Teaching ESL Writing (Final Paper) -- Education Learning Essays

Teaching ESL Writing At times the plethora of professional journals and the myriad subjects treated therein seems similar little more than a dizzying exercise in redundancy and a forum for education professionals to justify their worth in a competitive short letter market however, I would like to think that there is a hidden value for those of us whose brains seem to operate in what some might yell a spiral rhetorical pattern, that as we work our way around and around certain issues related to composition instruction, we are moving gradually upward toward broader understanding and better dedicate. Some studies seem to do little more than show the need for more studies, their authors falling back on such warning phrases as, clearly more research is needed, but that at least is evidence that were moving toward something were trying to pinpoint the exact gap amongst educational practice as we know it and as we sense it might exist in an improved state. So, it is with this hope in mind that Ive undertaken nonetheless another literature review, consuming the writings of others in order to find a specific gap in (at least my own) understanding of educational practice as it relates to college-level ESL composition students in general, and to college-level ESL students with learning disabilities (LD) specifically. For the purposes of this paper I shall borrow Skinner and Gilespies definition of learning disabilities as follows Learning disabled persons are those of average out or above average intelligence who have difficulty mastering skills in reading and spelling (often in the form of dis- lexia), and /or writing, or math. ... ...es. touch/April 2001, 34, 2. 136-152.Munro, Murray J. and Tracey M. Derwing. Foreign Accent, Comprehensibility,and Inteligibility. Language Learning. June 1999, 49, 2. 285-111.Poon-McBrayer, Kim Feng and Shernaz B. Garc ia. Profiles of Asian AmericanStudents with Learning Disabilities at Initial Referral, Assessment, and Place-ment in Special Education. Journal of Learning Disabilities. Jan/Feb 2001,33, 1. 61-71.Skinner, Louise and Phyllis Gillespie. The Challenge of Adult Literacy Students withLearning Disabilities in the ABE Classroom. Adult Basic Education. Fall 2000, 10, 3.Spack, Ruth. Student Meets Text, Text Meets Student Finding a Way into AcademicDiscourse. Reading in the Composition Classroom sulphur Language Perspectives. Ed. Joan G. Carson and Ilona Leki. Boston Heinle & HeinlePublishers, 1993. 183-196.