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A BALANCED APPROACH TO TEACHING

ESL WRITING (What the research has taught us)

A. Can't ignore conventions/reader expectations

(Shaughnessy, Errors and Expectations)

B. More control, guidance at lower levels--less process

C. Process writing effective at more advanced levels

D. Academic writing less expressive, more controlled, in

topic and rhetorical choices, than previously thought

E. Learning styles must be considered

1. field independent: linear, rule governed lecture

2. field dependent: cooperative, experiential

F. Don't be a disciple of any one method

"The good teacher is not so much one who adheres

strictly to a 'method,' but one who is cautiously

eclectic" (Brown), who recognize that teachers, rather

than methods, make a difference. (Reid)

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II Differences between lower level and high

intermediate/advanced writing

A. Sentence/paragraph vs. composition/paper level

B. Little understanding vs. basic control of grammar

C. Little vs. significant facility with metalanguage

D. Little vs. some understanding of basic writing

conventions/format

E. Need for more vs. need for less control/guiding in

writing

F. Less able vs. more able to participate in and benefit

from group discussions essential for process

G. Beginners and more advanced learners benefit from

integrating reading with writing. Higher reading

skills necessitate different approach to writing

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THE READING & WRITING LINK

A. Both writers and readers construct and interpret

meaning from text (Johnson, Polman)

B. Both are complex processes requiring many subskills

and based on past experience (Harowitz)

C. Both are interactive, recursive processes involving

schemata in a critical role--each having drafts of

meaning, with drafts "revised" based on emerging text

(Straw)

D. ESL students from nonwestern cultures likely to have

inaccurate "drafts" they apply to English text

1. NNS use enculturated patterns of L1 to predict

and comprehend (Carrell)

2. Informing NNS of English discourse patterns,

increases reading comprehension

E. There's a direct correlation between reading

proficiency levels and writing skill levels

F. Conversely, direct instruction in sentence, discourse,

paragraphs significantly improved reading (Belanger)

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THE READING & WRITING LINK

G. Implication for TESL:

1. Extensive reading for pleasure provides

abundant comprehensible input

a. vocabulary

b. sentence patterns

c. organizational flow (Raimes)

2. Literature cultivates language awareness and

cultural schema at language, content, and

rhetorical levels (Carrell, Carter, Long)

3. Essays from diverse fields cultivates critical

thinking (Spack)

4. Reading makes possible the teaching of

critical thinking skills for writing

1. reading contains/showcases critical

thought

2. reading models rhetorical strategies

for expressing critical thought

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HANDOUT

USING READING TO TEACH WRITING (sources: Ann Raimes, Techniques in Teaching Writing

W. Smith and R. Liedlich, Rhetoric for Today

R. Scholes and C. H. Klaus, Elements of Writing)

I. Learning the logical and linguistic cohesive links among sentences

A. Marking links

1. Have students circle pronouns and possessive adjectives

2. They then draw lines to connect circled items to referenced words

Ex. Thank heaven that your early teachers have defects and inadequacies, for

otherwise you would have nothing to react against. A teacher instructs you by

what he gives you, yes, but he also stimulates you by his very deficiencies; he

pushes you on to becoming your own inner teacher.

B. Substitute links, Focused cloze

1. Have students replace pronouns with a noun.

2. Have students supply missing conjunctions C. Identify faulty reference by marking links

Father could get angry, all right, but he had a sense of humor too. This used to

upset Mother, however.

II. Using readings as models for style, cohesion, and rhetorical form to be emulated

He hated Lewis for the certainty with which the man held his faith. He hated him

for the deferential treatment the celebrated don received from Oxford colleagues.

He hated him for the throngs of admirers who queued up to hear his cleverly

phrased lectures and fawned over him for autographs or advice. But, above all,

he hated Lewis because the man spoke the truth, while he, by contrast, had lived

and espoused a lie.

A. Have students identify and analyze what makes the passage effective

B. Have them try their hand with their own draft, e.g., their love for a parent.

III. Use less ideal models for students to analyze, edit, and write their own, more

effective application of the coherence technique.

E.g., A famous Englishman once said that the inherent vice of capitalism is the

unpopular sharing of blessings and that the inherent virtue of socialism was its

equal sharing of miseries.

Happiness is not something you achieve. It is something that is remembered.

IV. Use a paragraph from a good model, asking students to complete it, closely following

the author's style and cohesion devices: E. g., It was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes would have allowed it; but as matters stood it was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage. It was a town of machinery and tall chimneys, out

of which interminable serpents of smoke trailed themselves for ever and ever, and never got uncoiled. It had a black canal in it, and a river that ran purple with ill-smelling dye, and vast piles of building full of windows where there was a rattling and a trembling all day long. . .

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V. Summarizing

A. Divide the class into groups of four to six members.

B. Give each group a different passage to read.

C. Each group member writes a two to three sentence summary of the text.

D. Members read their summaries to each other and select the best summary

to use to represent the group and share with either the whole class or with

members of one other group.

E. Class members (or other group) ask questions about the text that has been

Summarized for them and share their own summaries.

F. Option: ask group members to copy the whole text and pass it on to the next

group.

G. Alternate approach: have students play the role of newspaper editor, asking

them to edit down an article to 1/4 its original length, retaining essential

facts as well as the most interesting of details.

VI. Speculating gets students to think beyond a given text

E. g., When the fire engine left the station on Market Street at 8:00 p. m. on Saturday,

fireman Bill Roscoe did not know that he would return a hero. Flames were leaping out

of a first-floor window of the corner house on Livingston Avenue. Neighbors, police, and firemen stood outside on the sidewalk. Suddenly they all looked up and shouted as they heard a scream. A boy, about ten years old, appeared at a third-floor window. It wouldn't open. He was terribly frightened. Roscoe dropped the hose, stepped forward, jumped, and grabbed the bottom rung of the metal fire escape ladder. Then he climbed up to the window, broke it, pulled the boy out and carried him down the ladder. Both were safe, and the crowd cheered.

How a teacher might use this prompt to further develop student writing:

A.

B.

C.

D. Give the class the first lines to two or three well-known and linguistically

accessible stories.

1. Have them discuss and write what they think the story is about.

2. Then have them choose which of the three they'd like to read, and

assign that story to them, with writing tasks to follow: E.g., "It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen"

(1984, G. Orwell). "The great fish moved silently through the night water, propelled by short sweeps of its crescent tail" (Jaws, P. Benchley). "One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was In pennies" ("The Gift of the Magi, O. Henry).

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III Curriculum Design Approaches

A. Language Based Curriculum

1. Writing used to consolidate oral/written

command of grammar

2. Accuracy and correctness are paramount

B. Pattern-Model-Base Curriculum

1. Focus on function and situational writing,

audience expectation

2. Rhetorical modes and formats are key

C. Process-Based Curriculum

1. Emphasizes fluency, discovery, student needs

2. Focus on negotiation of meaning

3. Uses thematic units to provide engaging

content to stimulate reading and writing

D. Combined Curriculum

1. Sees teaching of structure key to avoiding

stigmatization

2. Emphasizes teaching of rhetorical modes as

critical to meet university or professional

expectations for prescribed forms

3. Views writing as recursive process--involving

many interactive phases of pre-writing, planning,

composing, revising, editing

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HANDOUT

V. Multi-skill Collaboration Activities

A. Desktop publishing class (source: Barbara Morris)

1. Memory books

2. "Published" journals for poetry, recipes, compositions

3. Manuals

B. Audience focused projects, such as to senior center or school

1. Interview audience

2. Write up pieces, illustrated, filled with personal stories

C. Class or Group Newspaper (Stevens)

1. Each member has assigned tasked

2. Something about publishing a piece. . .

D. Respond to what group member has shared about his culture and

compare, discussion to writing

1. Proverb

2. Myth or folk tale

3. Gender or status roles

E. Group problem solving

F. Chain compositions

1. Give everyone the same opening sentence

2. Pass them around, asking students to add one sentence

G. Multi-media approach to literature (source: Leslie Criston)

1. Read It/Watch It

2. Read novel; discuss/write critically

3. See film--discuss/write critical comparisons

H. Surveys

1. Draft questions; conduct interviews

2. Tabulate/analyze data

3. Write up/interpret/present

I. Dramatize scenes from literature/write about

1. Or script/perform commercial

2. Write/perform play, using real play as model

J. Community Advocacy

1. Letters to petition for change

2. Protest

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VI. Teaching EAP Writing

A. Required for most ESL instructional settings:

IEP, high school, middle school, Sixth grade ESL

B. Expectations to be taught

1. Student responsibility for their own learning

2. Critical thinking--challenging status quo

3. Rhetorical modes/forms

4. Problem solving

5. Participation in class, group tasks

6. Original thinking

7. Attributing non-original ideas/Plagiarism

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VII. Informed Process Writing

A. PreWriting

1. Brainstorming

2. Free Writing

3. Webbing/clustering/mapping

4. Journaling

5. Outlining

B. Drafting

1. Group discussions

2. Journaling

3. Teacher Conferencing

C. Final Drafting

1. Peer feedback

2. Instructor feedback

3. Revision

4. Journaling

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VIII. Journals--Key to Informed Process Writing "Most consistently effective tool for developing

[written] fluency" (Kirby)

A. Repository of pre-writing activities

1. Brainstorming

2. Free writing

3. Log for ideas, notes

4. Outline

5. Early drafts

B. Student/teacher dialogues, re: assignment/ideas

1. Written or electronic dialogues

2. Important that it's two way

a. ask teacher questions about class material

b. raise problem areas in their writing

c. express concerns, anxieties

C. With other students--even around the world

D. Metacognitive entries

1. about the ways they think, write, & learn

2. Reflect on decision making

3. Grow to be more reflective writers

E. Learning log application

1. Students can summarize ideas of class

2. Interpret and analyze material

3. Explore ideas

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IX. Group response--making it work

A. Most group work fails

1. Failure to convince students of its value

2. Failure to prepare students for group work

a. Poor assumptions, re: group readiness

b. Not considering L1 cultural interference

c. Lack of scaffolding and modeling

d. Lack of planning

e. Asking groups to do too much

3. Failure to match students

a. similar writing goals

b. good fit in temperaments

c. language strengths

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B. Creating writing community imperative for

successful groups

1. Unified purpose

2. Develop mentors:

a. can interview each other

b. introduce each other

c. journal about each other

d. group with other mentor pairs

C. Building effective groups is process in itself

1. Model with sample essay

2. Begin with controlled activities

3. Move to guided, never open

4. Begin with very narrow, simple tasks

5. Use groups as audience, not as grammar tutors

6. Work to create a community of writers

7. Give ground rules--comments acceptable/not

8. Balance groups with teacher-centered work

9. Best preceded by group collaborative projects

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X. Feedback as Response to Student Writing

A. Group, Peer Response

1. As reader, not rater

2. Responding to writer's specific questions

3. Describing from reader's perspective

4. Group reviews not panacea

B. Conferencing and tutoring (teacher)

1. Outside of class, Socratic method

2. Within class, more global

3. Positive, encouraging

C. Formative teacher responses

1. As audience addressing purpose, cohesion

2. As audience responding to content

3. As consultant

4. As describer

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XI. Feedback/Evaluation on Second or Final Draft

A. Errors--what research tells us (Scovel, Reid)

1. Not deviant or random

2. Systematic, developmental, rule-governed

3. Result from L1 transfer, overgeneralization,

and difficulty

B. Goal of feedback is revision, not recopying

C. Rating/analysis sheets

1. Reid, p. 237

2. TWE --holistic ratings, criterion referenced

D. Research on Evaluation/Feedback

1. Content faculty look for content/rhetorical

2. ESL students, more than NES, want feedback

3. Correction + encouragement = results

4. Underlining errors = significant improvement

5. Content + grammar feedback won't overwhelm

6. Feedback without follow up less effective