Session 9

Annotated Bibliography assignments Writing Critical Literature Review Keep reading articles on your topics.

Identify key words and key areas. Literature Review Casanave: What’s good writing?

(Discussion by Laura) Take 20: CHAPTER 14 AND CHAPTER 16 Genre Theory in L1 and L2 literacy:

Hyland, Johns and Tardy (Laura and Chien-Yu)

If I have seen father it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants

Conversation Metaphor by Kenneth Burke Writing a literature review is more than listing

previous research in the field. It is like telling a research story. Working on your evolving literature review is a valuable writing exercise in understanding important aspects of your research area.

Just like any research paper, it should include an introduction, a body and a conclusion.

In your introduction, begin describing your own study: what are you interested in exploring? What gaps do you see in your area (pedagogically, theoretically or empirically) that you want to address with your research project? In the body part, you need to select relevant research, synthesize it into a coherent narrative discussion.

Literature reviews appear throughout your research projects (i.e. class paper, dissertation, manuscript of a journal)

Determine priorities as you’re reading research articles in your area.

Converting etic data (observations, common beliefs) to emic data (culturally meaningful to your participants)

Research questions/purpose/focus of the study

Types of data collected The target population: What cultural

groups are being studied? How is cultural behavior described?

Theoretical framework that guide the study

Findings: What are the significant findings and discoveries in this study?

C.Casanave

In my opinion, a good writer is someone who……..

In my opinion, good writing is………

To improve my own writing, I usually……

This is how I respond to my students’ writing…….

CHAPTER 14: HOW DO YOU ADDRESS PRODUCT AND PROCESS?

CHAPTER 16: HOW DO YOU RESPOND TO STUDENT WRITIGN?

Besides their own beliefs about good writing, English teachers should also take into account students' beliefs and institutional policy. Within our department, good writing was seen first and foremost in relation to accuracy in using language elements (grammatical and organizational features and vocabulary items) being targeted and studied at that particular time. Fluency was expected to increase with practice of writing and re-writing the essays. So, error correction and feedback played a very important role.

In many non-US L2 writing contexts, as implied by Matsuda (2003), it is not that teachers blindly value error count; it is simply because they are not on the same page with teachers who follow the discussion in the field. Because of this disconnect, their students too become so used to this environment that they cannot imagine improvement without having their errors pointed out to them.

There are a number of possible solutions to this controversy. First, any attempt to change teachers’ beliefs, practices, and philosophies, requires a radical revision to the system under which these teachers teach (e.g., types of assignment given, criteria for assessment, etc). This can go as far as making changes to international test systems such as TOEFL and IELTS, the systems that have helped maintain the status quo and determine the way teachers teach especially in EFL countries. Second, establishing new strategies for gate-keeping (if this is important) that will be influenced by this radical change in the system should follow.

If “good” cognitive processes make, let's say, Writer A a “good” writer and/or “good” problem solver, this does not mean that this “goodness” of processes are transferable to other writers B, C, D and so on. Different people just address and solve problems differently due to cultural, social, political, economic, even “ecological” factors. There no one-and-for-all recipe for becoming a “good” writer, I believe, though there are some techniques that are here and there. What is “good writing” after all?

As a matter of fact, most of standardized tests, national exams (those for entrance or exit) are always time limited and scrupulously graded according to the test takers/examinees’ accuracy. When I was a marker at the Rwanda National Examination Council, I remember that students’ papers were graded based on four criteria set forth in marking schemes which were developed by teacher markers. Those components were length (word count), organization/layout (paragraphing), content (ideas/arguments) and grammar (at word and sentence level). Teachers were convinced that without enough practice in both accuracy and fluency in composition classes, students would hardly pass such exams.

L2 learners (in any level) will make mistakes.

Bring activities that will build students’ confidence, help them take risks, and grow their fluency (in rhetoric and organization)

Both accuracy and fluency are important part of SLW learning. It is important to remember the writing context and reader expectation to decide which one to focus on in a class period.

Writing as a discovery process: Revising, drafting, editing. Viewing writing as a process which is socially situated.

It helps L2 writers discover ideas, take risks and forget about the surface level language errors.

I see no conflict between process models and genre-social-context-ecology models. Both systems do what we want for students, they are not mutually exclusive, and indeed, they work better in conjunction with each other.

Teachers need to be flexible enough to be sensitive to and suit students’ needs. Teachers can give clear guidelines about their writing assignments and explicit instructions on genres that students are expected to write “when necessary,” rather than simply waiting them to discover the knowledge they need by themselves. But I don’t mean that teachers have to provide explicit instruction all the time and go back to the teacher-centered classroom. They don’t have to choose one. Rather, teachers can alternate their roles on a great timing; sometimes facilitators, other times explicit instruction giver. So, it is imperative for teachers to decide when and how to give explicit instruction.

Primary interest: TEXTS Ways of using language. Understanding

language and its relation to its context. Language is seen as embedded in social

realities. Every successful text will display writers

awareness. Literacies are realized in social

relationships. Empowers students to effectively

participate in target situations.

How do L1 and L2 writers build knowledge of genre?

How do writers’ culture and prior educational experiences influence the way they approach different writing assignments?

What are some of the writing processes students go through in their disciplinary contexts?

In your groups, do an analysis of the texts you brought with you

What type of conventions do you see in this text?

What other types of texts is this text influenced by? (Bakthin, Hyland)

What does this structure tell us about the culture and community’s beliefs? (Swales)

Identify the main “rhetorical moves” (Swales, 1990) that the author make throughout this text.

How does this text communicate a cultural and social understanding?

The New rhetoric approach

The ESP approach

Systemic Functional Linguistics (a.k.a Sydney School)

The New rhetoric approach: functional relationships between text type and theoretical situation. Ethnographic methodologies are used rather than textual.

The ESP approach: class or structured communicative events employed by specific discourse communities whose members share broad social purposes.(Swales, 1990)

Systemic Functional Linguistics (a.k.a Sydney School): ways in which language is systemically linked to context.

CHAPTER 15: WHAT DO YOU WISH YOU HAD BEEN TAUGHT IN GRAD SCHOOL (BUT WEREN’T)?

Product vs process orientation to SLW The connection between writing and

culture: Intercultural/ constructive rhetoric Textual ownership, issues of plagiarism

and authorship Voice and Identity in SLW Academic literacies in higher education. Bilingual Education. K-12 issues, English-

only movement Genre Theory in second language writing