What do we teach when we teach academic writing to students who are non-native English speakers or who are non-standard English speakers? I am not looking for a list of best practices, but rather I am hoping to create a space where interdisciplinary voices can discuss the relationship between language, writing, and teaching.
Scholars have continually defined the various roles and expectations of the writing classroom (see Bartholomae, Elbow, Murray):
1. the introduction of students to academic/dominant discourse
2. the learning of discipline specific writing expectations
3. the application of rhetorical devices
4. the practice of writing as communication and seeing oneself as a writer
Matsuda, et al state in Second Language Writing in the Composition Classroom (2006), that the US composition classroom is the “gateway for the vast majority of students to higher level work in most academic disciplines” (3). I feel the term gateway may be an apt metaphor for academic writing classrooms as success in the writing classroom dictates if students ‘move on’ to higher level coursework, but many teachers are uncomfortable with the term “gatekeeper.”
So, how do we as teachers of academic writing, address language issues in the classroom? How do we transfer what we value in US higher education institutions – clear, concise argument and support – when our student may be struggling with sentence structure? Can knowledge of contrastive rhetorics help teachers successfully negotiate the linguistic heterogeneity in classrooms today?
In order to encourage sustained engagement in this discussion, I plan on posting driving questions each Tuesday for the next four weeks.
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8 comments:
(Sorry, still figuring out how to use this thing.) Erica, this looks awesome. Ironically, per Dr. Hall's suggestions, I was also developing my blog through this site today as well. Hopefully, between the two of our blogs, some generative discussion regarding the teaching of freshman comp/academic writing will develop. Looking forward to following your blog. Good luck!
Hi Erica,
This looks great! For my project, I am interested in identity formation as related to academic discourse, so I look forward to participating in your discussion
It wasn't until I read both Villanueva's Crosstalk and Matsuda et. al's Second Language Writing in the Classroom that I had finally found my calling. Both of these books profoundly changed the way I look at teaching, in particular, Freshman Comp. They are, in part, why I am in the RCTE program at UofA.
At CSULB, my 100 classroom (they squish 101 and 102 into 1 semester in large part b/c of funds) was predominantly composed of NNES and ESL students- still a rarity, as I understand it, among academia at large. Not wanting to fail my entire class because of a lack of English or, 2nd language fluency (which, by the way, how many of us writing teachers really have a fluency of a 2nd language?? Its a question I think merits discussion given your area of inquiry here), Matsuda et. al's and Villanueva's texts offered new ways of valuing ESL and NNES rhetorical strategies and made me both a more conscious teacher and assessor of student writing.
It also made me very insistent that narrative opens up an important space for these types of students in our classes because it is here, I believe, that students negotiate the conflicts between, literally, "choosing home or choosing school" (as Nieto would say). In their narratives, students could slip into personal rhetoric and use writing as a means of demonstrating their own way(s) of constructing knowledge. But the goal of these narratives, as I see it, is to always transgress/challenge expository academic writing. To demonstrate an awareness of one's grappling with academic writing and things like "research papers" while also honoring one's personal space and voice in the process.
I found this approach to be a saving grace at CSULB; here at UofA, where my class demographic is drastically different, things aren't working quite the same way. Then again, I don't really have any ESL students in my 101 (which is, in large part, why I want to teach 101+ next semester). Still, I maintain that if not the best way, one productive approach to teaching NNES and ESL students academic writing is to find a common ground first. Often, I find that common ground is rooted in personal writing. But once they "do" the familiar, we can teach them how to use it as a means of consciously challenging the norms of academic prose; in other words, we're teaching them how to recognize how academic discourse makes argument, and how their personal discourses can enter the conversation to disrupt it.
It's a pretty lofty goal, I know. But, with the right students, it seemed much more productive than just letting them drown in the cognitive overload that accompanies their learning academic discourse all semester long and failing them at the end.
So to answer your questions directly, and perhaps too quickly, yes: things like contrastive rhetoric(s) and linguistic heterogeneity have much to teach writing teachers about working with ESL and NNES students. If only there were more institutional support and time to do so...?
Thanks, Cassie, for that thoughtful post. But to voice the other side of the controversy, I want to share my experience. I taught preparatory writing at a community college in South Florida for three years. My students came from various linguistic backgrounds, some had recently moved to the US from Asia, South America, and the Caribbean. Many of my students were born in Haiti or were 1.5 generation, born in the US or came over when they were 3 or 4. Many of those Haitians students identified with the African-American community and were more comfortable with Black English Vernacular (BEV) than academic English. These particular students did not have a strong foundation in French, Creole, or English.
My class was a gateway course with a high stakes test at the end of the semester; if a student did not pass the one hour writing exam and grammar test, that student had to take the course again. Now, I had no training in ESL or TESOL - those people taught English for Academic Purposes. But my students did not see themselves as needing the EAP course; many of them were American, why would they take that course?
When I first started teaching, I too was influenced by the idea of giving the students power over their language and have them see they have a right to their own language. But you know what they told me? Teach me how to write so I can get through the test, so I can move on to take the courses that will get me a better job. Teach me how to write without all these errors so people can understand my essays. Teach me how to write like a student, like you, so I can succeed in my nursing or computer classroom.
This may be a case of pointing to the system and saying it's flawed. But the community college did its best to do its job: serve the community and educate, at a low cost, those who wanted an education. So is there ever an instance where some of our "lofty goals" should be placed on hold and the students' needs should come first?
(in response to Erica's response)...I think so, yes. Though I don't pretend to have that answer yet. I too believe that, at some point, we have to teach these students "SWE," to a degree. But having them only 15 weeks for one or two semesters seems problematic to this goal (a longstanding observation by frustrated composition instructors to be sure). Still, I think we also need students to recognize how and when and why it is equally important to situate yourself in your writing; having an opinion and foregrounding it, though not necessarily using pat "I" statements. This, of course, complicates our jobs two-fold because now we take on the complicated tasks of teaching SWE and a form of creative/agentive writing. To be sure, we've a long, complicated road ahead; at the same time, there are many stones still left unturned on that road: I remain hopeful that with each new stone turned, there is an opportunity to better my approach at both tasks.
I teach in the same program, and currently have a very strong writer who happens to have some difficulty with prepositions, articles of syntax/grammar, etcetera. After a few in-class writing exercises, I noted and became concerned with these issues. After instructing the student to make sure to get help with these before turning in final drafts of major assignments, I am delighted to SEE the voice of a strong writer. The student continues to impress me, and continues to follow my instruction that outside help in these matters is required. This is student could be in an honors ESL, if the student had focused earlier in this area of wekaness, and if there is such a thing as honors ESL ...
After I told Erica that I read her post but did not comment myself because I don't feel that I do anything particularly special for ESL students, she encouraged me to share that anyway, so here I am. DR, for instance, recommends marking errors on only the first page of each student's draft and indicating what students' major couple of issues are, but I do that with all my students, and, if anything, I find that ESL students have a better mastery of grammar and such, probably because they've actually studied it, than do native speakers.
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