Building on Sheen's (2007) study of the effects of written corrective feedback (CF) on the acquisition of English articles, this article investigated whether direct focused CF, direct unfocused CF and writing practice alone produced differential effects on the accurate use of grammatical forms by adult ESL learners. Using six intact adult ESL…

Preschool children's early understanding of letters was explored. Five tasks were designed to elicit information about children's conceptualizations of letters in their own names, and the children's responses were analyzed descriptively to determine general patterns. (Author/VWL)

The questions of if and how writing in a second language is the same as writing in the first were investigated in a review of the literature. After a review of research in first language (L1) composing since Emig's 1971 "composing aloud" study, research in second language (L2) composing is also examined. Studies on the relationship between L1 and…

A 6-month case study of one adult composing in both his native and second language was undertaken to examine the complexity of second-language composing and the relationship between processes in the two languages. Two thinking-aloud protocols were collected from the subject, who was composing in response to a writing task. The first data were…

Observation and interviews of the children in two third grade classrooms--one in which children write frequently and learn punctuation skills in context, and one in which children learn punctuation in isolation--suggest that punctuation skills are learned more effectively in context. In interviews the "writers" could explain an average of 8.66…

A study of the writing processes of ten fifth-grade French immersion students examined 22 features of their writing in both English and French. Differences across languages occurred in eight features, and students displayed a wide range of writing process behaviors in both languages. (Author/MSE)

Building on previous studies of the effects of planning on second language (L2) learners' oral narratives and drawing on Kellog's (1996) model of writing, this article reports a study of the effects of three types of planning conditions (pretask planning, unpressured on-line planning, and no planning) on 42 Chinese learners' written narratives…

Analysis of 72 reports comparing first- (L1) and (L2) second-language writing indicate differences between L1 and L2 writing with regard to composing processing and features of written text. Implications for L2 and L1 writing theory, comparative writing research, and assessment, placement, staffing, and instruction are discussed. (Contains 77…

A study investigated one major aspect of the process of writing in a second language (L2), surface error correction, and two related issues. The main research questions included: whether (1) L2 writers were preoccupied with surface error correction during the generation of text; and (2) whether this regular interruption of the composing process…

Examines whether targeting instruction to students' weak points has an effect on their writing quality. Upper intermediate students in an English for academic purposes course were asked to write a composition before and after the instructional treatment. Comparison of results from the two tasks shows a significant increase in scores on both…

Discussion of one form of pragmatic competence, projecting a sense of stylistic voice into texts, explores how writing in a non-native language affects the ability to express stylistic voice and enter into social dialogue with readers. Using the published reflections of authors writing professionally in a non-native language, the analysis shows…

A study investigated the effects of instruction in metadiscourse on composition students' writing skills. Subjects were students in two 100-level college composition classes. A Control Class (CC) was taught using a process approach, and the Experimental Class (EC) had direct teaching of metadiscourse. The CC students worked on the propositional…

A study compared the writing strategies used by an adolescent in two essays, one in Danish (native language) and one in English (second language), assigned as homework. Analysis of think-aloud protocols focused on four behaviors: commenting; reading aloud; writing; and verbatim verbalizations of text before writing. Analysis found very similar…

This study investigated register features of 164 foreign students' English writing before and after full-time courses in English for academic purposes. Results indicate the major changes were from features of spoken English to those more typical of formal writing, both in surface detail and in more fundamental characteristics. Less change occurred…

A study investigated linguistic, rhetorical, and strategic variables of the writing processes and products of 3 groups of graduate and undergraduate students: 28 native English-speaking Americans; 28 Koreans studying in the United States; and 90 Korean students in Korea. The last two groups were learners of English as a Second Language (ESL). Data…