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Item Trends in Language Teaching Methods.(Publisher of original article: SUKOL Finnish Language Teachers Association., 1983) Connor, Ulla, 1948-The basis for this discussion comes from my foreign language learning experiences in Finnland and ESL (English as a second language) teaching experiences at various levels in the United States in schools and at universities teaching English to adults of many different language backgrounds. Additionally, I will incorporate information from my teacher training experience at George Town University, where we have more than 200 graduate students studying for the MA and Ph.D. degrees in Linguistics and ESL. Of our students 60% come from abroad, mainly from the Middle East and South America.Item Predictors of Second-Language Reading Performance(Publisher of original article: Multilingual Matters & Channel View Publications [BREAK][LINK]http://www.multilingual-matters.com/[/LINK][BREAK] Access to the original article may require subscription and authorized logon ID/password. IUPUI faculty/staff/students please check University Library resources before purchasing an article. Questions on finding the original article via our databases? Ask a librarian: [LINK]http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/research/askalibrarian[/LINK]., 1983) Connor, Ulla, 1948-This study identified individual, instructional and socio-cultural factors that are reliable predictors of limited-English-proficiency (LEP) children's reading performance in English. The reading comprehension section of the Metropolitan Achievement Test was used to assess the reading skills of 91 LEP students (K-12) with different linguistic backgrounds in the U.S. school system. Information about the independent variables was gathered from a special questionnaire. The data were analysed by means of multiple regression analysis. The results of regression analysis showed that in this sample, grade, Vietnamese language background, percentage of English spoken at home, higher level paternal occupation, and a relatively high number of students in the English-as-a-second-language class had positive effects on the reading skills of the subjects. With these data it was impossible to separate the impact of length of U.S. residence from the length of ESL instruction in U.S. Intensity of ESL instruction showed a statistically significant negative effect on the reading scores. There were several predictors which did not have a significant effect on reading performance: gender, number of siblings and sibling position, hours of television watching, number of public library visits, length parents' stay in the U.S., parents' levels of education and social status, and mother's staying at home. A central theme of this study is that single-variate approaches are inadequate to study the causes of reading performance; rather, several predictors should be employed to measure true relationships between L2 reading performance and independent predictors.Item Understanding Persuasive Essay Writing: Linguistic/Rhetorical Approach(Publisher of original article: Walter de Gruyter. [BREAK][LINK]http://www.degruyter.com/[/LINK], 1985) Connor, Ulla, 1948-; Lauer, Janice M.This paper reports on research, funded by the Educational Foundation of the Exxon Corporation, to study several measures for describing and evaluating student persuasive writing. The variables examined were coherence, cohesion, syntactic features, and persuasive appeals. The data were 100 American and British high-school student persuasive essays randomly selected from the compositions of the International Education Association project. The results demonstrate the need for a multidimensional methodology to assess a broad range of linguistic and rhetorical features in order to adequately account for variation in writing quality among students.Item Analyzing Topical Structure in ESL Essays: Not All Topics are Equal(Copyright © Cambridge University Press [BREAK]The original doi for the as-published version of the article is 10.1017/S0272263100009517. To access the doi, open the following DOI site in your browser and cut and paste the doi name where indicated: [LINK]http://dx.doi.org[/LINK][BREAK]Access to the original article may require subscription and authorized logon ID/password. IUPUI faculty/staff/students please check University Library resources before purchasing an article. Questions on finding the original article via our databases? Ask a librarian: [LINK]http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/research/askalibrarian[/LINK]., 1990) Schneider, Melanie; Connor, Ulla, 1948-Topical structure analysis (TSA), a text-based approach to the study of topic in discourse, has been useful in identifying text-based features of coherence. It has also been used to distinguish between essays written by groups of native English speakers with varying degrees of writing proficiency (Witte, 1983a, 1983b). More recently, TSA has distinguished between higher and lower rated ESL essays, but with different results from those found with native speakers of English (Connor & Schneider, 1988). The present study replicated the previous ESL study of two groups of essays written for the TOEFL Test of Written English with three groups of essays. Findings indicate that two topical structure variables, proportions of sequential and parallel topics in the essays, differentiate the highest rated group from the two lower rated groups. We offer explanations for the results and propose that all occurrences of a particular type of topic progression do not contribute equally to the coherence of a text.Item Discourse Analysis and Writing/Reading Instruction(Copyright © 1991 Cambridge University Press.[BREAK]The definitive publisher-authenticated version of: Ulla Connor. "Discourse Analysis and Writing/reading Instruction". Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 11 (1990):164-180, is available online at:[BREAK][LINK]http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayIssue?iid=2708164[/LINK][BREAK]Access to the original article may require subscription and authorized logon ID/password. Please check University Library resources before purchasing an article via the publisher. Questions on finding the original article via our databases? Ask a librarian:[BREAK][LINK]http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/research/askalibrarian[/LINK][BREAK], 1990) Connor, Ulla, 1948-In the 1984 volume of the Annual review of applied linguistics, Grabe (1985) presented a comprehensive discussion of discourse analysis explaning its history, frameworks, models, taxonomies, and operationalizations. The approach of the present article complements Grabe's as a review with a more direct concern for instructional applications of discourse analysis in student reading and writing.Item Linguistic/Rhetorical Measures for International Persuasive Student Writing.([BREAK]Copyright © 1990 by the National Council of Teachers of English. Reprinted with permission.[BREAK]The definitive publisher-authenticated version of this article is available online at[BREAK][LINK]http://www.jstor.org/stable/40171446[/LINK][BREAK]Access to the original article may require subscription and authorized logon ID/password. IUPUI faculty/staff/students please check University Library resources before purchasing an article. Question on finding the original article via our databases? Ask a librarian: [LINK]http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/research/askalibrarian[/LINK]., 1990) Connor, Ulla, 1948-This research developed linguistic/rhetorical measures to analyze and evaluate argumentative/persuasive student writing. 150 essays written for the IEA International Study of Written Composition by high school students from three English-speaking countries were used to test these measures. In a multiple regression analysis with an impressionistic holistic rating as the dependent variable, 11 independent variables explained 61 percent of the variation in the holistic score. The Toulmin measure, credibility appeal, and the syntactic factor of Abstract versus Situated Style were the best predictors of writing quality. Implications of this research for the evaluating and teaching of argumentative/persuasive writing are discussed.Item Exploring the Dynamics of Cross-Cultural Collaboration in Writing Classrooms([BREAK]Publisher of the original article: TWI Publications. Copyright © 1990, TWI Publications. From the publisher's web site: "We are committed to the open access publishing model."[BREAK], 1990) Allaei, Sara Kurtz; Connor, Ulla, 1948-As teachers of writing have adopted the idea that writing should be taught as a process ,from the generation of ideas to the fine-tuning of the final editing, much interest has been focused on the use of peer collaboration at various stages of the writing process, particularly in guiding students in responding to the writing of peers. Bruffee ("'Conversation'"), an early advocate of the use of peer collaboration, argues that "collaborative learning provides the kind of social context .... in which normal discourse occurs: a community of knowledgeable peers". In this context, "students can practice and master the normal discourse exercised in established communities in the academic world and in business , government and the professions" (644). Of course, students are not yet members of these established knowledge communities, but Gere argues that they can negotiate their way toward acceptable discourse: many of the comments they make as they respond to each other's writing begin with the phrase, "I don't know..." or "I don't think...". Student writers comment on and question their own work: they ask, "Does this example make sense here?", or "I'm trying to show why Joe is so alienated from his family. Does this idea come trough clearly?" (70)Item Warren Beatty and the Elusive Male Body in Hollywood Cinema(© 1994 Dennis Bingham. [BREAK]The definitive version of the article is available at: [LINK]http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.act2080.0033.001:29[/LINK].[BREAK] Access to the original article may require subscription and authorized logon ID/password. IUPUI faculty/staff/students please check University Library resources before purchasing an article. Questions on finding the original article via our databases? Ask a librarian: [LINK] http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/research/askalibrarian[/LINK]., 1994) Bingham, Dennis, 1954-It is said that the movies, and more recently TV, are a school in which males learn the strategies and discourse of sexual engagement. How much more complex the situation has become in the last few decades is discussed.Item Correctness and Clarity in Applying for Overseas Jobs: A Cross Cultural Analysis of U.S. and Flemish Applications(Publisher of the original article: Walter de Gruyter. [BREAK][LINK]http://www.degruyter.com/[/LINK], 1995) Connor, Ulla, 1948-; Davis, Ken, 1945-; Rycker, Teun deThis study examined cross-cultural similarities and differences between US and Flemish letters of job application as a promotional business-writing genre. Altogether 74 letters were collected and analyzed for 'correctness' and 'clarity', two linguistic properties that strongly correlate with communicative success in getting invited for a job interview. The results show that a typical US applicant writes more than the Flemish applicant and makes fewer mistakes. Differences were also found in the degree of clarity, i.e., content and length of information. The typical US applicant provided more supporting arguments for the application, discussed benefits for the employer and the applicant, but was not as direct in asking for an interview. The results correspond with previous contrastive rhetoric research showing cultural differences in writing for specific purposes (Bhatia, 1993; Jenkins and Hinds, 1987; Maier, 1992).Item First and Second Language Use in Reading Comprehension Strategies of Japanese ESL Students(TESL-EJ (Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language - The Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language): [LINK]http://www.tesl-ej.org[/LINK]., 1997-11) Upton, Thomas A. (Thomas Albin)Reading in a second language (L2) is not a monolingual event; L2 readers have access to their first language (L1) as they read and many use it as a strategy to help comprehend an L2 text. Due to difficulties in observing the comprehension process, little research has been conducted to try to determine what roles the L1 and L2 play in the reading strategies of L2 readers or how these roles vary at different proficiency levels. This study attempts to address these two issues. Eleven native speakers of Japanese, at two different proficiency levels, were asked to think-aloud –in the language of their thoughts—as they were reading an English text. In retrospective interviews, subjects then listened to their tape-recorded think-aloud protocols and were asked to clarify and explain their thoughts. Three generalizations about L1 and L2 strategy use emerged from the data and are discussed.