Challenges:
As an instructor, the biggest challenge I have faced when
teaching EFL (with) writing has been to make students understand two important concepts:
that writing is a process, and that writing in a FL is not simply translating literally their thoughts from their L1.
First, most of the EFL students I worked with back in
Venezuela thought that they worked better “under pressure,” and used to write
their papers last minute. It didn’t matter how long back I had given the assignment
details, it was easy to see their papers had been written in a rush, and they never had drafts. I am not
sure if I can associate that mentality to age (young college students) or
culture.
My Venezuelan students had some difficulty grasping the idea
of writing different drafts until getting to the final version of a paper. Some
colleagues and I encouraged this idea all the time in our classrooms, but the
only way to make them have different drafts was by assigning each a grade, or
making them mandatory.
The second challenge I have encountered, students writing in
the TL with L1 structure, is something I noticed with my EFL students back
home, but also recently with American students writing in Spanish as a Foreign
language. It is hard to make them see how this is not right without telling
them how to write the sentence, because, how do you change the way someone has been
thinking their whole life?
Purposes:
After reading Reichtelt et.al., I realized that I had a very
narrow view of teaching a second or foreign language (with) writing. In my
teaching practice, I used writing to reinforce grammar or language structures,
to motivate students in their own learning by, for example, asking them their
opinion on a particular aspect of the TL culture they were interested in; and
to teach content related to culture or literature. Because of the nature of my
courses, I never needed to teach or ask for writings they might find more
practical, such as résumés, application letters and the like.
I taught EFL to adults in an institute setting. Class sizes were exceedingly small, and I agree with the sentiment in the article, that class size has a huge impact. With private classes, there were no limits on curriculum design, and each class could be tailored to the levels, needs, and interests of each student. However, in nearly every case, I was teaching WITH writing. As much of a writer at heart as I am, it’s interesting now for me to think back on that and wonder why I was so much braver in terms of the reading and speaking experiences I provided (Beatles’ themed classes for a Beatlemaniac; MLK’s speeches for my student who enjoyed history and oratory and asked me one day, “Why do black people talk like that?”; Key scenes from Shakespeare, scaffolded by plot synopsis). Perhaps it was an artifact of my own experience as a FL student, learning in a write-to-learn model (the example in the article of using written themes to practice preterite and imperfect rings so true for me!). I am sure it was also a product of my “training” as an instructor, in a method that left precious little room for innovation and focused on correct reproduction of grammatical forms.
ReplyDeleteI had a few HL students, all in higher levels, all from families with significant privilege, which is in interesting contrast to the way heritage learners are often thought of in the U.S. (the article mentions less prestigious forms of language). These differences reflect the different socioeconomic histories of each country and the people in it. I believe it also reflects the special role of English as a world language. Individual experiences are more nuanced, of course, but it seems like being a heritage learner of EFL is, in many cases, a very different thing than being a HL of some other language, no matter the country or context. The heritage learners had much higher than average levels of motivation because the language was so relevant to their lives. Other students, like the Beatles fan, had specific reasons for their high motivation. And, as the article suggests, the fact that I was teaching English provided some motivation in itself. For example, for many students, acquiring proficiency in English was a direct path to a significant raise or even the chance to go for more lucrative work.
Reichelt, Lefkowitz, Rinnert, and Schultz (2012) addressed many of the challenges I face when teaching writing in an ESL or EFL setting, such as time devoted specifically to writing, exposure to authentic written texts, and implementation of different writing systems based on the individual and their culture. However, the most significant challenges that I encounter as a teacher are whether to teach with or teach about writing and then connecting writing activities with the learning needs of my students.
ReplyDeleteI often struggle with determining when, and to what extent, I should focus on the process or the product of my students’ writing, which of course fluctuates with each class. I have encountered numerous situations where students want to learn a “template” for writing where they simply translate the vocabulary and grammatical structures, rather than actually learn about the purpose or process of writing. This then leads to whether I teach about writing or teach with writing where writing functions as a means of practicing.
The second challenge I face is how to connect writing activities done in class with the actual learning objectives of my students, especially when I am required to use a textbook with very general writing activities (e.g. “Describe your favorite holiday and explain why”). There have been times when I have had a class where some students need to write for the job with an international company and others who need to write academic papers for graduate school in an English speaking country. Thus focusing on writing abstracts may be helpful to a few students but not others.
My perspective of teaching writing in a foreign/second language is that it is important in furthering one’s language knowledge and skills but that it should be approached in a different manner. I have had many students come to class with a negative perception of writing because they do not see how much they write in their daily lives and they do not recognize how it can be a tool to explore and experiment with language. Therefore, I believe my purpose is to help students better understand how they can use writing in a variety of contexts and for variety of purpose, and then connect this to their reading and speaking skills. However, I must confess that I implement very little creative or personal writing in my classes, even though I think this could be extremely valuable.
From 2008-2012, I taught EFL writing courses to pre-medical students at King Saud bin Abdulaziz University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The medical school is attached to the National Guard Hospital and part of a sprawling “Medical City” staffed by professionals from around the world. Even though most of the people who work in the medical city do not speak English as an L1, English is the lingua franca.
ReplyDeleteWe were a linguistically diverse group of English instructors from the U.S., Ireland, India, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, but only Americans taught writing. The tensions between my expectations and my students’ expectations of what it meant to write and be a writer reflected both linguistic and cultural features. After I handed back graded essays, students waited in long lines outside our office doors to argue for a higher grade. They expected that their grades would correspond with the number of errors they produced.
I was a member of the Academic Integrity Committee, which drafted the first Academic Honesty Statement at the University. My students were highly influenced by Islamic literacy traditions (e.g. memorizing the Koran) and associated good writing with correctness. When I presented the new policy to a large auditorium of students, one student very genuinely replied, “Miss, you can choose ‘synonym’ for every word to avoid the plagiarism!”
I felt the most tension working with the English department chair, Salah, a Palestinian man nearing retirement who vetoed my efforts to include productive modes in our assessments. He argued that writing cannot be graded fairly, takes too long to grade, and is too hard for the students to produce. He explained that the students would complain if we askd them to write, and he hated it when the students complained. I argued to him that the purpose of writing is to facilitate learning, show what we know, and craft expressions that are uniquely our own, but Salah limited writing to writing classes, and the gatekeeping exams included only multiple choice, true/ false, and matching questions.
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ReplyDeleteWhen I was a pre-service teacher during practicum at a high school, writing was not practiced in EFL class only by answering the questions in the textbook at school. In Korea, most high school students are focused on preparing for the college entrance exam which focuses on listening and reading function only. In other word, writing and speaking parts were not included in the college entrance exam so most EFL students likes to focus on language skills that the exam required. In this situation, I was only able to teach writing through responding to textbook questions, which is rarely happened in ESL setting.
DeleteAnother challenge of teaching writing to young learners was that the curriculum only allowed me to focus on writing same sentence repetitively until they memorize. In this circumstance, the chance of writing argumentative essay at school or in private institute were slim. The first time that I started to write an essay in English was when I became a college student. These days, many students plan to study abroad so they prepare for TOEFL or GRE test which includes writing part. The major problem is that they learn writing in the aim of getting good grade on the exam.
I think the purpose of writing should include process variables, such as brainstorming, planning, and drafting, as well as product variables, such as grammar, rhetorical skills and awareness. In addition, writing should be equally treated as other skills since writing also promotes other communicative abilities which also impact their professional skill (Reichelt et al., 2012). The role of teacher is also important because they will encourage motivation to their students so they need to explore the effective instruction along with feedback to provide good practice for them.
Challenges in teaching in general:
ReplyDeleteThis session, I am teaching a multilevel ESL class. Students in various language proficiency levels, such as low beginning, high beginning, low intermediate, and high intermediate. I have a huge burden when designing lesson plans to meet every student’s needs. As Reichelt, Lelkowitz, Rinnert, and Schultz mentioned in their article about learner characteristics, taking care of varying attributions of students, including their proficiency level, age, years of learning, etc. is a big challenge for me. Besides, I am asked to incorporate an online learning tool in my class due to the requirement from the state of education. Given the lack of computers and learner differences, I find myself almost sink in a teaching environment like this.
Challenges in teaching writing:
In my two-hour class every twice a week, I have to cover four skills and use the online learning tool mentioned above. As a consequence, I can not get students engaged in writing quite often. Further, as pointed out in the article, writing-to-learn is very common in the EFL classrooms in Asia. Teachers put more emphases on the product instead of the process. In my case, I have the similar problem that I do not devote too much time in training students’ cognitive processes. In my eyes, cognitive process is a high-level demand for students who have received writing instructions for a certain amount of time. However, some of my students are illiterate in L1 or are weak in reading, not even mention the writing. The best solution for them to gain writing proficiency is to practice step by step, such as learning one concept of writing processes at one time.
I have not taught any advanced level writing class, but I guess that will be intimidating for me given my background as a non-native ESL instructor. Throughout the years in the US, I tried to develop a fluent writing ability, however, it is still ongoing. Reichelt, Lelkowitz, Rinnert, and Schultz said that the product is also important because it helps students improve language accuracy. When I help my boyfriend with his writing, I try my best to make sure that every advice I give is correct.
Purpose in teaching writing:
Reichelt, Lelkowitz, Rinnert, and Schultz stated that writing is a way for students to learn how to think in the target language. I think that explains my purpose fairly well. But besides that, I also hope my students, especially the immigrants, can succeed in the US. They may be illiterate before coming to the US, but I hope my class can help them become fluent in writing, which eventually develops them to the speaker of English.