Student writers labeled "underprepared" by colleges often have trouble imagining themselves as scholars. Challenges these students routinely encounter include difficulty forming original insights and translating ideas to the page. Although the usage of the term "underprepared" varies across institutional contexts, the…

This qualitative research study sought to understand the affordances and limitations of a systemic functional linguistics (SFL) approach to teaching composition at the community college level. The study took place over the course of a semester in two developmental college composition classes using the language of SFL to teach writing through…

This qualitative study investigated co-requisite courses which pair a developmental course with a college-level course and offer insight into how co-requisite instructors adjusted their curriculum and pedagogy for English language learners. Specifically, it examined faculty experiences teaching a co-requisite course combining a critical thinking…

Only 25% to 38% of secondary education graduates in the United States are proficient readers or writers but many continue to postsecondary education, where they take developmental education courses designed to help them improve their basic academic skills. However, outcomes are poor for this population, and one problem may be that approaches to…

This dissertation explores student perceptions of effective teaching strategies in a developmental writing course and their perspectives of how well the course prepared them for the freshman college composition course. Three research questions guided the study. Research Question 1 asked which teaching strategies developmental writing students…

A review of studies published from 2000 to 2012 was conducted to describe the literacy skills of underprepared postsecondary students, identify teaching approaches designed to bring their skills to the college level, and determine methods of embedding developmental instruction in college-level course work. The studies pinpointed numerous weak…

Two experiments were conducted with developmental education students to investigate the impact of a contextualized intervention focusing on written summarization and other reading and writing skills. In experiment 1 (n = 322), greater gain was found for intervention than comparison participants on three summarization measures: proportion of main…

Investigates the effects of task repetition on the writing skills of upper-level developmental reading students. Reports that productivity, use of source text, and representation of key ideas improved with simple repetition of meaningful literacy tasks. However, there was also an increase in copying from the sources. (Contains 38 references.)…

Reviews two prevalent paradigms for language writing education: the social, using formalized methods to bring students of all backgrounds into mainstream academic literacy; and the developmental, emphasizing theories of language acquisition to enable students to approximate literacy through their cultural contexts. Argues against viewing these…

Describes a study of the effectiveness of using a content analysis-based approach for teaching developmental students to summarize texts. Indicates that developmental students can be taught to understand top-level structure and use this knowledge when constructing summaries. Suggests that students can be taught in cost-effective, group situations.…

Following a literature review on the subjects of the decline in student writing abilities and increased student writing apprehension, this paper offers teachers information on a basic writing program that reduces writing anxiety and improves writing skills through large doses of positive reinforcement. The second section of the paper discusses the…

A language skills program was developed at Lake City Community College to increase remedial students' chances of academic success in college courses. The program concentrates first on developing students' speaking and listening skills and then proceeds to more complex reading and writing skills. The program provides 16 weeks of developmental study…

The developmental program at the Community College of Philadelphia (CCP) has a stable core of teachers who value independence rather than conformity and who seek to transform deeply anxious students into students who love learning. The instructors' goals of improving basic skills, fostering independent thinking, and promoting greater knowledge and…

This monograph, consisting of four sections, focuses on developmental education in the higher education setting. The first section, by Johnnie Ruth Clarke, provides an overall perspective on learning through developmental programs. Included are discussions of the developmental approach, developmental students and instructional activities, and…

The prevalence of underprepared students attending colleges, the need to define literacy requirements of courses, the implications of research on literacy in the design of remedial programs, and the need for systematic evaluation of such programs are considered. Literacy is broadly defined as a language competence that is used to achieve both…