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A Translingual Approach to Error in Student Writing

Bruce Horner and Min-Zhan Lu

University of Louisville

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Three Approaches to Error

• “Fill in the Gap”

• “Purposeful Effort”

• “Translingual”

Distinguished in terms of:

• Assumptions about language/language relations

• Assumptions about writer producing “error”

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Error Defined: Any Perceived Deviation From Norms of Writing

• Spelling: – There was definately confusion in what teh author was saying.

• Lexicon (“wording”):– I wish to explore in my study as to how the purpose of literacy becomes

to dominate and to marginalize others.• Punctuation:

– Likewise, I believe this is similar to what Kuhn discusses in “The Historical Structure of Scientific Discovery’ as he states that we must look to uncover a discovery, and wrestle with different ideas and concepts until a discovery is made.

• Syntax: – However, the way Cushman discusses the use of syllabary in Cherokee

community stabilizes and thereby fossilizes Sequoyan writing system instead of promoting its interaction with other languages so as to intervene in the dominant discourse practices and help bring change for their empowerment.

– In my thinking about what an error might be categorized in any number of different ways.

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“Fill in the Gap” Approach Assumptions

• Writing norms/conventions settled and uniform across contexts/genres

• Breaks caused by lacks in writer:– Lack of knowledge of the norms/conventions

• Lack of knowledge of specific (MLA/APA) citation styles

– Lack of effort• Failure to proofread, spellcheck

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“Fill in the Gap” Pedagogies

• Drill: ignores lack of transfer of knowledge/skill from drill to writing: completing workbooks ≠ writing ≠ completing workbooks

• Direct instruction in unfamiliar conventions• effective only if accompanied by

– Illustrations of their use in ordinary writing– Opportunities for meaningful deployment of

these conventions

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Pedagogies to Address Gap in Fluency/Experience

• Provide frequent opportunities to develop fluency (with conventions and technologies of scripting) combined with

• Benign patience

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Pedagogies Addressing Effort

• Require attention to proofreading in all courses, not just “English”

• Assign work where proofreading contributes to meaning construction

• Build time into course/classwork for students to carry out such proofreading

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Assumptions of and Research Supporting “Purposeful Effort” Approach

Errors manifestation of writers’ purpose (deliberate or intuitive) and effort

• Patterns in students’ errors suggesting hypothesized “interlanguage” with idiosyncratic rules applied consistently

• Students report such rules and efforts to follow them

• Students diligently proofread but in ineffective ways

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Proofreading?

• No proofreading technique is foolproof

• Proofreading is more complex than recognized, especially by good proofreaders

• Shift in focus from meaning to form is – Counterintuitive– Counterproductive for ordinary reading

purposes

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Ordinary Reading vs. Proofreading

Aoccdrnig to rsraeech at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht order the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt thing is that the frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae.

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Slow Pace of Reading without Meaning

say to sorry I’m apish more altogether are heads adult feet and legs pudgier smaller and cranium bulging prominent more a jaws smaller eyes and heads larger have adults with compared children bigger and bigger gets jaw the but precipitously declines size eye relative and all at grow scarcely eyes the adulthood of configuration browed lower slanted more the to way gives child young a of cranium bulbous the and three age after slowly very grows brain the growth human during itself head the pervades changes of suite a addition in.

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Pace of Reading for Meaning

in addition a suite of changes pervades the head itself during human growth the brain grows very slowly after age three and the bulbous cranium of a young child gives way to the more slanted lower-browed configuration of adulthood the eyes scarcely grow at all and relative eye size declines precipitously but the jaw gets bigger and bigger children compared with adults have larger heads and eyes smaller jaws a more prominent bulging cranium and smaller pudgier legs and feet adult heads are altogether more apish I’m sorry to say.

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Proofreading Techniques and Principles

• Principles– Slow down reading process– Focus on notations instead of meaning

• Techniques:– read the writing aloud; – cover the passage with a ruler and slowly

read aloud; – read the text backwards

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“Purposeful Effort” Teaching Strategies: Guided Proofreading

• Students – discover results of good proofreading– identify patterns of error in their writing – develop strategies to address these – develop greater sense of control over their

writing

• Reduces no. of issues to address, hence more targeted and effective than “one-size-fits all” drill approach

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More Insights on Errors as “Purposeful Effort”

Writers tend to make more mistakes in their writing when taking on more cognitively challenging writing tasks, e.g.:

When first presented with the original concept to examine an experience of discovery drawing from you own experience, using Kuhn’s argument. This potentially could be viewed as a challenge. This being because the initial idea or concept was new, and the actual thought around the concept was not yet developed.

In that section of the essay by Trask, she explains that her native country show possession in two ways. “Through the use of an “a” possessive, which reveals acquired status.” (pg. 396) This meaning material things such as a car or a shirt. The other possessive is in ‘o” form. This possessive would have to deal with things that inherent. Such as ones body and parents explains Trask.

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“Purposeful Effort” Teaching Strategy for Cognitive Demanding Writing

• Distinguish between a “draft” and a “final version”

• Build occasions for revising drafts into assignment sequence and syllabus

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Challenges to Assumptions in “Fill in the Gap” and “Intelligent Effort” Approaches

• Variety of fluctuating writing conventions across languages

• Diverse and historically fluctuating sets of “Englishes” and conventions for writing them

• Diverse and fluctuating conventions by genre, discipline, purpose

• Growing linguistic heterogeneity of student and faculty populations

• Growing traffic and intermingling across boundaries of geography, language, genre, discipline

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Principles for Translingual Approach to Error

• Writers’ agency, need, and right to alter conventions to represent unconventional meaning: to “rewrite” English

• Need to be cautious in identifying particular formations as “error”

• Need to be cautious in working with students on how they use language

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Sample Student Writing Prompting Caution

• From a Native Daughter is an essay by Trask in which she spills out her heritage and upbringing, trying to prove injustice amongst the cultural history of Hawaii.

• Likewise, I believe this is similar to what Kuhn discusses in “The Historical Structure of Scientific Discovery’ as he states that we must look to uncover a discovery, and wrestle with different ideas and concepts until a discovery is made.

• both Trask and Lasch use language as a stepping stool

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“can able to” As a Hawaiian native historian, Trask can able to argue for her people. As a

Hawaiian native, she was exposed to two totally different viewpoints about her people. She was brought up in Hawaii. During this time, she heard the stories about her people from her parents. Later on she was send to America mainland to pursue higher education, in which she learnt a different stories about her people. Therefore, she understood that the interpretation of land was different between the "haole" and the native. To prove that the "haole" were wrong, she went back to Hawaii and work on the land with other native, so she can feel the strong bond with land her people have which the "haole" could not feel. The "haole" historians never bother to do so as they were more interested in looking for written evidence. That was why Trask, as a native Hawaiian historian, argued that these "haole" historians were being ignorant and ethnocentric. That is also why Trask suggested the "haole" historians learn the native tongue.

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Elements like perceiving things from different perspective, finding and validating each alternative solutions, questioning the unknown and breaking the nutshell of cultural norms are important for developing the ability of "critical thinking." . . . Most of the new universities' students are facing new challenges like staying away from family, peer pressure, culture shock, heavy college work etc. I can say that these are the "obstacles" to success. If a student can able to approach each situation with different perspectives than the one he brought from high school, I may conclude that this particular student has climbed his first step to become a "critical thinker." . . .

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Translingual Approach Strategy to Address Error

• Ask the writer what s/he is trying to say

• Explore range of options for achieving this

• Explore the possible gains and risks for the writer and his/her readers of each of these options

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Translingual Approach to “can able to”

• Explore reasoning: distinguish between individual ability and enjoying external permission

• Explore range of options:– Use “can” idiomatically– Use “may be able to” vs. “can”– Add footnote explaining “can able to” to cue readers of

deliberation

• Explore risks and gains of these– Obscure distinction vs. be dismissed as erroneous– Encourage submission to social “fate” vs. encourage (naïve?)

individual hope and initiative transcending social constraints

• Decide/negotiate

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Advantages of a Translingual Approach

• Deliberation process makes choice exercise of agency, not blind submission

• Prepares students to be more responsible in all their writing choices

• Allows for the possibility of producing meanings not available via conventional terms/syntax, e.g.– “translingual, “plurilingual,” “diversalité” vs.

“monolingual,” “multilingual,” “diversité”– “Language and Science: Genetics, Embryology, and

the Discourse of Gene Action” (Evelyn Fox Keller)

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Translingual Negotiation as the actual “norm”

I will therefore ask those of my readers who feel no particular interest in me to pardon me if I undertake to answer some of these questions. . . . In most books, the I, or first person, is omitted; in this it will be retained. . . . Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness of my experience.

–Henry David Thoreau, Walden