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Descriptors:
State Standards; Reading Comprehension; Academic Standards; Text Structure; Children; Writing Instruction; Elementary Education; English Instruction; Language Arts; Literacy; Books; Reading

Abstract:
Teaching children in the primary grades the text structures and features used by authors of information text has been shown to improve comprehension of information texts and provide the scaffolding and support these children need in order to write their own information texts. As teachers implement the "English Language Arts Common Core State Standards" (CCSS), they will need support and training on how to meet these increased curricular demands. In this article, we describe how children's information books can be used as exemplars of well-structured text models to teach young students how to write selected discourse patterns required in the CCSS. As children in the primary grades learn to recognize and use well-structured example information texts as models for their own writing, they will be better prepared to deal with less well-structured, more complex text examples in their reading and writing in the years to come. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Interdisciplinary Approach; Applied Linguistics; Journal Articles; Audiences; Biochemistry; Flow Charts; English for Special Purposes; Language Styles; Text Structure; Teaching Methods; Comparative Analysis; Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Material Development

Abstract:
This article highlights aspects of an interdisciplinary (chemistry-applied linguistics) English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course- and materials-development project. The project was aimed at raising genre awareness among chemistry students and faculty, in addition to improving students' disciplinary reading and writing. As part of the project, full-length chemistry journal articles were analyzed. We describe select results of this analysis and the prominent role played by chemists in the process. Emphasis is placed on the organizational structure of chemistry journal articles, focusing on the Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion (A-IMRDC) sections. Two predominant organizational patterns emerged from our analyses, specifically A-IMR[DC] and A-IM[R(DC)], with brackets signifying sections merged under one major heading. Move-analysis findings are converted into easy-to-interpret instructional tools labeled "move structures akin to flow charts" for two target audiences (chemistry students and faculty). The rhetorical structure of the chemistry journal article is then compared to journal articles published in biochemistry, an overlapping discipline. The article concludes with pedagogical implications and suggestions for ESP professionals engaged in genre analysis. (Contains 6 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Scoring; Essays; Text Structure; Writing (Composition); Evaluation Criteria; Persuasive Discourse; Definitions; Evaluation Problems; Criticism; Writing Evaluation; Essay Tests; Computer Assisted Testing; Validity; Measurement; Psychometrics; Writing Skills

Abstract:
This paper examines the construct measured by automated essay scoring (AES) systems. AES systems measure features of the text structure, linguistic structure, and conventional print form of essays; as such, the systems primarily measure text production skills. In the current state-of-the-art, AES provide little direct evidence about such matters as strength of argumentation or rhetorical effectiveness. However, since there is a relationship between ease of text production and ability to mobilize cognitive resources to address rhetorical and conceptual problems, AES systems have strong correlations with overall performance and can effectively distinguish students in a position to apply a broader writing construct from those for whom text production constitutes a significant barrier to achievement. The paper begins by defining writing as a construct and then turns to the e-rater scoring engine as an example of AES state-of-the-art construct measurement. Common criticisms of AES are defined and explicated--fundamental objections to the construct measured, methods used to measure the construct, and technical inadequacies--and a direction for future research is identified through a socio-cognitive approach to AES. (Contains 4 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Action Research; Reading Instruction; Teaching Methods; Secondary Schools; Foreign Countries; English Teachers; Text Structure; Adolescents; Reading; Hermeneutics; Personal Narratives; Low Achievement; Reading Difficulties; Reading Teachers; Grade 7; Reading Comprehension

Abstract:
Teachers of reading in secondary schools know how important it is for low-attaining readers to read whole narratives but time to do this in a crowded curriculum is limited and progress is more easily measured through reading smaller parts of texts. This paper reports on a longitudinal critical action research project in which three English teachers in two different urban secondary schools in the south of England read whole complex narratives with their classes of average and low-attaining Year 8 students (12- to 13-year-olds) with their practice newly theorised by hermeneutics and intertextuality. These theoretical approaches encouraged the teachers to situate the texts in relation to other related texts that supported students in making inferential links. Moreover, teacher pedagogic discourse became newly focused on text structure and coherence as the whole class read the text together and rapidly to the end with pleasure and understanding. The long-term impact of the action research suggests that such a theorised approach can influence teachers' practice at a deep and sustainable level and in one school led to the introduction of a daily reading lesson where students read whole narratives they selected themselves, raising their reading ages and creating a reading culture. (Contains 1 table.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Learning Disabilities; Writing Tests; Adolescents; Writing Evaluation; Grammar; Expository Writing; Text Structure; Pilot Projects; Productivity; Literary Genres; Narration; Correlation; Discourse Modes; Literary Devices; Student Writing Models; Language Acquisition; Difficulty Level; Performance Factors

Abstract:
We evaluated the narrative and expository writing samples of 12 adolescents with language-learning disabilities (LLD) in Grades 6 to 12 for elements of microstructure (e.g., productivity, grammatical complexity) and macrostructure (genre-specific text structure elements) using an experimental measure. Writing samples were elicited with genre-specific prompts via paper and pencil and transcribed according to "Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts" (SALT) conventions. Wilcoxon signed ranks tests indicate that levels of productivity and grammatical complexity were significantly greater in the narrative genre than in the expository genre. However, participants' writing samples demonstrated equally impoverished text structure for both genres. Positive correlations were found between microstructure and macrostructure performance. Findings confirm the effects of discourse genre on measures of microstructure and further elucidate the use of microstructure and macrostructure elements in the writing of adolescents with LLD. Future research, comprehensive writing assessment, and interventionists should consider direct measurement of both microstructure and macrostructure components across genres for this population. (Contains 4 tables.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Foreign Countries; Writing Skills; Spelling; Handwriting; Dyslexia; College Students; Young Adults; Indo European Languages; Effect Size; Error Patterns; Text Structure

Abstract:
To have a clearer idea of the problems students with dyslexia may face during their studies, we compared writings of 100 students with dyslexia and 100 age matched control students in higher education. The aim of this study was to compare the writing of young adults with dyslexia and young adults without dyslexia. The study was carried out in Belgium with writers of Dutch. First, we studied the number and type of spelling errors, the quality of the texts produced, the use of words, and the handwriting, both in a precis writing task (writing a summary of an informative text) and in a dictation task (sentence writing). Our results showed medium to large effect sizes for spelling errors: d = 0.93 for morphosyntactic spelling errors, d = 0.55 for memory-related spelling errors, and a medium effect size for punctuation and capitalization errors, d = 0.40. Second, experts who were blind to the aims of the study were asked to judge the quality of the writing of both groups based on transcriptions that were free from spelling errors. The quality of the texts produced was judged lower for students with dyslexia than for the controls, d = 0.61 for text structure and d = 0.56 for agreeability, even though the number and types of words used by both groups were very much the same. There was no significant difference in the quality of the handwriting, d = 0.15. Given that remedial teaching has been shown to be effective for essay-writing skills, educational support along these lines may be helpful for students with dyslexia. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Intervention; Teaching Methods; Grammar; Meta Analysis; Prewriting; Process Approach (Writing); Text Structure; Writing Instruction; Elementary School Students; Effect Size; Self Management; Metacognition; Writing Strategies; Creativity; Imagery; Scaffolding (Teaching Technique); Word Processing

Abstract:
In an effort to identify effective instructional practices for teaching writing to elementary grade students, we conducted a meta-analysis of the writing intervention literature, focusing our efforts on true and quasi-experiments. We located 115 documents that included the statistics for computing an effect size (ES). We calculated an average weighted ES for 13 writing interventions. To be included in the analysis, a writing intervention had to be tested in 4 studies. Six writing interventions involved explicitly teaching writing processes, skills, or knowledge. All but 1 of these interventions (grammar instruction) produced a statistically significant effect: strategy instruction (ES = 1.02), adding self-regulation to strategy instruction (ES = 0.50), text structure instruction (ES = 0.59), creativity/imagery instruction (ES = 0.70), and teaching transcription skills (ES = 0.55). Four writing interventions involved procedures for scaffolding or supporting students' writing. Each of these interventions produced statistically significant effects: prewriting activities (ES = 0.54), peer assistance when writing (ES = 0.89), product goals (ES = 0.76), and assessing writing (0.42). We also found that word processing (ES = 0.47), extra writing (ES = 0.30), and comprehensive writing programs (ES = 0.42) resulted in a statistically significant improvement in the quality of students' writing. Moderator analyses revealed that the self-regulated strategy development model (ES = 1.17) and process approach to writing instruction (ES = 0.40) improved how well students wrote. (Contains 2 tables.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; Short Term Memory; Recall (Psychology); Visual Stimuli; Symptoms (Individual Disorders); Conceptual Tempo; Scores; Spatial Ability; Models; Measures (Individuals); Maps; High School Students; Learning Processes; Text Structure

Abstract:
Objective: The Kulhavy model for text learning using organized spatial displays proposes that learning will be increased when participants view visual images prior to related text. In contrast to previous studies, this study also included students who exhibited symptoms of ADHD. Method: Participants were presented with either a map-text or text-map condition. Results: The map-text condition led to a significantly higher performance than the text-map condition, overall. However, students who endorsed more symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity scored more poorly when asked to recall text facts, text features, and map features and were less able to correctly place map features on a reconstructed map than were students who endorsed fewer symptoms. Conclusion: The results of the study support the Kulhavy model for typical students; however, the benefit of viewing a display prior to text was not seen for students with ADHD symptoms, thus supporting previous studies that have demonstrated that ADHD appears to negatively affect operations that occur in working memory. (Contains 1 table and 5 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Doctoral Dissertations; Social Action; Theater Arts; Visual Arts; Text Structure; Written Language; Language Styles

Abstract:
This article describes an investigation into the practice-based doctorate in the visual and performing arts, a genre that is still in the process of development. A key feature of these doctorates is that they comprise two components: a visual or performance component, and a written text which accompanies it which in some ways is similar to, but in others, is quite different from a traditional doctoral dissertation. This article focuses on the overall organizational patterns, or macrostructures of the texts that students submit as part of the examination in these areas of study, and how these patterns of organization are related to those found in more established examples of the doctoral dissertation genre in other areas of study. The study found that there is a range of organizational possibilities for the written text that is part of a doctoral submission in the visual and performing arts, each at different points on a continuum. Our study shows how the genre we examined has both the capacity for change, while remaining "stabilized for now" in terms of its social action and purpose. (Contains 2 figures and 9 tables.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Sentences; Eye Movements; Chinese; Vocabulary Development; Vocabulary Skills; Reading Skills; Teaching Methods; Text Structure; Control Groups; Experimental Groups; Achievement Gains; Reading Strategies; Reading Instruction

Abstract:
We examined whether inserting spaces between words in Chinese text would help children learn to read new vocabulary. We recorded adults' and 7- to 10-year-old children's eye movements as they read new 2-character words, each embedded in four explanatory sentences (the learning session). Participants were divided into learning subgroups--half read word spaced sentences, and half read unspaced sentences. In the test session participants read the new words again, each in one new sentence; here, all participants read unspaced text. In the learning session, participants in the spaced group read the new words more quickly than participants in the unspaced group. Further, children in the spaced group maintained this benefit in the test session (unspaced text). In relation to three different models of Chinese lexical identification, we argue that the spacing manipulation allowed the children to form either stronger connections between the two characters' representations and the corresponding, novel word representation, or to form a more fully specified representation of the word itself. (Contains 3 tables.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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