Writing Instruction Research Articles

De-boning the fish: Indexing Routledge’s Teaching Creative Writing in Asia as abecedarian memoir

ABSTRACT This essay of creative nonfiction tells the story – one intellectual, professional, personal, and cultural – of the author having recently edited a ground-breaking anthology of Creative Writing pedagogy. While the Routledge anthology is formal scholarship, its editor and contributor here writes creative nonfiction to (a) more personally reflect on some of the massive cultural issues involved in the creation and direction of many of the first CW programmes in Asia (e.g. in a master’s degree conferred by Goldsmiths, University of London to students at Singapore’s LASALLE College of the Arts), through (b) a textual dialogue with some of the highlights from the Routledge anthology’s index. As a starting point, and one not shared in the 2021 anthology itself, this essay shares the ‘dirty little secret’ that while indices are, by definition, often one of the last components written for a book, a book’s internal cartography would be improved if an index could be written earlier. As both this essay and the anthology point out, creative nonfiction is a multiply apt genre for this inquiry, given its (i) popularity, (ii) easy transfer to social media sharing and (iii) greater licence, in anglophone publishing, to play with form.

The Effect of Task-Based Writing Instruction on Iranian Pre-Intermediate EFL Learners’ Self-Efficacy and Epistemic Beliefs

Generally, writing—and second-language (L2) writing in particular—causes a lot of challenges. Indeed, many L2 students who are very proficient in speaking and reading may encounter many difficulties while composing a letter or a biography. They suffer from a low level of self-efficacy and confidence in this respect. Therefore, this research was aimed at shedding light on the effects of task-based writing instruction on improving English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' self-efficacy and epistemic beliefs associated with writing skills. To this end, a sample of 36 Iranian male and female pre-intermediate learners took part in this research. They formed two groups: experimental and control. The participants in the experimental group took part in 18 intensive writing sessions which were held three times a week. In each session, the teacher and students collaborated to write a text. They took part in carrying out some writing tasks in which they cooperated to write. This was followed by two interviews with different sets of questions conducted with four participants, as representatives of all students, in the second and sixth weeks of the study. The data were also collected using two interviews, the writing self-efficacy scale, and the Epistemological Beliefs Survey. The results showed the positive effect of task-based writing instruction concerning writing skills, self-efficacy, and epistemic beliefs. This study has implications for educators who can use this method to develop EFL learners’ self-efficacy and epistemic beliefs, which, in turn, can enhance their writing skills as well.

Case Study on the Design of High School English Writing Instruction Based on Subject Core Literacy

Since the emergence of core literacy, different disciplines have been actively exploring disciplinary core literacy. The real implementation of disciplinary core literacy needs to be deeply involved in each lesson, and different lesson types have different teaching and learning methods. This study explores how to design writing lessons based on disciplinary core literacy, mainly analyzing the teaching objectives and teaching process, forming a complete case study of writing teaching, and providing ideas and paths for the majority of high school English educators.

EFL Writing Teaching / Learning Could Go Online: Instructors’ Perceptions, Students’ Perceptions, and Achievement

In light of the COVID -19 pandemic and government policies to conduct online learning, the present study aimed to examine how EFL faculty and students perceive teaching and learning EFL writing online, whether they differ significantly in their perceptions, and to examine if the scores of the students who study face to face are significantly different from those who studied online .21 EFL teachers and 104 EFL students voluntarily participated in this study via Google Form. Both EFL faculty and students were asked to complete a five-Likert point questionnaire about EFL teaching and learning of writing online. In addition, the scores of 54 students who studied in person were compared with the scores of 52 students who studied online regarding EFL writing. Descriptive statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS for data analysis. The results showed that EFL instructors had both positive and negative perceptions toward EFL writing online teaching. However, the positive perceptions outweighed the negative ones. In addition, students perceived online writing instruction as a useful tool to compensate for face-to-face learning during the COVID -19 pandemic. Moreover, the students preferred ODeL writing courses to traditional courses whereas the instructors did not. Furthermore, the students who studied online outscored those who studied in person. The important implications of the findings for research on teaching and learning EFL writing online are discussed.

Teacher Reports of Secondary Writing Instruction with Deaf Students

Since students’ writing skills are largely shaped by the quality of instruction they receive, we can learn from what teachers report about their beliefs and approaches to the teaching and learning of writing. This study explores the state of writing instruction at secondary levels with deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students through a mixed-methods approach using a sequential explanatory design. Two hundred and twenty-two teachers responded to a survey about writing instruction, and 10 teachers participated in follow-up focus groups. The findings indicate that the primary difference between the hearing middle and high school student population and the DHH population is experiences of language deprivation, which impact the preparedness of teachers of DHH students, as well as the time and focus of their writing instruction. Teachers reported that American Sign Language/English bilingual instruction was the greatest area of need in research.

TEACHING WRITING INFORMATIONAL TEXTS TO MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

In the Secondary Education Program for Literature 2018, informational texts have been focused on and become one of the three main types of texts which are taught to students besides literary texts and argumentative texts. Accordingly, students are not only guided to read informational texts, but also practice writing these texts based on a specific process. This article outlines a number of requirements for teaching writing lessons due to the characteristics of texts and the requirements of teaching writing with a process approach. The article also proposes methods and techniques for teaching writing informational texts such as models, diagrams, the Kipling and think-aloud technique, etc. The research results contribute to improving the quality of teaching this type of text in middle schools.

Exploring the Teacher’s Experiences of Using Digital Technology in Teaching Writing Skills

In recent years, technology has been increasingly used in teaching in schools. Teachers and students use digital technology to make teaching-learning more effective and enjoyable. This situation has been supported by policies from schools that require teachers to use digital technology in teaching. This study's survey findings indicate that teachers already use digital technology in teaching, which can make students interested in learning English. This study also relates to the teacher's attitude toward learning writing skills using digital technology. This study employed interviews conducted by four English teachers at a school that mostly uses digital technology in teaching writing skills. These teachers affirm that digital technology can make teaching more accessible and make students interested in learning English.

ABOUT TEACHING WRITING TO ELEMENTARY AND FIRST GRADERS AT SCHOOL

ABOUT TEACHING WRITING TO ELEMENTARY AND FIRST GRADERS AT SCHOOL

Experiences of Alienation and Intimacy: The Work of Secondary Writing Instruction

Drawing on critical theories of labor and commodification, this qualitative embedded case study explores how students experience alienation and intimacy in the work of writing for an English language arts class. Analysis of fieldnotes from 30 observations, student writing products, and reflective interviews with focal students and the teacher illuminated the meaningful assemblages where conditions of intimacy permeated instruction. Two practices supported intimacy in working conditions: knowledge about writing built through a collective process of noticing, and open-ended work time characterized by “managed nonmanagement” (, p. 176), or calculated flexibility in rules and expectations. Findings illustrate how a literacy practice might contribute to students’ experience of alienation or intimacy (or both) while writing, depending on conditions of industrialization and commodification. Even as the teacher strove to deindustrialize work, commodification through grades and standardized assessments heightened alienation in the writing environment. The study provides an example of an educational context governed by an industrial system of assessment where local actors (the teacher and students) disrupted alienation by working in smaller scales and more closely with texts.

A Case Study on Integrating Google Translate into College EFL Writing Instruction

A Case Study on Integrating Google Translate into College EFL Writing Instruction

K-12 ESL Writing Instruction: Learning to Write or Writing to Learn Language?

Writing is an important literacy skill for K-12 students’ academic success. For English as a Second Language (ESL) children, developing writing skills involves both learning English and learning to write. This makes ESL writing instruction challenging as teachers have to strike a balance between teaching writing as a literacy skill and as a tool for students’ English language development. Recent research has identified that in-service teachers in K-12 settings lack requisite training in L2 writing, resulting in various challenges in the ESL writing classroom. One such challenge for them is to determine whether the focus of writing instruction should be to teach students how to write (learn-to-write) or to utilize writing as a tool to help students develop the English language (write-to-learn language). Eliciting the theoretical orientations of both learn-to-write (LW) and write-to-learn language (WLL), this article suggests that the LW and WLL approaches are not mutually exclusive for teaching ESL writing. Based on a review of recent research, the paper discusses a systemic functional linguistics (SFL)-informed genre-based writing pedagogy as well as teaching and learning activities that integrate both LW and WLL principles into ESL writing instruction in the elementary classroom.

Exploring Grade Two Teachers’ Interpretation of New Curriculum Pedagogical Concepts in the Teaching of Writing

This paper aims to discover teachers’ interpretation of the pedagogical concepts informing the underlying philosophical framework of the curriculum implemented in Indonesia when the study on which this paper is based was conducted. The curriculum was Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP), meaning school-based curriculum. The teachers’ understandings of the pedagogical concepts were examined using the setting of writing lesson teaching in grade 2. The study used a qualitative method that involved 10 grade two teachers from 10 elementary schools in Makassar, Indonesia. Data collection techniques were classroom observations, informal discussion at the end of each observation, and interviews. Although the KTSP committed to distance from a traditional view of teaching and learning, the study found that the teachers’ interpretations of the pedagogical concepts of the KTSP in the teaching of writing appeared to echo this view. The study also found that the teachers interpreted the pedagogical concepts through competencies of writing lesson that grade two students should achieve. Although other forms of curricula have replaced the KTSP, the findings from this study could inform the government and other relevant decision-makers about teachers’ difficulties in understanding change that will have an implication on policy and practice regarding the support given to teachers in implementing existing and future curricula in Indonesia and different contexts.

A Research on the Current Situation and Countermeasures of English Writing Teaching for Junior English Majors

At present, the effectiveness of English writing teaching for junior English majors is not satisfactory, with a lack of interactivity in the classroom, inflexible teaching methods, a deficiency of targeted teaching for students’ problems, and insufficient emphasis on writing training. The main reasons for these problems are that teachers have failed to conduct the student-centered English writing teaching model, emphasizing one-way output, ignoring students’ writing problems, and resulting in the shortage of writing training. In this regard, teachers need to transform the teacher-centered English writing teaching model, consider students’ actual problems, establish common writing goals, construct online teaching resources for English writing course, and apply multi-modal writing teaching methods to boost the effectiveness of English writing teaching.

Eflection on the Teaching of IELTS Writing

In recent years, educators advocated teachers' reflection on their teaching practice, which has gradually developed into an important teaching activity. Practices have proved that teachers can improve their teaching level through continuous reflection. In this paper, the author introduces the reflection on teaching and offers some ways to improve IELTS writing teaching. Most students have trouble getting higher scores on IELTS writing tasks. Therefore, the reflection on writing teaching is useful to teachers who want to help students perform better in such English exams.

Application of ARCS Motivation Model in the English Writing Teaching in Senior High School

Writing is the main manifestation of students' language output ability and can also raise awareness of how language works. However, the current difficulties in English writing teaching, such as students' insufficient motivation, teachers' lack of attention to English writing teaching and imperfect English writing evaluation mechanism, have made the development of students' writing ability a major difficulty in English teaching. To address this situation, this paper attempts to integrate the four types of motivation strategies of ARCS model into senior high school English writing teaching in order to effectively motivate and maintain learners' enthusiasm for writing and improve the effectiveness of writing teaching.

DETERMINING PRIMARY EDUCATION TEACHERS FIRST READING AND WRITING TEACHING SELF-

DETERMINING PRIMARY EDUCATION TEACHERS FIRST READING AND WRITING TEACHING SELF-

On the Role of Peer Review in the Teaching of Second Language Writing

After process writing entered the field of second language writing instruction, peer review, which is one of the central elements of the review and revision stages, has received increasing attention and research. Peer review is a very important factor in process writing, enriching the teaching activities of second language writing instruction and playing an indispensable role in second language writing. Peer review can help teachers provide better diagnostic feedback, which not only reflects teachers’ teaching results and students’ own understanding of the target language, but also has a significant impact on learners’ learning efficiency and motivation, and can positively influence learners’ writing habits. However, peer review also has its shortcomings and limitations that need to be noted, such as: (1) students tend to ignore the meaningful aspects of their peers’ writing; (2) discussions in peer assessment become “idle chatter”; (3) students are reluctant to make suggestions for their peers under the principle of “saving face”. (3) students are not willing to make suggestions for their peers. This paper discuss the benefits of peer review in second language writing teaching from the perspective of two different subjects, students and teachers, and conclude that peer review can encourage students to revise their work, enhance their sense of readership, strengthen their communicative competence, and reduce their learning anxiety; it can also help teachers to reduce their burden and solve their teaching problems.

Editor's Introduction: Access Necessarily Precedes Success: Multilingual Student Writers in Higher Education

Editor's Introduction: Access Necessarily Precedes Success: Multilingual Student Writers in Higher Education

Multilingual Student Writers in Higher Education: Increasing Support for Multilingual Student Writers in a Writing Center Context

Multilingual Student Writers in Higher Education: Increasing Support for Multilingual Student Writers in a Writing Center Context

Examination of the Use of Feedback in EFL Writing Instruction: A Case Study of Jordan

When comparing public and private schools, it is clear there are significant differences in teaching methods, and this may be used to help pupils become writers that are more creative. The goal of this research is to examine the concept of creative writing by analyzing comments made by EFL educators in their instruction. Fifteen EFL teachers in Jordan were interviewed and observed. The researcher interviewed fifteen teachers to get their opinions on how they think feedback may be used to foster creativity in writing among EFL students. The interview results revealed that thirteen instructors utilized student comments to encourage English as foreign language writers to be more creative. Moreover, observations found that ten instructors employed feedback in their courses, including peer feedback. This research supports the use of a pre- and post-test in an experimental evaluation of the impact of interventions (such as feedback) on students' writing creativity. Why some instructors oppose using creative writing exercises (feedback) is a subject that requires deeper exploration.