Blog # 6

1. My instructors assessed and scored my writing performance based on whether I answered the questions asked. There were times when I thought I had answered the question, but I had not explicitly provided the answer. My memory of writing assessment was answering specific questions in academic courses such as geography or biology.  Feedback was provided with comments placed in the margins of the paper, along with a letter grade. These comments were adequate enough for me to study harder, or to correct the paper, until the teacher or instructor was satisfied. I was not exposed to writing rubrics in high school. Perhaps a writing rubric would have reduced the re-work since I would have had more clarity about what the requirements were for producing an acceptable writing task.

2.  My writing skills improved as a result of my personal motivation towards excellence. In my high school there was friendly competition related to all marks received, which motivated me to improve. The scores I received were tangible evidence of my progress, so that my parents could feel good about my progress. Not wanting to disappoint my parents, I increased my mastery of writing and reading. There came a time when I developed an earnest desire to learn more about the world around me, and developed a voracious appetite for journals and magazines such as the National Geographic magazine. The more I read, the better my writing became. At some point, my writing was less dependent on grades my teachers assigned, and became more of an outward expression of the many books I enjoyed reading.  In my early college years, I was very motivated to receive the highest score, and thus I motivated myself to read and study.

2. I am just emerging as a composition instructor. The greatest challenge that I have observed is the difference in the rhetoric styles of the students based on their native writing styles, and the rhetoric structure that I am guiding them towards.  Also, some students from countries outside the USA are led to believe that they are writing in a way that is acceptable by western university standards, but feel disappointment when I point out the changes they should make in their writing style. There are adult students who are pursuing post-graduate degrees, whose writings are difficult to understand because of the sentence structure. The great challenge is in remediating the basics, grammatical and sentence structure, and especially when the adult students do not adequately revise their corrected writing as advised. I am currently asking some adults to increase their noticing of the structure of English sentences by copying interesting stories in their own hand writing.

3. Ferris and Hedgcock (2014) advises that formal assessment “should provide information about writing achievement, proficiency, and progress (page 228). However, since formal assessments are often accompanied by high levels of anxiety, teachers should consider careful placements of more formative assessments to gently guide progress in situations that are less anxiety provoking.  Formal assessments have their place for yielding quantitative scores used by the institution, and funding authorities. Ferris and Hedgcock (2014) recommends an approach to summing the formative assessments which could convert qualitative information gathered during formative assessment into quantitative data as needed by the learning institution. A conversion table is a suggested tool for this purpose.

4.  I am familiar with alternative assessment options such as students writing in portfolios, since as a student myself, my portfolio is being evaluated. Validated rubrics are effective as an alternative assessment tool, since the descriptive text can also educate the student as to the details included in an acceptable writing product. Teachers may not always have the most robust rubric to describe the written product generated from alternative activities which can produce assessable writing.  I look forward to learning more about the alternate assessment methods and the reliable rubrics developed for use.

Ferris, Dana R.; Hedgcock, John. Teaching L2 Composition: Purpose, Process, and Practice (p. 228). Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition.

Blog 4.

1.   How have your reading experiences and skills influenced your development as an L1 (and L2) writer? Why might reading skill be an especially important factor in how multilingual students become proficient writers?

I have always been aware that reading improves my ability to write in my L1. Reading introduces me to new ideas and new vocabulary with which those ideas are expressed. As I pursue my Masters in TESOL, I realize that this new field of knowledge requires new ways of expressing oneself. I will pursue reading within this professional field to increase my rate of absorbing new information and my comprehension. Reading widely within this specialty also builds familiarity with the acceptable style of writing in this field.

In the past, found that when I read for pleasure, I read for longer periods of time, and I am working on converting the need to read into a desire to read.

2. What genres do you encounter as an academic and nonacademic reader? What features typify these genres? What have you learned from them? 


Let me clarify my interpretation of genre, as  the “recurring or characteristic textual (oral or written) responses to the requirements of the social context” (p. 111).

As an L1 reader and writer,  as an adult, my non-academic and academic reading covered many genres, primarily business management, project management and healthcare management. In my earlier years, my focused genres were classical English literature, geography, plant and soil sciences. My reading was and is interactive with the text, summarizing what is read, and developing different opinions to the ones expressed in the text I read.  I have read professional texts to achieve various degrees and certifications, or to develop professional presentations for clients.  Academically, I read to complete a Master’s degree in Education, and now I am reading in pursuit of a second Master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.  Specific genres in business are: user manuals, tutorials, project management, healthcare presentations, literature reviews, proposals, business conversation, interviewing and negotiation guidance, just to name a few.

What typifies these genres is that written English requires that the writer supply the complete context, which makes sentences more complex. In spoken English, sentences are shorter because the context is understood by the speech participants. I have learned to re-read and repair written English before final production, so that information written is clear to the asynchronous reader. It is also important that written English be understood to be a dance between the reader and writer, hence the importance of socially correct and nuanced language for the intended discourse community. Each discourse community has its cultural norms and patterned dance steps, which needs to be learned through participation in communities of practice in order to efficiently communicate.

3. If you have teaching experience, what features do you seek in instructional materials (e.g., print and digital texts, software, and so on)? What distinguishes a good textbook or software application from a poor one? 

I look for instructional material which is authentic to the integrated conversation task I teach. Currently, I teach business English conversation, which is a minefield filled with opportunities for participants to self-destruct. What works for my students from all over the world, is a selection of instructional material from written texts to online resources, combined with in-class situational practice which simulates their real-life encounters and conversational dances on their jobs. This requires that each lesson defines the situation the students are likely to encounter, engages the student in real-life re-enactments, supported by specially selected online or printed texts, based on the median of the class' ability to comprehend its rhetorical arrangement, complexity and vocabulary, as suggested by Ferris and Hegcock (2014, page 121).

It takes the collective experience of the writers of the text, as well as the exhaustive experience of the instructor to develop instruction of immediate benefit in each student's western business workplace, while maintaining the appropriate balance of social and cultural correctness. Adult students working in the west often find themselves working in businesses with unwritten codes of conduct, implicit social and cultural expectations which are different than the ones which prevail in the student's home country. Unless mastered, lack of knowledge can lead to self-isolation, resentment and poor job performance. 

4. In what respects might criteria for an L2 literacy or composition textbook differ from those that we might apply to other types of textbook? Why?

The criteria for L2 literacy or composition textbook differ from those of other types of textbooks in that the textbook needs to provide the student with authentic and wide range of scaffolding exposure to socioculturally appropriate texts and composition tasks. The tasks need to "real world", goal oriented,  and designed to build genre and cultural awareness. These criteria suggest tasks which engage the cognitive abilities to search for, discover, synthesize and summarize genre specific information (Ferris and Hegcock (2014, page 127).

5. Under what conditions should a composition teacher augment a textbook with supplemental materials, tasks, and assignments? Justify your response. 

A text book can supply the teachers with time-saving tools of quizzes, tests, assignments and projects as approved by the learning institution. However, each class of students will have special and specific needs not addressed by the textbook, which may be written years before it is used in a classroom. Depending on the unique needs of the students supplemental material may be required to emphasize a particular cultural point, or to provide rehearsal of real-world situations as explained by the students in their problem solving needs.

As Ferris and Hegcock (2014, page 123) points out, the sequence of activities in the text book may not suit the current student audience's needs, or the students may require more in-depth,  examples and practice with culturally specific scenarios of composition. The textbook may be simply inadequate in its breadth of coverage in one specific topic area or another. I have found it necessary to augment my instruction with digital media which clarifies themes and topics to increase the authenticity and applicability of ideas presented in text books to the evolving student situations, over the years.

6. What types of in-class and out-of-class activities and exercises are most productive for inexperienced writers? For experienced writers? Why?

In-class activities to help students write include having them speak while the teacher writes. They can tell a story or articulate a situation with which they are familiar.

The teacher can help the student understand that writing is a process, a sequence of steps which requires first identifying an idea, then focusing on a thesis or position related to that idea. It involves identifying opinions which may be in conflict with one's personal position, or in agreement, providing the rationale for why the idea is important or why the debate is essential. The student can be guided to find evidence to support both the personal position held or the positions stated that are in disagreement with the central thesis.  Out-of-class activities may include further research on the topic, real life examples of the thesis and peer review before final presentation.

If the student understands that writing is an iterative process, yielding drafts before the final copy, they may be less reluctant to get started.

Reference

Ferris, Dana R., Hedgcock, John. (2014) Teaching L2 Composition: Purpose, Process, and Practice.  Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition.

Blog 1.

1. Consider your experiences as a student writer and as a teacher of writing, if applicable. Whether you are an experienced or inexperienced teacher, what skills and competencies do you most want your students to develop? Why?

I most want my students to development the ability to understand the English sentence structure norms. Despite the variations in the English language within the inner circle and outer circle of English speaking countries, the concept of sentence structures which include a subject, a verb and a direct object remains particularly consistent and important in written communication, as the reader and the writer are separated by distances of time.


A frequent error in writing English sentences that I have noticed among English language L2s, is the tendency for the English language L2 writer to omit the direct object. Additionally, I want the students to recognize the function of each word, or group of words in a sentence. For example, some students may recognize a noun, and the function of a noun, e.g. a place, a thing, or a person.  Yet they may be unfamiliar with the function of a noun phrase – a group of words that function as a noun, or a gerund - a verb that behaves like a noun. Many of these errors may be rooted, not only in the rhetorical differences in language organization systems between different cultures, but also in the omission, during the initial phases of learning the English language, of a solid grounding in the basics of English language sentence structure in order to build communicative competence. If I were able to help a student recognize when a sentence is grammatically correct and why the sentence is grammatically correct, I would feel that I am helping my students to become more autonomous in making progress towards improving their written English, with less reliance on a teacher’s corrections.

2. Where do you think writing comes from, and why have writing skills become so essential in modern societies? 

Writing developed as a method of representing in a visible way the “units of language” which would consistently lead the persons interpreting the visible symbols to the same conclusion or interpretation. Overtime the initial symbols morphed from representations of nature, such as a fish, or a camel to markings that conveyed meaning and information when positioned in relation to the preceding and succeeding markings (Ferris and Hedgcock, 2014, p. 5). Because these markings emerged independently in different parts of the world, we ended up with differences in markings, symbols, and related elements of meaning (Ferris and Hedgcock, 2014, p. 8).

The textbook introduces the concept of the ‘rebus principle’ which established an alignment between human sound and symbol. This developed the constancy of interpretation, which could support commercial meanings, transactions and expectations (Ferris and Hedgcock, 2014, p. 9). Additionally, this led to the development of various forms of an alphabet, recognized in different countries as writing (Ferris and Hedgcock, 2014, p. 10).

Reference

Ferris, Dana R.; Hedgcock, John. 2014. Teaching L2 Composition: Purpose, Process, and Practice.  Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition.

#3. What sorts of knowledge about writing, writing processes, and writing pedagogy would you like to develop? Why?

As a teacher of writing in English, I like to help guide students towards feeling as capable in composing informative discourse in English as they are able to do, using their first language (L1). This is because I find intense personal fulfillment and enrichment in helping others achieve their goals in life.

Writing in a student’s first language is naturally easier for advanced level ESL students than in their second language(L2). Their approach to thought generation, organization and composition may be a learned skill in their L1 which does not translate easily to the L2. If students read widely in their native language, and if that reading informed their thinking, colored their experiences and stimulated their creative ideas, limitations in reading in the L2 will retard their exposure to diverse discourses about relevant topics, and thus will limit their ability to achieve the same facility of thought production through to writing composition.

One pathway to building that teaching skill will be for me to develop the ability to assess what the predominant and historical patterns in writing is for each student’s L1, which are hindering or likely to help the L2 writing. That ability would help the teacher to surgically target causative influences on L2 writing and design the best intervention to prescribe the adjustment needed. Another path could be to identify a reliable framework for constructing and composing writing which could be referenced when producing various genres of writing, as well as assessing the work produced for communicative adequacy and social appropriateness.

No matter which path I select, the most important skill is for me to assist the student in decoding writing tasks and constructing a widely applicable writing strategy as they face “increasingly difficult academic [and business] literacy demands” (Ferris and Hedgcock, 2014, page 30). This is especially important as the exposure to English in a student’s previous life occurs within different domains, and therefore their interpretation of tasks presented to them will be filtered based on their mental construct and understanding of English up to this point. I think of adult students whom I have helped to prepare for the IELTS and TOEFL exams, especially those who were taught English in primary and secondary schools in their home countries. It appears that some students were led to believe that their command of the English language was quite accurate and acceptable. Yet, their ability to structure complex 0sentences as needed for their academic and business journeys are severely challenged.  Without laying blame, it quickly becomes clear that the foundational underpinnings of their English sentence construction are often porous and unstable.

Students who come from affluent circumstances may actually resent the realization that foundational remediation is required before forward progress can be achieved. It is understandable that such realization may be tinged with frustration when one considers the investment of time in learning English that previously was made. However, as Ferris and Hedgcock (2014) emphasize, classes of primary or secondary education in their country of birth may have been unfairly influenced by large class sizes, impractical textbooks, or teachers who were themselves non-native English language speakers, and were unable to detect and correct specific inadequate constructs or ungrammatical sentence productions (p. 32).

Reference

Ferris, Dana R., Hedgcock, John. 2014. Teaching L2 Composition: Purpose, Process, and Practice. Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition.  

4. What do you think accounts for the diversity of writing systems? How do you think people best learn to use a writing system? 

Given the variation in geographic locations where different symbols were developed, referred to in section #2, we have evidence of different writing systems. I think writing systems are learned best by the L2 student, through investing time learning at formal, educational institutions and developing skills through practice, away from the learning institutions. A student must invest in personal observation and discovery of writing, imitation of writing and questioning what has been written. This will be more difficult for the adult student, as compared to the child of about 5 or 6 years. However, when the adult student recognizes that the greater challenges can be matched with greater focus and effort, over many years, a mastery of the L2 writing can emerge. (Ferris and Hedgcock 2014, p. 16). The ongoing challenge for the adult L2 learner is to absorb not just the theoretical constructs of writing, but also the social contexts for each style and occurrence, to fully comprehend meaning. For the L2 learner whose L1 language skills are limited, the mental demands of learning and adjusting may be quite daunting. 

Reference

Ferris, Dana R., Hedgcock, John. 2014.Teaching L2 Composition: Purpose, Process, and Practice. Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition.  

5. In what ways is writing in an additional language (that is, a language other than one’s maternal language or languages) similar to— and different from— writing in one’s mother tongue? Why? How might being literate in one language help (or hinder) developing literacy in another language?


Writing in an additional language calls for a different system of logically organizing units of language. For example, some languages as expressed within specific social contexts, forces the writer to identify the main point of the discourse at the beginning of the writing. In other languages, or in the writer’s mother tongue, this may not be the case.  Students who have developed the skill of noticing language constructs in their first language, may find it easier to use this skill in their second language. The skill of literacy related to noticing, analyzing and understanding the construction of language is often developed  during secondary school learning activities within the student’s native country. A student who has limited secondary school education in his native country and is an adult, may find the effort to develop an ability to notice, and build awareness of text structure and organization, extremely demanding.