Research on academic literacy within higher education has focused almost exclusively on the development of academic literacy in English. This book is unique in showing how students use other languages when they engage with written academic content--whether in reading, discussing, or writing--and how increasingly multilingual higher education…

Discusses ways to insure that the current emphasis on grammar, concrete structure, and explicit simplicity do not edge out the development of writing that is forceful and engaging. (FL)

Discusses the heuristic role of yes-no questions in college composition and provides two such methods for brainstorming and focusing. Presents a binary graph device ("Matrix") that correlates subjects and concerns to generate yes-no questions. Also presents a flow-chart model structuring information in the question-evidence-resolution pattern. (JG)

Suggests an exercise to help students stop using incorrect word forms, which involves students in choosing a word, defining it, using it correctly in a sentence, and finding five other words using the original word as a root. (TJ)

The language journal can be an effective aid for teaching students to be aware of and sensitive to language. Students write down any observations that interest them about the language they hear or read in everyday life, together with their speculations on the causes of such language. The journal is devoted specifically to language because an…

Discusses an approach to teaching second language composition which emphasizes (1) careful analysis of model texts from a limited, but well-defined perspective and (2) the application of text manipulation techniques developed by the word processing industry to student compositions. (EKN)

Describes an interdisciplinary writing course organized around the theme of language as used by individual disciplines. Reports a significant improvement in students' writing skills, exposure to a breadth of issues to which these skills might be applied in students' respective majors, and an enthusiastic response to the approach. (DMM)

Asserts that computer analysis makes it possible to assess the intervention of a second "author" in Christopher Columbus's famous "Diary." Concludes that computer analysis makes it possible to examine Columbus's verbatim testimony and identify ways that Bartoleme de Las Casas intervened. (CFR)

Describes ERIC resources that present research on children's language usage and development and that suggest activities for the promotion of language development. (ET)

Uses a case study to describe how to help students discover the subjective nature of language habits and patterns of thought. (MKM)

The earlier composition is introduced in language instruction, the sooner students see it as a means for self-expression. However, beginning students have not learned enough grammar to produce intelligible compositions and intermediate students frequently have difficulty in synthesizing what they have learned. Thus the teacher must try to correct…

This book presents 113 writing "workouts" (exercises) to help students, and especially teachers, think about the small steps writers take as they learn their craft. The workouts in Part I, Writers Speak Up, are intended to help novice writers develop confidence in the value of their experience. Part II, Writers Pay Attention, presents challenges…

Suggests ways to help students enjoy the illogic or inconsistencies of English by comparing conventional usage of several major world languages. (MKM)

Describes some of the strategies of repetition and metaphor used by Black American novelist Richard Wright, as a model that students can adopt in their own writing, both for generating ideas and for revising them. Appendixes include various drafts of an interview statement by Wright. (HTH)

Presents a short piece of writing by an elementary school student; describes a process in which English teacher education students analyzed the writing, applied James Britton's language model to the text, and discussed possible teaching techniques to use with the student. (GT)