This short, accessible new text in the McGraw-Hill Second Language Professional Series provides research-based information and practical advice to instructors who teach writing to second and foreign language learners. Based on the principles of communicative language teaching, the text can be used as a supplement to other books in the Series or to other main texts. It is appropriate for a basic methods course or a course on second or foreign language writing; it can also be used as part of a preparation course for ESL or foreign language teaching assistants, as a text for continuing education courses for high school ESL teachers, or as an aid for practicing second language teachers.

In the context of increasingly multilingual global educational settings, this book provides a timely exploration of the phenomenon of cross-linguistic transfer of writing strategies (in particular, transfer from the foreign language to the first language) and presents a compelling case for a multilingual approach to writing pedagogy. The book presents evidence from a classroom-based intervention study conducted in a secondary school in England on cross-linguistic strategy transfer. It suggests that even beginner or low proficiency foreign language learners can develop effective skills and strategies in the foreign language classroom which can also positively influence writing in other languages, including their first language. This book ultimately encourages more joined-up, cross-curricular, cross-linguistic thinking related to language in schools by exploring the potential for collaboration between languages teachers.

The classroom practices discussed in Effective Second Language Writing reflect various trends and methodologies; however, the underlying theme in this volume of the Classroom Practice Series is the need for clear and meaningful communication between ESL writers and their readers. Though approaches differ, two core beliefs are constant: ESL students have something important to say, and ESL writing teachers can help them say it. Effective instruction starts with meaningful writing tasks, integrates a variety of skills and technologies, builds competencies, requires critical thinking, and employs appropriate resources. This volume of ideas and insights will enable ESL teachers to help their writing students find purposeful voices that resonate across countries, customs, disciplines, and cultures.

This volume brings together the current theoretical interest in reconceptualizing second and foreign language learning from a sociocultural perspective on language and learning, with practical concerns about second and foreign language pedagogy. It presents a set of studies whose focus is on the empirical description of particular practices constructed in classroom interaction that promote the learning of a second or foreign language. The authors examine in detail the processes by which the learning of additional languages is accomplished in the interaction of a variety of classrooms and in a variety of languages. Not only will the findings from the studies reported in this volume help to lay a foundation for the development of a more expansive, sociocultural model of second and foreign language learning, but on a more practical level they will help language educators in creating a set of principles for identifying and sustaining classroom interactional practices that foster additional language development. The volume is distinguished in three ways: * Following a Vygotskyan perspective on development, the studies assume that language learning is a fundamentally pragmatic enterprise, intrinsically linked to language use. This breaks from a more traditional understanding of second and foreign language learning, which has viewed learning and use as two distinct phenomena. The importance of classroom interaction to additional language development is foregrounded. * The investigations reported in this book are distinguished by their methodological approach. Because language learning is assumed to be a situated, context-sensitive, and dynamic process, the studies do not rely on traditional experimental methods for collecting and analyzing data, but rather, they involve primarily the use of ethnographic and discourse analytic methods. * The studies focus on interactional practices that promote second and foreign language learning. Although a great deal of research has examined first language learning in classrooms from a sociocultural perspective, little has looked at second and foreign language classrooms from such a perspective. Thus there is a strong need for this volume of studies addressing this area of research. Researchers, teacher educators, and graduate students across the fields of second and foreign language learning, applied linguistics, and language education will find this book informative and relevant. Because of the programmatic implications arising from the studies, it will also appeal to teacher educators and teachers of second and foreign languages from the elementary to the university levels.

In this first book-length treatment of collaborative writing in second language (L2) classrooms, Neomy Storch provides a theoretical, pedagogical and empirical rationale for the use of collaborative writing activities in L2 classes, as well as some guidelines about how to best implement such activities in both face-to-face and online mode. The book discusses factors that may impact on the nature and outcomes of collaborative writing, and examines the beliefs about language learning that underpin learners' and teachers' attitudes towards pair and group work. The book critically reviews the available body of research on collaborative writing and identifies future research directions, thereby encouraging researchers to continue investigating collaborative writing activities.

Addressing basic writing not only as a practical problem and humane responsibility, but also as a challenging area for research and theorizing, this book reviews, interprets, and applies the growing body of work in second language acquisition. Chapter 1 presents 6 hypotheses constituting an attempt to develop a cohesive theory of writing acquisition that incorporates the redundancy of language and facilitates the process of language acquisition. The following chapters explore this theory in detail to serve as a basis for experimental confirmation. Chapters 2 and 3, on spoken and written language and redundancy, provide the theoretical basis for the argument that academic discourse is a separate linguistic system characterized by particular psycholinguistic features. Chapters 4 and 5 present a detailed analysis of the behavior of basic writers with respect to written form, reviewing both pertinent second language theory about learners' errors and a case study of one writer. Chapters 6 and 7 discuss the relevant affective factors analyzed in second language acquisition theory and detail Stephen Krashen's recent proposals for a comprehensive theory of second language acquisition. The final chapter reviews the entire theory, summarizes the evidence, and outlines the agenda for further research. (JD)

Bridges the gap between the fields of second language acquisition (SLA) and second and foreign language (L2) writing. This title intends to advance our understanding of written language learning by collecting theoretical meta-reflections and empirical studies that shed light on two crucial dimensions of the theory and research in the field