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Enhancing Student Writing with
Contact Zones
Alisha Fisher and Courtney King
Central Michigan University
English Language Institute
2+We want…
Better writing from our students
More writing from our students
To improve their relationship with
writing
3+Spoken Written Language
Kenkel and Yates (2009) proposed that all
developing writers, both native and nonnative
speakers, must learn to process language in a new
way when they learn to write.
Ways of handling information
Topic Management
When students learn how to write academically, the
representation of their language is reorganized and
restructured in their minds.
3
4+Put Good In, Get Good Out
Frequency
Bybee (2002) and Gass and Mackey (2002), for example,
asserted that frequency of input is monumental in determining
linguistic representations.
Ellis, O’Donnell, and Römer (2013), who claim “the greater the
token frequency of an exemplar, the more it contributes to
defining the category, and the greater the likelihood it will be
considered the prototype” (p. 31).
Noticing
Orgeta (2009) explained that noticing is more than what a
student does when causally learning; it is giving active
attention to certain aspects of the input.
5+Optimal Learning Situation
How can we use elements of input (noticing and
frequency) to enhance written student output?
Engage with language in the input
Notice elements of language in the input
Interact with stimulating themes
Contact Zones!
5
6+Contact Zones
“I use this term to refer to social spaces
where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with
each other, often in contexts of highly
asymmetrical relations of power, such as
colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as
they are lived out in many parts of the world
today.”
- Mary Louise Pratt (1991)
7+Contact Zones/Communities
Contact zone = multicultural classroom
Contact zone ≠ war zone
Contact zone = where we meet to
evaluate artifacts
Contact zone = community of time
travelers
8+Contact Zone Example
Baseball cards
Math (batting averages)
Economics (use value v. market value)
Phonics (pronouncing surnames)
Geography (team names and locations)
Ethics (making fair trades)
History (changes throughout the years, including
racial shifts)
9+Keeping the Contact Zone
community-based
Historical/cultural/literary contact zones give
power to the academy’s outsiders
Otherwise silenced students can often find a
voice on the issues the contact zone raises
The class is more likely to function as a
community, traveling together to decipher
texts and respond with their own readings
10+Sample Contact Zone:
the Atomic Bomb
Class: ELI 084 Dual (College-level) Writing
Context: A semester-long course in which students learn strategies for writing in the university
Lesson Objective: Understand bias
Materials: Realia [Photos, letters, news reports (with transcripts), videos, and Truman’s speeches]
Procedure:
Read all materials
Evaluate materials for bias
Assess how bias was shown (word choices, images, headlines, interview subjects, etc.)
Write about it
11+Using (Balanced) Realia to Create
the Contact Zone
Photos
News broadcasts (with scripts)
Political speeches (with scripts)
Letters
Newspaper articles
Propaganda (text or video)
Pamphlets (distributed by governments or groups)
12+Newspaper Headlines
Source:
NuclearSecrecy.com
13+Newspaper Illustrations
Source:
NuclearSecrecy.com
14+Photos
From different perspectives
To elicit emotions
To reveal injustice
Note: Images in an actual contact zone class
would likely be more graphic than the ones
we have chosen.
15+Oppenheimer works on the bomb
Source: The
Atlantic
16+Hiroshima: August 6, 1945
Source: The
Atlantic
17+Survivors seek medical help in
Nagasaki
Source: The
Atlantic
18+Japanese P.O.W. Hears Announcement
of Japanese Surrender
Source: The
Atlantic
19+Sailors in Pearl Harbor Celebrate
Japanese Surrender
Source: The
Atlantic
20+Rich Input and Quality Output in the
Contact Zone Classroom
Frequent input in various forms
Spoken language from small and large group discussion of materials
Written language from novels or authentic nonfiction pieces
Student-lead exploration of materials
Engagement with classroom content
Motivation to succeed!
21+Your turn!
Group yourselves!
You will each be given a packet with planning prompts and
sample materials.
Consider framing your lesson around bias and read with the
following questions in mind:
Who created this?
What was their purpose?
How did they convince the reader of their opinion?
Were they successful?
Was their bias problematic to their message?
How might a reader at the time interpret it differently?
22+Conclusions
Provide your students with more texts
Provide your students with authentic texts
Build worlds where your students feel free to explore their ideas
Always encourage community, not competition
References 24
References cont.25
