Perspectives on Language Learning and Education

From the Coordinator

Hewitt, L. — 2009-03-21

The Nature of Writing Difficulties in Students With Language/Learning Disabilities

Green, L. — 2009-03-21

Students with language/learning disabilities very often struggle with writing and tend to find the process very frustrating. Their difficulties with transcription, sentence structure, cohesive ties, self-regulated learning, and genre knowledge all play a role in this challenging experience. An understanding of the nature of these difficulties can help us as speech-language pathologists better facilitate students' written language success, thereby helping them meet the writing demands of the classroom.

They Have a Write to Go To College Too: Challenges for Secondary Level Students

Aker, J. — 2009-03-21

Children with language disabilities at the secondary level experience significant difficulty in all components of the writing process. This article discusses issues contributing to student's difficulty in writing as well as suggestions for how to support written language development in this population.

Sentence Combining: Assessment and Intervention Applications

Scott, C. M., Nelson, N. W. — 2009-03-21

Clinicians can use sentence combining tasks to assess students' written language needs in the area of syntax and also as a context for language intervention. In this brief article, we describe current efforts to develop a formal standardized measure of written syntactic development and offer suggestions for using sentence combining as a context for intervention targeting higher level syntactic complexity.

Teacher-Based Assessment in the Elementary and Middle Grades

Calfee, R. — 2009-03-21

Informed judgments by classroom teachers are the most valid basis for instructional assessments for all curriculum areas and all students. Two models are presented as a foundation for classroom-based assessment: the CORE paradigm and the RWS paradigm. A large-scale assessment conducted in California demonstrates the feasibility of these concepts.

Self-Regulation and the Writing Process: Enhancing the Performance of Students With Language and Learning Difficulties

Troia, G. A. — 2009-03-21

This article first provides an overview of components of self-regulation in writing and specific examples of each component are given. The remainder of the article addresses common reasons why struggling learners experience trouble with revising, followed by evidence-based practices to help students revise their papers more effectively.