week 14 - Hamp-Lyons

When the author mentioned about the conventional way of scoring, I started to think about the TOEFL test. In the cram school, teachers always provide students with tips about how to receive high scores for the written test. The tips are based on how students' writing would be assessed. I don't really remember every tip they gave me, but i think that they mentioned about the amount of words, paragraphs and transition words (the more the better). How to generate ideas is not mentioned in the classes. I was just wondering if it is beneficial for teachers to list all the assessment criteria. I think the assessment criteria needs to be carefully designed because we do not want to kill students' engagement and creativity with the limitation of rules of writing or how we are going to assess them. What if students just write based on how they will be assessed? I think it is hard and important to think about how to avoid influencing student writing with criteria but at the same time encouraging them to write what the know and what they want to say.

week 12 - Williams

Williams proposed that output may be helpful in developing input and further pointed out that “it may also help them to notice ‘holes’ in their own competence; that is, in the act of production, learners may notice that they do not have the knowledge to say or write what they want to convey” (p. 14). I found her statement really interesting because I just read an article not too long ago about the similar suggestion. Huang (2009) pointed out that difficult words in textbooks might not be as practical for students because they do not know how to use them in the written assignment. However, through the process of writing stories, student writers can be flexible using their own words to express themselves, but at the same time expand their vocabulary. Through expressive writing, students can gradually understand what they need in order to make their expressions meaningful.

The author also mentioned about using conversations to enhance the quality of writing. I am curious about how this activity can be done. Does this activity work for any language levels? Do teachers need to give brief explanations about what students should do (we can’t assume that students know where to start or what to look for in their peer’s writing)? I was thinking if it is okay for students to use their first language(s) to discuss their writing (in EFL context). I thinking that talking to our classmates can add more perspectives toward our writing and their questions toward our writing can give us a chance to think deeper. It is just like that we always get more information when we interview people than give out questionnaires.

Huang, Y.-C. (2009). Writing wordless picture books to facilitate English
writing. Asian EFL Journal Professional Teaching Articles, 38, 20-34.

week 11 - ch. 3

When I was reading chapter 3, there were a few questions came up to my mind. On page 75, the author mentioned about if writers write down their questions, reflections or ideas, it creates a space for writers to discover and think about their interpretations and understandings toward a text they read. I was wondering if it matters that students write in their own languages or English. Since they are just finding their reflections toward the text, they should use the languages which they feel comfortable with. In Danling Fu and Marylou Matoush’s article, they mentioned about how writing teachers let ELL students write in the language they feel comfortable with and then they gradually learn how to write in English. I never thought about how I take notes until I read this article. When I was in college, I used both Chinese and English to take notes. Now I mainly use English. What language(s) does everybody use to take note?

The author also mentioned about different ways to write reading reflections, such as summary, synthesis, pre-reading writing, response statements, response essays and journals. I was just thinking that if teachers are going to check students’ reflections, what would be the top elements to look for? Should grammar be checked? Are there any other writing styles that we can use for students to write their reflections or understandings toward texts? Can story writing be used (the author mentioned about writing across curriculum and I was just thinking that students can use their understandings toward science and then write a science fiction?)?

My last question was about writing in group. The author mentioned about the benefits of writing in group that students are able to discuss. What if students hate writing in groups? How do teachers grade the paper produced by groups? Do students need to write together or they write separately and then put their papers together? If they write together, wouldn’t it take a lot of time to finish a paper? I am just curious about how collaborate writing may work.

week 10 - Bloome

When I was reading this article, it reminded me of post method in teaching ESL students. The author mentioned that “when students are allowed to read and write about things that are congruent with their home culture, they may read and write more and with more sophistication” (p. 132). I wonder if this kind of teaching approach applies to both ESL and EFL contexts. When I was learning English, the textbooks we used in cram schools were printed in the U.S. and most of the contents were about American cultures. Even in junior and senior high schools, the textbooks rarely incorporated Taiwanese cultures into the contents. Since the education system in Taiwan is exam-based, I am thinking about how this kind of teaching method that Bloome mentioned in his article may fit into the Taiwanese context. How do we use this teaching method to assist students to compose within a short amount of exam time?

Also, I was looking for some Taiwanese stories translated in English for a friend of mine who wants her daughter to understand different cultures. I had trouble finding them and most of the stories I saw in the bookstores were about stories from the U.S. and other English speaking countries. I am not sure if this similar situation happens in other countries as well. But in the Taiwanese context, it seems to me that foreign cultures create better business and education markets. Sometimes I think some of the teaching methods are very interesting and useful for teaching ESL students, but the environment may not allow certain kind of teaching methods. It is really frustrating when I can’t use whatever I learned from classes.

Week 9 reflection – Ann M. Johns

“There is no one ‘process’ for writing, but many, as writers juggle the various responsibilities they have to genre, to the situation, to their roles, to the language, or to themselves as thinking, negotiating participants in the production and revision of texts” (p. 198). I started this reflection with this quote is because I believe that there are many ways of teaching writing and the process of learning a new language should be fun. However, when we introduce different writing genres in the class, it is important to provide guidelines for students to follow and also the purposes of writing in certain genres. When I was learning English in junior and senior high school, there was no such thing as writing a business letter, fiction or poems. Also, in public schools, they did not provide any class specifically for English writing. The only opportunity we had to write were exercises where we had to put sentences together (the sentences we imitated from textbooks) into paragraphs with correct grammar. This kind of formalist writing style is very suitable for exam-based educational systems (like Taiwan) because if we can produce paragraphs with accurate grammar, we are able to enter good schools.

I also like that Johns mentioned about peer editing and revising in The Sydney School system. If we open a space for ESL students to explore their own voices through different genre writing, they can have some fun playing with the language. Also, through peer editing, students can receive critiques from others and generate more ideas and contents. Writing should not only focus on the sentence level, but the richness of the content.

I wonder how genre writing can help students who need to pass English exams to go to high school and college. There is only a certain amount of time for students to finish their writing with a given topic. Also, since the English class is driven by the exam-based system, how do teachers incorporate genre writing into the class and show the transition between genre writing and exam writing?

Ch. 1 & Ch. 2 from The Politics of Second Language Writing

1. Writing Development and Biliteracy – Danling Fu and Marylou Matoush

Human naturally acquire language in compelling social contexts (p. 9).
Sequential biliteracy – abstract and decontextualized nature of academic language
Spontaneous biliteracy – prior contextualized social knowledge as a legitimate goal (p. 9)
(Becoming bilingual and bilterate) not only involves a transformation process that appears to require a greater degree of cognitive, social and linguistic flexibility than monolingualism, but also potentially affords a greater degree of cognitive, social and linguistic freedom of choice (p. 10).
ELLs’ writing development research – four transitional stages: 1. First Language Usage to 2. Code-Switching to 3. Trans-Language Usage to 4. Approaching Standard English (p. 12).
If we don’t value what and how ELLs write in the transitional stages, but only aim at teaching them to write correctly or learn Standard English, these students
won’t develop into writers with depth of thinking and logical thought (p. 24).

2. Reforming High School Writing: Opportunities and Constraints for Generation 1.5 Writers – Kerry Enright Villalva

Ecological framework is based on an understanding that literacy is social practice (p. 31).
Ecological framework – Microsystem, Mesosystem, Exosystems, and Macrosystem (p. 32)
Generation 1.5 writing research – How does systemic factors influence the writing
development of Generation 1.5 writers?

Questions
1. Fu and Matoush mentioned that if language learners are encouraged to choose between languages when they write, they can construct and develop ideas better. From your experience as a language learner, did your first language(s) help you with English learning? How?

2. What does “language errors” (p. 25) mean to you? How can you demonstrate the positive value of “language errors” as “the precursors of flexible dual language word choice and phraseology” (p. 25) to your bilingual/multilingual students? What kind of methods would you use to show them the transition from errors to Standard English?

3. What values did you find from Fu and Matoush’s chapter? Are the four transition stages applicable? If you see it as applicable, how do you use the stages in your ESL class? What kind of assignments can you see being used in your class?

4. From Villalva’s chapter, “peer-modeling” and “cross-age tutoring” (p. 46) seem to create space for Generation 1.5 to develop their languages and generate ideas and topics for their projects. Why can’t this kind of group work be done in a regular class with mainstream students? If we separate the Generation 1.5 students to a different cohort-based organization, aren’t we creating otherness in the class?

5. What benefits and flaws do you see in making a personal project as a new graduation requirement? Should there be double standards for English-speaking students and bilingual/Generation 1.5 students?

Week 7 - Matsuda's Chapter 3

I have been thinking about the purpose of college writing. Is it the class for students to develop their sense of identity, voice, audience and writer/reader responsibility in order to be a better writer? Or is it to prepare students to accomplish their academic writing? I was observing a college writing class last semester and was amazed by the way the professor taught the class. Students were asked to write paranormal stories and peer response was also incorporated into the writing process. I am not sure how much the students can transfer what they learned from the class to real academic writing; however, I believe that this kind of writing encourages students to develop their imagination and the peer response can stimulate their critical thinking. Also, there’s another college writing class for ESL students in which students are asked to write poems. Without the pressure of forming perfect grammar and sentence structure, students may gain their confidence in writing in a different language. I really like the idea of implementing creative writing in the class in order to raise students’ awareness of every element in writing. However, how much can those elements be transferred to students’ academic writing? I think that teachers’ and students’ expectations are different. It is important to clarify the purpose of the way we teach writing and be open-minded toward communications with students.

If the writing class is designed to incorporate creative writing skills, I wonder if plagiarism is taken into consideration. We cannot assume that students have fully learned what plagiarism is and are able to apply it to their writing before coming to college. On page 65, Leki mentioned that a professor does not care if students reproduce her lecture words. I was really surprised to see this. If there’s no standard for plagiarism from professors for students to follow, what should students do? How do we cite from a lecture?

Writing is not an easy task. It takes time for a person to write well. I wish that there was an academic writing class for me to attend when I first came here because I was panicking about writing for the class. I would love to learn how to do creative writing as well because I have never learned writing in that kind of style.

I was thinking that a lot of articles we’ve been reading are always putting the blame on teachers and schools systems for not being prepared for ESL students and place ESL students as victims of the educational system. I wonder if any articles acknowledge ESL students’ responsibilities and attitudes towards studying in a different country. Some of them might not be efficient with their writing, but if they are to attend American universities, they can’t just see university as a way to learn English, but also professional knowledge. Of course schools should provide them with real assistance in writing and speaking (it’d be better if it is throughout the 4 academic years, but is it possible?); however, I think ESL students should hold some responsibility as well.

Week 6 - Braine

In this reflection, I would like to separate my thought into two different directions. The first thing I want to talk about is qualitative and quantitative research. I like qualitative research because it helps to explore clear and detailed insights of participants’ experiences and backgrounds which are unreachable and invisible through quantitative research. Also, through qualitative research, I may be able to find connections with my participants (with the same linguistic and cultural background) and feel relieved that I am not the only one who see things that way. For example, I was working on a topic about second language humor for a research paper and my participants were from Taiwan. During the data collecting process, the participants were asked to read comics and watch cartoons in order to interpret the American humor from their perspectives. Their linguistic and cultural backgrounds and life experiences in the U.S. were included to explain their reactions toward American humor. I found some connections with my participants because we all thought swear words are funny in the cartoons (the facial and physical expressions in the cartoon were funny with the swear words). Without interviewing my participants, I would not have been able to catch what they thought about swear words. However, which research method is more reliable? Would you trust a study without any numbers? What’s the purpose of integrating numbers? To make the research look more scientific? Or would you rather read some research with narratives? Should we incorporate both research methods in our study? I guess that it all depends on the research project.

The second thing I want to talk about is the academic literacy that non-English speaking graduate students need to have. A lot of internal and external factors can influence how a person writes. It is mentioned in the article that teachers think finding appropriate vocabulary is a problem for non-native speakers. I still have trouble putting the right words or right sentence structures in my paper. Sometimes I think the words or sentences look fine, but actually they do not. They look awkward for Americans. However, I think my writing is getting better than when I first came here (my writings in the first year here were really scary when I go back and look at them). Through reading articles, talking to my classmates and professors and asking people to review my writing help me construct what writing process should be like. Social interaction and negotiation create a space for me to grow my academic literacy.

Plagiarism Presentation

1. Bloch, J. (2001). Plagiarism and the ESL students: From printed to electronic texts. In D. Belcher & A. Hirvela (Eds.), Linking Literacies: Perspectives on L2 Reading-Writing Connections (pp. 209-228). Michigan: University of Michigan Press.

 The notion of intellectual property and authorship (p. 210)
• Printed forms vs. electronic forms
• Cultural or non-cultural

 Any cross-cultural comparison runs the danger of dichotomizing the two cultures into polar opposites, presenting one culture as the opposite of the other (p. 213)
• Social factors
• The notion of intellectual authorship
• The changing definition of plagiarism

 Plagiarism from students’ perspectives

 Teaching about plagiarism
• Printed forms – Explicitly teach the norms of plagiarism (p. 220)
• Electronic texts – The distinction between what is private and what is public, the basis for determining whether something has been plagiarized, is even less clear in the electronic medium than in the medium of print (p. 212)

2. Pecorari, D. Plagiarism and the ESL students: From printed to electronic texts. In D. Belcher & A. Hirvela (Eds.), Linking Literacies: Perspectives on L2 Reading-Writing Connections (pp. 229-245). Michigan: University of Michigan Press.

 The concept of plagiarism is fully embedded within a social, political, and cultural matrix that cannot be meaningfully separated from its interpretation (229)
 Plagiarism is far from a clearly defined construct (p. 233)
 There is not as yet scholarly consensus as to whether electronic sources should or should not be treated as distinct from more traditional media for the purposes of debate about intellectual property (p. 234)
 From Pecorari’s study, the reaction toward plagiarism from university is that “punishment is the norm” (p. 243)
 Because of the conventions for citation are not universal, both students and their teachers need policies that permit new practices to be absorbed gradually, like all other new skills, and that allow students a margin of error as they try to hit a new target. Unfortunately, the majority of institutional responses to plagiarism surveyed here deny students that support (p. 244)

Class Discussion
Group 1
1. How do you define plagiarism? Is your definition different from your classmates? How (social, political, cultural factors)?
2. As a literacy educator, how do you avoid plagiarism in your students’ writing?
3. Bloch pointed out that “lacking formal knowledge of the rules governing the use of intellectual property, these students may produce texts that generate charges of plagiarism when there in fact was no actual intent to steal or cheat” (p. 221). Do you agree with his statement? Why?

Group 2
4. Should the importance of electronic texts weigh the same as printed texts? Please explain why.
5. How do you describe plagiarism?
6. Pecorari posed a question in her article, “is plagiarism, then, a defect in the product or in the process”? (p. 234) How would answer this question? Please explain why.

Group 3
7. What should teachers do when plagiarism occurs in a writing class consisting of English-speaking and non-English speaking writers? Should they be treated differently? Please explain why.
8. When was your first time to be introduced to the concept of plagiarism? Where and how did you get informed? Did your writing style change after that?
9. How do you define intellectual authorship? How is your definition different from other classmates?

Third Reflection on Ivanic and Camps (Sept. 23rd)

Ivanic and Camps (2001) mentioned that “the term ‘voice types’ useful to refer to the culturally recognizable ‘way with words’ that align a speaker or writer with one social group rather than another” (p. 6). I found this statement very interesting because there were some words that I tended to use in my papers because I thought they were more polite and not too strong, which might seem awkward to some Americans. My professor pointed out that the way I used “could” in my paper can be my ESL way of writing where he would have used “can” in that sentence. If word selection counts as part of my voice, do I need to change it based on my audience? How do I find a balance between audience and voice? Also, I found that my writing has been changing after being in the United States for four years. Writing is not only influenced by the culture from the L1 country, but also the environment, interaction with others and publications we read.

The authors also mentioned about how individuals can practice their power to accept or refuse privileged voices. If the context turns into a communist country, will Ivanic and Camps’ statement on voice stay the same? How do individuals exercise their voices while the communist country only accepts one? How do teachers encourage their students to have their personal voices in that kind of framework?

Second Reflection on Kaplan's article (Sept. 16th)

It was interesting to see different writing styles from Kaplan’s article; however, I wonder if Kaplan over generalized how L1 can influence how people compose in L2 by categorizing through ethnicity or language. In the article, Kaplan pointed out that in the Arabic language, people develop their writing with both positive and negative points. This writing style is very easily recognized in Chinese writing (in Taiwan) as well in that we are taught to include both positive and negative viewpoints in our essays in L1. By means of both perspectives, we are able to show readers how we understand the problems and which position we take. However, when we are taking TOEFL classes (in cram schools), we are always urged to provide only one perspective because that is not the way that Americans write.

Kaplan also mentioned about how Arabic students use coordinating elements when they write in English. I remember that teachers from the TOEFL cram school always reminded us that we should use coordinating elements as often as possible to connect ideas together and create a smooth flow in the writings. By using many coordinating elements, it is more possible to get a higher TOEFL grade. I am not sure where this strategy came from, but it seems like the teachers believe that the TOEFL composition reviewers prefer this kind of writing style.

I started to think that L1 might not always be the one reason why we write in English differently from Americans. There are other reasons that can influence how we compose. Like the two examples I have above, it could be the stereotypes that teachers or schools have for American writing. Cultures and L1s are not necessarily always the reasons that create differences in writing in English. There can be other external influences.

Also, I was wondering why we need to write like native speakers of English. I understand that we have to write according to the audience. However, if we follow how to write like Americans, aren’t we colonized by English speakers? Will we at the same time lose our voices? Which native speakers’ model should we follow? We cannot assume that every English speaking country writes the same and how do writing teachers decide what to teach?

Literacy Autobiography

I started learning English when I was a 5th grader, but I did not learn it in my elementary school. At that time, the government did not implement any English courses at the elementary level. I began to learn English at private cram schools before entering junior high school. At the cram schools, I had English speakers (American and British) and Mandarin speakers (Taiwanese and Hong Kongese) as my teachers. It was a lot of fun in the class because grammar and writing were not the main focuses. The classes emphasized oral literacy and some of the conversations were real-world related while some of them were in textbooks. I did not really get to write or read that much until I entered junior high school. However, I wrote to my cousins who live in Vancouver and Philadelphia constantly to practice my writing. I continued going to the cram school until I graduated from junior high school.

After entering junior high school and senior high school, the classes were exam-oriented. The teachers were Taiwanese/Mandarin speakers. Each chapter in the textbooks had the same layout – a short article, a vocabulary list with Chinese definitions and example sentences, sentence structures, and questions about the article. We spent a lot of time on drilling and grammar structures. The only time we got to talk was when the teachers asked us questions (questions listed in the textbooks) about the articles. However, not everybody had the chance to talk because the class size was too big (around 45 to 50 students). I was able to make simple conversations before entering junior high school and the class was not that difficult, except grammar. We were not taught how to do real-world writing, but were drilled with example sentences. We are not asked to draft, revise or peer review our writing and never got feedback from the teachers. What we got back was grammatical corrections. The ultimate writing goal was to pass the high school entrance exam.

The English class in high school was slightly different. We had to keep a diary once a week to exchange with another student from other classes. It was fun even though nobody checked the writing. I was not sure if what I wrote was correct. Other than the diary, we were taught to practice writing to fit the goal of college entrance exam (250 words for the writing). It was not too much fun because the writing style is the same as junior high school. No writing techniques were introduced, like outlining and brainstorming. Oral literacy was not emphasized and grammar still possessed the most valuable position. The layout of the textbook was similar to the one in junior high school.

I majored in English when I was in college. The classes were different from high school but they were still kind of teacher-centered. The writing classes were boring and drill-oriented. Grammar correction was still the focus. We read many different kinds of books, but mainly only for class purposes. I tried to talk with my classmates in English in order to practice but they did not seem to appreciate my efforts.

I learned Japanese in college too. The teacher was a Taiwanese speaker who knows how to speak Japanese. The experience was a failure. What we did in the class was to repeat what the teacher said on the textbook. We did not get to do any real conversations. The only thing I remember was that we were asked to do drills. It was really boring and I did not get to practice Japanese at all. Now I can only say some simple greeting phrases which I learned from my grandparents who were under Japanese education a long time ago (they were educated in Japanese in Taiwan and then went to Japan for higher education). As for the reading and writing, we read the passage in the class as a group, but did not have any chance to write. I guess our level was too basic to start writing. I can barely speak any Japanese now. I wish I could have spent more time on Japanese.

First reflection (Sept. 9th)

After reading Casanave’s articles, a few questions came up in my mind. Some of the questions are related to the usage of textbooks and some are about the power relationships within schools.

1. Beliefs and Realities in Controversies in Second Language Writing:
The author talked about how writing teachers might be outliners or brainstormers which can affect how they teach composition. I was thinking that other than outlining and brainstorming, what are other methods that can assist writing? How do teachers decide what method(s) to be used in a classroom? Since students might react differently toward the methods they learn in class and we do not want them to shy away from developing their individuality and voices. Do we need to incorporate writing textbooks for composition classes?
Casanave also mentioned about teachers’ choices on textbooks and some schools assigning textbooks for teachers. I think that the decision we make about textbooks is important. When we decide what books are to be used, we are supporting certain publishers and the knowledge that they want people to believe. It is like those publishers are colonizing the publishing industry. Do we really believe what they say or are we just following the mainstream perspectives?

2. Looking ahead to more sociopolitical-oriented case study:
I was wondering if exam-based writing is beneficial for students. What can students learn from it? Are there any hidden dis/advantages behind exam-based writing? Since writings are designed to pass exams in some countries, how do teachers balance the real-world writing and exam-based writing in the class? Even though we learn how creative writing or different writing techniques can assist students to develop their voices in the TESOL program, it is difficult to incorporate what we learned to writing classes because schools have the power to decide what is to be taught in order to increase their reputations.