Internet English Composition:

Teaching & Learning

Kate Liu 2005/5/21

Outline

1. Learning Writing Online: Autonomous Learning Distance-Learning

2. Teaching Writing Online: To motivate To facilitate revision in the writing process; To correct.

Suggestions to your Writings General Discussion

Autonomous Learning –Just Some Suggestions

Make use of the abundant resources online to be inspired, to correct and to improve one’s writing.

Link input and output (transferring what you receive) actively while avoiding plagiarism.

Online Resources: a Few Examples

For Improving English in general – many, many sites. Some examples here.

For Ways of Writing: Handbooks Some examples here.

For Self-Correction-- Dictionaries: Cambridge (http://dictionary.cambridge.org/ ), Marian-Webster (http://www.m-w.com/ ) , One Look (http://www.onelook.com/) + Google & a Concordancer (http://vlc.polyu.edu.hk/ ) (e.g.

Out of his expectation).

Online Resources (2):卓越大學英文網

http://ce.etweb.fju.edu.tw/

Knowledge Transference –Some Suggestions Only

Activate the knowledge by turning it into a dialogue (or question and answer);

Be cognitively flexible ( 認知上有彈性 ): 有彈性的拆解、重組 by re-assembling knowledge received from different sources and applying it to different learning or life situations.

Distance-Learning

Student-Centered, Community-Based, but not Teacher-Centered.

(1)Attend ( 跟上進度，勿錯過到校時間 ), Learn （主動學習﹚ Apply ( 積極運用 ).  2) Be Calm ( 冷靜處理技術問題 ), Active （主動發問﹚ Respectful ( 同學彼此尊重 Netiquette). ( 詳見課程網頁首頁 )

Teaching Writing

1. First we need to determines the target students and the suitable activities for them (sentence paragraph a short piece and different modes, etc.)

2. When do students start to write a short piece? How can teachers have enough time to read so many pieces?

My Teaching Approaches: Communicative

Writing with a Purpose (Provide enough motivation, but not only a title.) Multimedia Input and Variation of Input & Activities.

Writing as a Process (including brainstorming in discussion board, peer reading, clarification questions, idea revisions and instructor-student [chatroom] conferences ) Word Revision Tracking 追蹤修訂 & PowerPoint

Giving Positive Feedback and Constructive Suggestions (thru’ correction symbols, questions and suggestions), instead of just giving correction. Word’s Autocheck 自動校訂

To Motivate (1) with Multimedia Stimuli

Visual and audio files – films, animations, etc.

Word, PowerPoint, Viewlet & Hotpotatoes. The technical aspects see in your CD—p

owerpoint_multimedia/multimedia.ppt.

To Motivate (2)

with a Variety of Exercises Different Uses of Multimedia Components in Classrooms:

http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/etc/multimedia/multimedia_method_links.htm

By providing incentives (emailing, web

publication, for practical purposes).

Writing as a Process (1): Word Revision Tracking 追蹤修訂

請見 revision_tracking.ppt

Writing as a Process (1):

PowerPoint Teaching in Composition

Just-in-Time teaching (errors collection, correction and group-correction.) Shows error samples and correction – consecutive

ly or layer on layer; (see examples in your CD—powerpoint_sample/powerpoint.ppt; powerpoint_2004s.ppt)

Student passively sitting there and watching? Print out in outline forms( 大綱格式 ), cutting it to pieces to assign students different errors to fix. （ Simultaneous use of the white board and PowerPoint projection. ）

Discussion: PowerPoint?

Cons 1. Fragmenting Ideas; 2. Power Imbalance;

Pros 1. Students Like it; 2. Teachers Use it—with Reservation

What do you think?

Giving Constructive Suggestions

Different Type of Teacher Feedback: stream-of-consciousness, marginal comments, final

remarks, grade and signs— to empathize and share, to correct, to question, and to

suggest ways of revision. A combination of correction and the use of correction

symbols : Correction Symbol: to suggest the types of errors to help

students correct by themselves; Correction: to offer models to follow; better come with some

explanation. But how much time do we have?

Giving Constructive Suggestions: the technical part

Using AutoCheck to give correction symbol—

e.g. (T) = [Tense]; (trans) =[transition] Possible Problems:

change of computers; Lack of memory.

My General Feedback

1. I enjoyed reading all the stories. They were all touching stories with good senses of style and usage of English language.

2. Revision involves re-thinking, re-shaping and copy-editing (fixing the language). It can be an endless process.

3. Still, I’d like to engage you in one more revision.

My General Feedback (2)

To revise, 1. try to find out how you learn from your

peer and your instructor;

2. [a must]: try to figure out your main idea and concretize it.

3. The rest of it you can choose to improve within your time limits.

My Feedback: Suggestions (1)

The functions of a narrative essay: 1. Easy to motivate the writers, because it is close

and meaningful to the writers; we like to tell stories to understand ourselves.

2. A good practice in being concrete and avoiding sweeping generalization.

( How do we make our generalization convincing?) (A good example: a story about the last view of rainbow amidst the family’s busy work before the summer vacation ended).

Coherence in content (order and relevance of the parts to wholeness) and cohesion in form (e.g. transition, paragraph unity)

Writing: Suggestions

Main Idea: How to develop it? Makes a thesis statement = topic + (controlling

idea 1 + controlling idea 2 + controlling idea 3) Makes supportive topic sentences for each

paragraph = topic + controlling idea coordinate = explains the controlling idea subordinate = examples of controlling idea only one idea per paragraph (reference)

¶ -- paragraph unity and transition

[On being the first the first to get to school in the morning.] That was like a competition that I enjoyed a lot. [Gap^] I had many good friends. During class intervals, we would run to the play ground and play. [Gap^] And I was the fastest girl runner in my school’s athletic team. [On the experience of joining a race.]

¶ -- paragraph unity and transition –rev. [On being the first to get to school in the morning.] Th

at was like a competition that I enjoyed a lot. 1. (new ¶ ) For me, competition was fun but not viciou

s. I had many good friends at school. During class intervals, we would run to the play ground and play. My friends offered me great support when I joined a race. Although I was the fastest girl runner in my school’s athletic team, I did not have good shoes to run in. . . . [On the experience of being supported and helped by the friends when joining a race.]

2. (new ¶ ) I liked to go to school not just to be the first: I enjoyed learning all kinds of interesting things from the teachers and playing with my friends at school.

(new ¶ ) Despite all the happy moments, there were still regrets due to my poverty. For instance, I did not even have a good pair of running shoes.

¶ -- paragraph unity and transition –another example[On Grandfather’s telling bedtime stories, making Chin

ese medicine and checking the bike everyday.]

2nd ¶ He [repetition] mastered Chinese herbal medicine and enjoy decocting it for us whenever we got sick.

Grandpa performed magic also in making Chinese medicine for us whenever we got sick.

3rd ¶ Grandpa was not only capable but also regular in offering his loving care to us.

1st ¶ -- “I’m dying, ain’t I?” Last ¶ -- My heart aches everytime I saw in my mind

Grandfather’s emaciated body on his sick bed. No, Grandpa, you will never die in my heart. . . .

[word choice]; [repetition]

With a round-fat belly attached to two stout legs with abscesses all over, I would never do anything that would exhaust myself. abscesses 膿瘡 obesity? fat? Cellulite橘皮組織 ? Cellulite Massage Oil; liposuction 抽指術

With two thick legs attached to my round-belly body and cellulite all over it, I would never do anything to exhaust myself.

the groaning coming from the water tower the groans from the water tower

Style [parallelism & description of action] Last week, at school, after I finished my lunch, a boy

wore a wicked smile came to me and said, “Miss Hong, let me show you something!”

. . . a boy wore a wicked smile, came to me and said, “Miss Hong, let me show you something!”

. . . a boy came to me with a wicked smile and said, “Miss Hong, let me show you something!”

He stretched out his hand and a lizard crawled on it. He expected me to be frightened and scream loudly.

Style: before and after ‘and’ we tend to use similar parts of speech. Avoid repetition.

Rev. He stretched out his hand and showed a lizard crawling on it, expecting me to be frightened and scream.

Discussion: Using Word to correct papers What do you think?

Pro: Con:

1. Clear and colorful;

2. Easy to save and share; avoid extra printing.

3. Easy to teach with concrete examples.

1. Premise: computer and typing—does this disadvantage some students?

2. Eye-straining.

3. Virus

General Discussion

What do you think about – Teaching and Learning Writing online

and with multimedia

Reference:

English learning and teaching websites: http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/con&com_databank/Links_top10.htm

“Coherence and Cohesion ” http://www2.uni-wuppertal.de/FB4/anglistik/multhaup/study_skills/8_study_skills_txt_coherence.htm

“Seeing is Understanding: Improving Coherence in Students' Writing” http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Lee-Writing/

“Freewriting, Prompts and Feedback” http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Dickson-Freewriting.html

Liveweb: http://skp.mvps.org/liveweb.htm