title Technical Writing & Presentation Skills

Q1: Paraphrase the given paragraph. While paraphrasing focus on the discussed points and make sure that your version accurately expresses all the essential information in a new form. (5 marks paraphrasing) There is little research on how to make instruction more accessible and meaningful to English Language Learners(ELLs) in areas considered challenging by native English speakers (i.e..science, math). Research indicates the importance of incorporating language development components and sheltering techniques into content instruction (e.g Berman et al., 1995: Echevarria, Short & Powers, 2003). Extant research provides some starting points, but a research program that includes linguistically diverse students learning in various content areas is clearly needed. A significant factor to bear in mind for such learners is the cognitive overload that they experience when learning academic content area through a second language. With the increasing significance of technology in society, research should also include systematic investigation of the impact of computer-assisted instruction for ELLs. Dixon's(1995) research is instructive in demonstrating that technology provides a significant vehicle for successful learning, especially with helpful peers. There are many challenges in assessing the academic achievement of ELLs. Test norms may be inappropriate because of differences between ELLs and students in the norming samples, and language proficiency and other background fac-tors may influence test performance (e.g., Abedi Lord, & Hofstetter, 1998:Stevens. Butler, & Castellon-Wellington, 2000). Results from the few studies that have investigated testing accommodations suggest that the language of assessment should match the language of instruction and that modifying test questions to re-duce language complexity may help narrow the performance gap between native English speakers and ELLs (e.g., Abedi, Hofstetter, Baker, & Lord. 2001)