ENGLISH-WRITING SOFTWARE FOR ESL STUDENTS

STUDENTS IN ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE PROGRAMS COME FROM DIVERSE LANGUAGE BACKGROUNDS, WITH SPANISH AND COMBINED ASIAN LANGUAGES REPRESENTING OVER 90% OF THOSE BACKGROUNDS. WRITING, THE MOST DAUNTING ASPECT OF LEARNING ANOTHER LANGUAGE, IS A SKILL THAT DEMANDS INDIVIDUALIZED INSTRUCTIONAND PRACTICE. PHASE I RESEARCH RESULTED IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF A 64K APPLE SOFTWARE PACKAGE, SE ESCRIBE INGLES (ENGLISH WRITTEN HERE), THAT PROVIDES STUDENTS WITH SPELLING ASSISTANCE BASED ON SPANISH PHONETIC ERRORS IN THE CONTEXT OF WRITE AND PROOF, AN EASY-TO-USE WORD PROCESSOR WITH GRAMMAR-CHECKING CAPABILITIES DEVELOPED BY EMERSON & STERN UNDER ANOTHER SBIR CONTRACT. PRELIMINARY RESULTS INDICATE THAT THIS SOFTWARE EFFECTIVELY CORRECTS COMMON SPANISH-BASEDERRORS AND ENCOURAGES STUDENTS TO WRITE, THUS PROVIDING BOTHTHE INDIVIDUALIZED ATTENTION AND PRACTICE THEY NEED. PHASE II WILL EXPAND THE SPANISH-BASED SOFTWARE TO HANDLE SPELLINGERRORS GENERATED FROM A "PHONETIC POOL" OF ASIAN LANGUAGES AND WILL EXTEND THE ASSISTANCE FEATURE TO PROVIDE HELP WITH THE TYPICAL SYNTACTICAL AND IDIOMATIC ERRORS MADE BY MEMBERSOF BOTH LANGUAGE GROUPS. A "SEMI-CONTROLLED" STUDY WILL BE CONDUCTED TO DETERMINE THE EFFICACY OF THE SOFTWARE IN THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE.