The purpose of this study was to identify and compare the specific writing assignments provided in the five basal readers, grades one through eight, adopted by the state of Texas. These seventy-eight basal reader's guides were first analyzed for statements indicating specific writing assignments. The total number of writing assignments in each of the teacher's guides were totaled for each publisher. The location of each writing assignment which supported the TABS categories was recorded. The writing assignments which did not support the TABS categories were assigned appropriate categories and recorded on a table. Another table compared the five publishers and the total number of writing assignments supporting the TABS categories. A fifth table compared the five publishers and the total number of writing assignments found in other categories not supporting the TABS categories.

<p>The main purpose of this study is to take a closer look at how teachers work with writing and to examine some theories on the teaching of writing. Five teachers in two schools are included in order to get an insight in teachers’ practical work with EFL writing. This has been done through classroom observations and interviews. The results show that all teachers seem to use aspects from several theories. The results also show that the teachers’ level of awareness of theories on teaching writing varies</p>

The main purpose of this study is to take a closer look at how teachers work with writing and to examine some theories on the teaching of writing. Five teachers in two schools are included in order to get an insight in teachers’ practical work with EFL writing. This has been done through classroom observations and interviews. The results show that all teachers seem to use aspects from several theories. The results also show that the teachers’ level of awareness of theories on teaching writing varies

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No description available.

This study investigates how six writing-instructions aimed at third-year students in upper secondary school, resulting in high student performance, are designed. The aim was to identify common patterns of speech acts and text activities in the writing-instructions and to examine how clearly these communicate what is expected of students. To address this, a qualitative analysis of the six writing-instructions was conducted using tools from systemic-functional grammar: speech act and the concept of text activity. The analysis results show that the writinginstructions primarily communicate through the speech acts of statement and command. The speech act statement is used to provide information about the requirements and expectations of the task, while the speech act command structures the instructional part. The congruent use of speech acts demonstrates that all writing-instructions clearly convey their message. The framing text activity of explanation is used in all writing-instructions, providing a clear guidance, and writing frameworks, and is clarified and reinforced by the embedded text activity of description. The study results suggest that writing-instructions that clearly communicate expected content, structure, and writing frameworks correlate with higher student performance. Further research could expand this study with either a larger sample or in combination with an interview study.