| Understanding writing instructional practices is an important task, given that the quality of writing instruction makes a significant impact on English language learners' (ELLs) writing development. This qualitative study explored the current nature of writing instructional practices that three second- and third-grade teachers provided to ELLs across two classroom settings---a regular content classroom and an English-as-a-second language (ESL) classroom and examined the relation of these instructional practices with respect to theory and research in second language acquisition. In particular, the study investigated (a) teacher beliefs about teaching writing for ELLs and (b) the types of writing tasks and instructional methods that the teachers provided for ELLs.; Data were collected over a five-month period at an elementary school in the Midwest in the U.S. Different sources of information, including classroom observations, teacher interviews, and classroom artifacts, were analyzed. The conceptual framework for the study included two parts---the writing contextual factors that influence ELLs' writing development and the two orientations of teaching writing (i.e., transcription and composition ).; The teachers' beliefs about teaching writing appeared to be consistent with the current theory and research, along with their underlying belief in the very important role of writing in second language learning. The analysis of writing tasks according to the separate and combined schemes of Moffett, Dvorak, and Britton revealed the varied degree of balance in orientation of writing activities each teacher used. Examining each teacher's practices in terms of four dimensions of instruction (i.e., explicit instruction about writing, integration of writing and reading, process-oriented writing, and scaffolding) provided valuable insights for instructional methods for teaching writing.; The study suggests that writing instruction for ELLs might include an optimal balance of opportunities for developing both writing competence and writing performance. Such balanced writing instruction may be represented through offering transcription-oriented and composition-oriented writing opportunities. Additionally, the study recommends that providing more explicit instruction about writing may support ELLs' writing skills development, rather than simply providing many opportunities to write. |
