School-relevant writing: Adolescent students in the US
In a project funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, The Language of Written Argumentation and Explanation: Individual Developmental Trajectories From 4th to 8th Grade, we are conducting a secondary data analysis based on the longitudinal writing dataset collected as part of a reading comprehension intervention study, and informed by my prior work on writing with linguistically diverse U.S. samples (Uccelli, Dobbs & Scott, 2013) and English-as-a-foreign-language learners (Qin & Uccelli, 2016). The research is driven by two goals: (1) to investigate developmental trajectories of explanatory and argumentative writing to contribute to a pedagogically relevant developmental model of mid-adolescence writing; (2) to explore the contribution of receptive academic language skills (i.e., CALS) to writing proficiency. This research represents a shift from the study of reading and writing mostly independently to investigating both processes concurrently through a hypothesized common language proficiency that may also lead to instructional initiatives linked across modalities.
Project
Funding. This research project is supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, trough Grant R305A170185.
The purpose of this project is to examine how language skills change over time and which skills support the writing quality of explanatory summaries and persuasive writing in grades 4 to 8. Language skills are necessary for writing complex texts as students get older, but research has not sufficiently explored how these skills develop over time. The current study examines the development of the language for school writing in relation to writing quality and students' receptive academic language (or language for school reading). Data for this study comes from previously-funded Reading for Understanding project (Catalyzing Comprehension Through Discussion and Debate). Information from this study may be used to develop teaching practices and interventions to help students learn to write more effectively.
Writing in English as a Foreign Language
This line of research explores English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ writing development, with a particular focus on how EFL writers learn to flexibly deploy linguistic features - i.e., at the lexical, syntactic, and discourse levels - to write effectively across genres, registers, and communicative contexts. Studies identify a series of factors relevant to explain such development, including learners’ English proficiency level, educational level, native language background, etc. Results are discussed in relation to pedagogical implications to enhance EFL learners’ real-world communicative competence.
Funding. This research was funded though an EF Education First research grant.