tailieunhanh - WRITING MATTERS THE ROYAL LITERARY FUND

Instructionally relevant research questions related to the transfer of skills also remain (August and Hakuta, 1997). First, is investment in first-language literacy training worthwhile for all combinations of first and second languages? For example, is it worthwhile if orthographies differ radically from English (., Chinese) or if the first language is a traditionally non-written one (., Hmong)? Second, how much instruction in the various component skills in the first language should children receive before transitioning into instruction in the second language? For example, at what point is reading ability in Spanish a sufficient base for initiating. | Writing Matters The Royal Literary Fund This group of essays is an extremely useful commentary on and analysis of students writing abilities in higher education today. It brings together the accumulated wisdom of the RLF Fellows experience and it makes a number of valuable recommendations. Professor Philip Martin Dean of Humanities de Montfort University I believe that this report representing as it does a synoptic account of the views formed by RLF Fellows is going to prove immensely valuable. Also because it is written by writers the whole document makes an extremely welcome change from the anaesthetic prose of too much educational development. I loved the blend of detail and wider argument. Professor . Knights Director English Subject Centre Higher Education Academy Writing Matters describes with admirable clarity a situation that is well known to students themselves and those working with students but not yet sufficiently widely acknowledged at the level of institutional strategy in HEIs. The case is made very convincingly that the value to students academic departments and graduate employers of addressing student writing skills would outstrip the costs. The report points clearly to writing skills being a developmental issue not a remedial one. I think this is very helpful. Both students and academic departments have tended to see the problem as some kind of deficit. Students don t know how to address it without help and as the problem has grown academic departments have been reluctant to own it. Writing Matters focuses attention on the scale of the issue the elephant in the dining room but more importantly it advances practical suggestions about what might be done. The authors of the report are sensitive to the environmental changes which have contributed to the present condition of student writing and are conscious of the squeeze on resources within institutions. But right at the centre of Writing Matters is student need. The message is clear in every .