The effectiveness of dialogue journal writing in improving the writing skills of young deaf writers

Various claims have been made for the usefulness of dialogue journal writing for improving the writing of less proficient users of English such as deaf writers of English or speakers of English as a second language. However, the bulk of the research has focussed on either student attitudes towards writing or very limited samples of student writing. In a one year project involving the exchange of dialogue journals between 204 pairs of deaf and hearing students in 10 public school districts, the authors sought to evaluate the utility of dialogue journals for improving the writing skills of the deaf writers. The age of the correspondents ranged from 10 to 18 years old in grades 4 through 12. Among the deaf writers, the average hearing loss was 89 dB in the better ear with a range of from 45 dB to 120 dB. The journal entries of 153 of the deaf students were evaluated for both changes in content and syntactic complexity. When the pair of writers maintained a relationship over time, there was an improvement in the quality of the writing of the deaf student and a change in the nature of the contents of the deaf student's entries. Results suggest that for some young deaf writers an exchange of dialogue journals with hearing peers can both improve the writing skills of the deaf writer and develop a relationship between the correspondents. Suggestions for implementing such a program are included.     

Characteristics and Difficulties of Teachers Who Mentor Environmental Inquiry Projects

The paper describes characteristics and analyses difficulties of environmental sciences teachers in mentoring their students in an extended inquiry project, which is a mandatory requirement of the environmental sciences matriculation in Israel. The teachers participated in a professional development program that provided both content knowledge and support for conducting inquiry, and enabled the teachers to guide the students in the inquiry project. Teachers who had experience in inquiry identified more skills required for mentoring students' inquiry, and provided a non-directive guidance pattern, whereas inexperienced teachers acknowledged less skills, and tended to present a directive-authoritative approach. Insufficient content and pedagogical content knowledge affected the teachers who closely controlled their students' work.     

Beyond the red pen: A functional grammar approach to evaluating the written language of deaf students

Deaf students often differ from their hearing peers in written language development. Providing developmentally appropriate instruction is ideal, yet current methods of writing assessment do not provide teachers with sufficient information regarding the written language (i.e., syntactic) development of deaf students. In this research, we use a Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) approach to language analysis to provide teachers with a new way to evaluate deaf students’ writing. This project consisted of two studies. The first study focused on determining whether SFG analysis could be helpful for teachers of the deaf. The second study focused on mapping a trajectory of the written language development of deaf students and the development of written language inventory for teachers of the deaf. This inventory, along with additional evaluation tools, has the potential to impact both objective setting and instruction.     

Suggestions for preparing itinerant teachers: a qualitative analysis

Increasing numbers of students who are deaf or hard of hearing receive educational services in general education classrooms. This placement shift has altered the way teachers of students who are deaf or hard of hearing work, causing an increase in the number of itinerant teachers. As placement trends for students who are deaf or hard of hearing and teachers' job responsibilities have changed, the field of deaf education has only slightly modified professional standards for licensed teachers of students who are deaf or hard of hearing. Most teacher preparation programs continue training preservice teachers to work in self-contained classrooms, leaving itinerant teachers feeling underprepared. Interviews were conducted with 25 experienced itinerant teachers to determine which content and experiences should be included in preparation programs for preservice teachers of students who are deaf or hard of hearing who plan to become itinerant teachers. Results indicate that changes in course work and practical are necessary to best prepare these teachers.     

Deaf college students' perspectives on literacy portfolios

The study examined how literacy portfolios were used as tools in a college developmental English class in which deaf students assessed their reading comprehension as well as their writing processes and products. The students' reading and writing assignments involved reflective thinking and were grounded in authentic tasks. Immediate feedback was provided. The study was multidimensional, longitudinal, and ongoing. A variety of field research techniques were used to ascertain the uses and influences of portfolios in regard to students' reading, writing, and reflective thinking. The results support the idea that the use of literacy portfolios can positively influence students who are deaf when they assess their reading and writing abilities.     

Identification, assessment, and intervention strategies for deaf and hard of hearing students with learning disabilities

The purpose of the study was to ascertain methods of identification used by teachers of the deaf and hard of hearing who were working with students with learning disabilities, the training these teachers had received, and the accommodations and modifications they had implemented for their students. A 10-item survey was designed to solicit opinions and implementation procedures. Surveys went to teachers in a four-state region of the Midwest; 91 responded. Teachers indicated the use of various criteria to identify deaf and hard of hearing students with learning disabilities, and indicted that they incorporated a variety of accommodations to meet these students' needs. The survey showed that 50% of respondents did not feel adequately prepared to teach deaf and hard of hearing students with learning disabilities. Teachers expressed a desire for more training in identification, assessment, and intervention.     

论图式理论与高职英语写作教学

如何改进高职英语写作教学,提高学生的英语写作能力,是长期以来困扰着众多的高职英语教师和学生的一个难题。本文将已在阅读教学中得到了广泛运用的图式理论运用于英语写作教学中,将阅读和写作结合起来,激活、巩固已有的有关英语写作的图式,同时创建了有助于提高学生的英语写作水平的新图式。     

Kitchen notes, 'the grapevine', and other writing in childhood

In semistructured interviews, 20 men and 20 women (10 deaf and 10 hearing) between the ages of 18 and 28 recalled instances of instrumental, social, and expressive writing from their childhood. In contrast to earlier research, we found that instrumental writing occurred as frequently between deaf children and their hearing parents as between deaf children and their deaf parents and that all homes with a deaf family member had telecommunication devices for the deaf(TTYs). Whereas all respondents engaged in some form of social writing, deaf respondents did less personal or expressive writing than their hearing peers. Implications for literacy instruction and further research are that (a) teachers should take advantage of the writing experience that students bring to the classroom, (b) writing should be used as a tool for learning and classroom communication, and (c) the effects of experience, genre, school setting, and technology on the writing of deaf students should be examined.     

对初中藏族班作文教学状况的分析与建议

少数民族学习汉语文有一定难度,作文教学在整个语文教学中对老师和学生都是一个极大挑战.快速提高藏族学生的写作水平,首先要重视基本功的训练,其次应多观察生活,从贴近学生生活的实际开始进行有的放矢的作文训练.     

The Impact of Implementing an Educational Project, the Solar Village, on Pupils, Teachers, and Parents

In this project, we suggest building a real model of solar village inside schools, which use only solar energy. Such projects emphasize the importance of energy for a technological society and the advantage of alternative energy sources. In this study, we report on pupils in the 6th grade in three elementary schools in Israel who were active participants in building systems that use solar energy. The study objective was to examine the educational, social, and scientific impact of this project on students, parents, and teachers. The study results showed that the three groups (students, parents, and teachers) highly appreciate the project, educationally and socially. Parents supported the project because they observed the positive impact on their children's learning. Teachers rated the project highly because of students' interaction and involvement, as well as their increases in learning skills such as developing reading plans and executing research and writing reports.     

非英语专业学生英语写作中的错误分析

英语写作是一直困扰非英语专业学生的难题,学生经常在写作中出错,从而阻碍学生英语写作能力的提高以至英语整体能力受到影响。因此,以错误分析理论为基础,通过分析学生作文中语言使用的错误,总结出学生所犯错误的规律是很有必要的。通过分析错误及改正,既可以强化学生的正确的语言输入,又可以帮助教师改进教学方法,进而促进教学改革。     

The Analysis on the Problems and Possible Reasons in English Writing of English Major Students in Tongren University

The English learners and teachers both have some difficulties in English writing learning and teaching despite continuous efforts are put by teachers and students to develop their competence in L2 writing,most students still score much lower in writing part than listening and reading parts in various English level tests.Three main sections are included in the paper: The first section surveys the students' main problems in English writing learning with my analysis of its possible factors from the respects of students and teachers,such as students' motivation,teacher's education and approaches to teaching writing in L2 classes.The second section presents a review of how the relevant literature suggests on the students' problems in writing.Accordingly,I put forward several possible solutions as the attempts to change the problematic situation in L2 writing.     

Organization and use of the mental lexicon by deaf and hearing individuals

Two experiments explored the taxonomic organization of mental lexicons in deaf and hearing college students. Experiment 1 used a single-word association task to examine relations between categories and their members. Results indicated that both groups' lexical knowledge is similar in terms of overall organization, with associations between category names and exemplars stronger for hearing students; only the deaf students showed asymmetrical exemplar-category relations. Experiment 2 used verbal analogies to explore the application of taxonomic knowledge in an academically relevant task. Significant differences between deaf and hearing students were obtained for six types of analogies, although deaf students who were better readers displayed response patterns more like hearing students'. Hearing students' responses reflected their lexical organization; deaf students' did not. These findings implicate the interaction of word knowledge, world knowledge, and literacy skills, emphasizing the need to adapt instructional methods to student knowledge in educational contexts.     

Three suggested teaching strategies for students who are deaf or hard of hearing

This paper addresses current issues in deaf education including poor academic progress and employment outcomes of individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) as well as provides suggestions for improving overall academic achievement of this population. Specifically, three instructional strategies are recommended for teachers: choral responding, response cards, and peer tutoring. These three strategies have been shown to increase active student responding in classrooms for children who are typically developing and children who have disabilities. For international deaf students in countries that may rely on volunteers who lack basic requisite skills these general education teaching strategies are easy to use even by novice teachers. Recommendations are tendered for how teachers can include these simple teaching strategies in classrooms serving students who are D/HH.     

Preservice preparation of teachers of the deaf in the twenty-first century: a case study of Griffith University, Australia

The provision of educational services to students who are deaf or hard of hearing in the compulsory school years in Australia has seen a shift from exclusive, isolated settings in the 1970s to an inclusive approach personalized to cater to the diversity of those students requiring educational support. Universities that undertake specific programs to train teachers of the deaf need to respond proactively to ensure that graduates are able to provide services in all types of school environments. The present study concerns the evaluation of preservice teachers of the deaf by their university, by their teacher mentors, and through their own assessment of the skills required to be a teacher of the deaf. The study's overall conclusion is that programs for preservice teachers of the deaf can produce high-quality graduates and that graduates undertake postgraduate study after some years of teaching.     

聋生写作现状分析及教学策略

作文教学一直困扰着聋校语文教学,让教师、学生甚为苦恼。现对聋生学习写作的现状,以及对形成此种现状的原因进行了初步的解析。并着重从激发聋生的写作兴趣、指导聋生观察、加强阅读和教会聋生评改这四个方面,针对性地提出了教学策略,让聋生写作时做到有话愿说、有话可说、有话会说、有话说好。     

Using online glossing lessons for accelerated instruction in ASL for preservice deaf education majors

Teachers of deaf and hard of hearing students must serve as language models for their students. However, preservice deaf education teachers typically have at most only four semesters of American Sign Language (ASL) training. How can their limited ASL instructional time be used to increase their proficiency? Studies involving deaf and hard of hearing students have revealed that glosses (written equivalents of ASL sentences) can serve as "bridges" between ASL and English. The study investigated whether glossing instruction can facilitate hearing students' learning of ASL. A Web site was developed in which ASL glossing rules were explained and glossing exercises provided. Posttest scores showed the experimental group improving from 39% to 71% on ASL grammar knowledge. These findings indicate that online glossing lessons may provide the means to obtain ASL skills more readily, thus preparing deaf education teachers to serve as ASL language models.     

Adapting Self-Regulated Strategy Development in Persuasive Writing for Adolescents Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

Within the special education community, research and policy focus on teachers implementing evidence-based instructional practices with fidelity. However, special education teachers may have to adapt evidence-based practices if the research supporting those practices has not yet included studies that represent populations in the classrooms (i.e., students with low-incidence disabilities). That is, there may be a tension for teachers between adopting evidence-based instruction and adapting lessons to meet the needs of students. This article describes one teacher's adaptations to an evidence-based practice in writing to meet the needs of her adolescent students who are deaf. Her experience models ways teachers can use professional wisdom to adapt evidence-based practices to meet the needs of students with disabilities.     

基于文献计量分析的聋生写作教学研究现状

对2004-2013十年间聋生写作教学研究文献进行计量分析,结果显示,聋生的写作教学研究文献逐年增多,从关注传统的教学方法到关注现代技术辅助教学方法,从注重聋生写作教学的综合研究到注重其某一方面的研究,从关注聋生的知识技能的获得到关注聋生写作过程中的生命体验。研究热点是聋生写作前的素材、词汇积累及聋生写作兴趣的培养。其中存在的问题为研究地域差距大,研究主体水平低,主要停留在经验层面的分析总结,不注重写作教材的开发,研究理念落后,指导方式不具体。     

How to Improve the Effectiveness of Teaching Writing under the New Curriculum?

The requirements of "Curriculum standards" for high school students to write have greatly improved than ever. Thus,in high school,teachers should seriously study teaching materials and "curriculum standards" and pay attention to the importance of English writing instruction,guide and organize students to do English writing to train and improve students’ writing skills and to improve their writing instruction effectiveness.