Second Language Acquisition and Writing

In writing classrooms, writing topics are frequently discussed prior to writing essays. This is common practice in both native speaker and non-native speaker English Composition and ESL writing classes, particularly in college. Being so widely used, such a teaching practice needs to be examined from a research prospective in order to establish whether, and to what extent, it aids the writing process. Addutionally, the Second Language Acquisition (SLA) field needs to establish whether, and to what extent, such classroom practice aids the SLA process. This book discusses the issues in SLA and the teaching and learning of writing: SLA Theories, Interaction and Input Hypotheses, Literacy and Writing, and Theories of Composition. This book also reports the findings of a small scale study that employed both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection and analysis. The work in this area is important for future development of SLA theory and practice beacuse SLA needs to test the theories and classroom practices in order to find ways to best help the teaching of writing and English in an EFL/ESL classrooms.