Blog 10.

It is one thing to learn the theories for correcting writing errors of the ESL students, and it is quite another to implement them. When given the choice of editing the student's writing errors in a comprehensive manner with the first draft vs. the selective error treatment, I initially thought that comprehensive error treatment was better, to avoid errors fossilizing in the student’s mind. (Ferris and Hedgcock, 2014, p. 286).  Having participated in the writing process with a ten-year-old ESL student, and noticing when his ideas seem to flow, I now feel that during the initial draft of a multi-draft process, I should encourage the free flow of ideas with no error correction. After all, during a timed exam, an initial draft may be all the student has time to produce. As I help to tutor this boy for the SSAT exam, I cannot help but think of it as a disservice, if I interrupted his idea flow.  

A complimentary focus during the initial drafting is the focus on identifying the main points, and supporting points, so that there is some logical flow to the first draft writing.  Even though I cannot guarantee the topic prompts for the SSAT, I am encouraging him to read about topics he is interested in and then to summarize that story in the main point, supporting points, conclusion framework.  Schuster (2003) suggests that students write often, after reading prose a little over their heads. I am testing this approach this summer with this student. He will have an opportunity to develop his confidence in producing a writing product so that shortly he can begin to reflect his emotions in the story.

Reference

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

Edgar H Schuster, 2003. Breaking the Rules, Liberating Writers Through Innovative Grammar Instruction. Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH.

Blog 9

1. Thinking about your own literacy development in the past and present, to what extent were (or are) you consciously aware of vocabulary, grammar, and usage (punctuation and other mechanics) when you read and write? 

My vocabulary and grammar and usage was absorbed over time, as I began reading more prolifically at 12 -15 years old.  In reading great literature, and noticing the emotion that this genre of writing stimulated, I tried to copy the writing style to evoke the same emotion in my readers.  When one reads prolifically, the mechanics seem to develop more naturally. Of course, there were English Language classes in high school, about which I remember very little. I must have learned a lot about composition, since answers to our exams questions were always written in the composition style, except for Math. Since I went to high school that valued composition style writing, I think this pattern of writing has stuck. 

2.  By what mechanisms or processes did you (or do you) acquire the language that you use in your academic or professional reading and writing? What about informal, everyday literacy activities that you regularly undertake? 

I am in the process of acquiring new language, attempting to use words like ‘pedagogy’, ‘lexical’, and ‘syntactic’ correctly. If I spent the time to re-read every word in the assigned text, Ferris and Hedgcock, (2014)  I am sure I could improve my language skills for teaching by 20% or more. Language is acquired from one’s environment, so the longer I spend in my teacher development environment, the more precision in language use I will acquire. Informally, I spend time mostly with professionals who are improving their work life, so I use project management and healthcare language genres.  I am not aware of much change in my language, unless I am speaking to persons who speak English as a second language. 

I encourage my students to read daily, as daily reading will have a positive influence on one’s language.  

3.  Considering especially L2 students who are advanced acquirers in academic settings, what is your perception of their need for ongoing language development in a writing or literacy course? How much specific attention do they need to language, and what kinds of attention? 

L2 students who are advanced acquirers in academic settings, still require ongoing language development in writing and literacy. L2 language needs to be woven into the fabric of their lives. The challenge for the adult post-graduate person is that their lives are consumed with family and their L1 community, so that L2 becomes an accessory worn on special occasions.  They have not yet fully mastered syntactic structures nor have they built their repertoire of word choices in Discourse community within which they operate.  Given their limited time, they are at more risk for isolating themselves in the country where English is predominantly spoken.

4. As a current or prospective teacher, how comfortable do you feel with the task of developing the linguistic knowledge of your writing students? What questions or concerns do you have?

The task of developing the linguistic knowledge of my writing students has become more crystallized with the following strategies learned from Ferris and Hedgcock (2014).

• Categorize errors to prioritize treatment of error patterns.
• Identify what students know or believe about the writing error.
• Identify how students monitor their language use when writing or speaking, (a reflective activity,) using a survey chart to elicit answers, as suggested by Ferris and Hedgcock (2014, page 317)
• Help students analyze texts which they read to look for examples of vocabulary, grammar, or style that exemplifies proper language use, being careful to distinguish between students who are more appreciative of an inductive evaluation, those who are able to figure out which language rules apply, vs. those are appreciative of a deductive evaluation, that is being told which rules are applied.
• Identify frequently used lexical bundles of phrases, based on genre
• Examine the student’s morphosyntactic choices with regard to suitability of length and complexity
• Examine the student’s punctuation choices
• Examine how the student develops interest in their writing, for the targeted audience 
• Examine what the writing tasks require of the student, what linguistic structures are encouraged and whether students know the genre and style called for, or how to control their writing for formality or informality of the language (Ferris and Hedgcock 2014, page 320.)
• Design an integrated series of mini-lessons that will focus on a specific group of students in a particular place and time, based on their needs, recommends Ferris and Hedgcock (2014, page 321.)

Reference 

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

Blog 8

1. Think about your own writing processes. At what stage in your writing do you focus on the linguistic accuracy of your work? How and where did you acquire the grammatical knowledge that you use to edit your work?

I focus on linguistic accuracy after my initial writing is complete. That statement is probably 80% true. Because I am a native English speaker, I may intersperse developing content with linguistic and grammatical corrections, although I am aware that this latter process slows down the completion of the writing product. My grammatical knowledge has been acquired over years of learning English, since birth. My linguistic knowledge has been absorbed over many years of reading in my genre. As a result, my writing tends to be more formal, more academic, since that has been the bulk of my reading. I often find that I first produce written text for my students, then deliberately re-read and replace academic sounding words with more everyday words – which is quite time consuming.

 2. How effective is your approach to editing your own writing? If it is effective, why do you think so? If it does not always work, what might improve it?

My approach to writing, which is to “do a brain dump” first, then to go back and edit linguistically and re-position the content for a logical flow and style, works to get the written product completed, vs. constantly editing as one is writing. My final read through is for verb tenses, plurals and words that Microsoft Word left behind for me to identify. I think my writing style is effective if I have time. If I have no time, I read for comprehension, noun/verb agreement, and trust that the rest just flowed naturally. 

One area I will have to strengthen is my writing speed. I just must accelerate my rate of writing completion, from pen down to pen up (you know “wheels up to wheels down” in measuring time for a airplane flight.)  The steps I am taking to improve that speed is to read more and to write more often so as to increase turnover speed.

3.  If you have experience in teaching writing, what do you find most challenging about giving students feedback on their language errors (grammar, word choice, spelling, mechanics, and so on)?

When giving feedback to L2 students, I find it most challenging to ignore the desire for perfection, and accept any semblance of progress.  Lately, I have started to be selective in providing feedback. I focus on two areas during the formative feedback stage of writing, and that is just content – what are you saying, and not how you are saying it. The course in English 697 has taught me to take a process approach to writing, so that initially, there needs to be draft produced, which is later followed by revisions. There is a slight drawback with this method in that the students may get a sense of task completion prematurely, and another sense of “not again” when we return to the same writing task. Ferris and Hegcock (2014) noted that “some experts have observed that for real-world writing tasks, students must learn how to edit their texts comprehensively rather than selectively, and that marking only a few errors at a time may not help them to do so adequately” (page 285).  My experience is that all work is time limited, and students should get through phases of completion, with the first phase being complete documentation of thought about a topic, before editing for grammar. Given that many tests are time limited, this method may in the end yield higher marks on a test page if the student runs out of time.

4.  What ideas do you have about the best way( s) to help L2 students focus on editing their written work? Are these ideas congruent with your own editing process? Why or why not?

My approach in helping L2 students to focus on editing their written work will be to follow a process approach to writing,  that manages writing as a product which emerges with guidance in phases.  I will also be more intentional about looking for patterns in errors that the students make so that they can focus on correcting a few patterned, repetitive errors at time, e.g. use of articles.

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

Blog 7.

1. From your own experiences as a student writer, what memories do you have of teacher responses to your texts? What types of feedback have you as a writer found most helpful? Most problematic?

Teacher’s responses to my written text were primarily through red-lining what I wrote – so far as I can remember. This closely resembles the correction tracking feature in Microsoft Word processing application. What I have found most helpful is someone asking me questions about what I wrote. These questions informed me that the writing was not as crystal clear as I had hoped. The most problematic feedback are comments such as: “This doesn’t make sense.”

2. Do you feel that the types of responses (in both content and form) that you have received would also be appropriate for L2 writers? Why or why not?

I think that I would prefer to offer slightly different feedback to L2 writers. I am currently tutoring a 10-year old boy in China, whose L2 is intermediate to advanced – verbally. As I learn these theories of offering feedback I am careful to implement the strategies of offering sandwich feedback – Positive comment, ideas for improvement comment, positive comment.  There is something to be said for correcting an error as it happens, immediately, so that the context is not lost as it would be if the correction occurs later. Yet, there are definite times when I do not correct him, and prioritize the goal of having him express himself fully without interruption, as when he summarizes a physical science article. During the early stages of the writing process, I will prompt him with questions form him to produce more substantive content, not necessarily grammatically correct writing. I want him to understand that reading is a form of input, not to be copied word for word, but to be used as content to further inform and shape his feelings, his opinions and his attitudes. This is particularly effective in a one to one teaching situation, which is a luxury few parents can afford. Red-lining his written work as a final step in the refinement of the written piece allows him the opportunity to remember the grammatical changes we made.

3.  As you think about responding (or facilitating response) to student writing in your present or future teaching, what questions and concerns come to mind? What do you feel you need to know to give your students effective feedback?

As I provide feedback to student writing, one question that comes to mind is, what is the best time for a specific student to provide them feedback on writing so that I focus on content only during the early stages of their writing, without allowing other grammatical mistakes to be ingrained as being acceptable? I realize that I should not respond to every single flaw so as not to overwhelm the student. Many answers depends on the age and stage of mental development of the student. It also depends on the student’s immediate goals. If a student is facing an tests  such as IELTs, or TOEFL, I think the teacher may be provide a bit more feedback promoting accuracy in writing, than when dealing with a pre-teen child. No matter when feedback is given, it should be truthful, encouraging and constructive.

4. What are your own experiences with peer feedback? As a current or future teacher, what ideas or questions do you have about facilitating successful collaborative work, especially with L2 writers?

I preferred feedback from my mother who was a teacher, so that I will want to incorporate more writing conferences in my future teaching activities. The immediacy of feedback in writing conferences with 2 or 3 participants, will help the student understand the corrections and apply the changes quickly for follow on formative feedback.  I can see how this works effectively on a one-one tutoring situation, where the student initially follows directive, but over a short period of time, the student can identify their own errors, and demonstrate great strides in summarizing as opposed to copying from original texts.