A Collaboration between ESL and Regular Classroom Teachers for ELL Students’ Literacy Development

This article presents a teacher‐research project on collaboration between an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher and a fourth‐grade classroom teacher to enhance the literacy development of English language learners (ELLs). It illustrates how two teachers worked closely in helping their ELL students develop their writing skills and the benefits both the students and teachers gained from this collaboration.     

Whose writing is it anyway? Issues of control in the teaching of writing

In the UK, teachers have moved from a process approach to the teaching of writing to a more didactic and objectives led programme. This has given rise to concerns about the suppression of creativity and enjoyment. Writing is a convention bound activity where spelling, punctuation and expectations about different text types imply a right and wrong way of writing. On the other hand, the best writers are able to use and subvert conventions in creative and individual ways. Teachers of young writers are faced with the difficulty of teaching the correct conventions at the same time as encouraging individual responses. This paper considers evidence from a small‐scale study that may shed some light on how teachers cope with these potentially opposing demands. Evidence points to teachers giving very clear guidance to pupils about what is expected of them and carefully scaffolding pupils' learning. However, scaffolding implies a stage where control is handed over to the learners and in this study there was little evidence of these teachers handing over the control. It is argued that for children to learn the conventions at the same time as developing confidence to use these conventions in individual and creative ways, this handover of control is essential.     

略论ESL写作教学中的"产品法"与"过程法"

对英语作为第二语言(ESL)的写作教学来说,"以过程为中心"的方法较诸"以产品为中心"的方法可能更为有效.作为一种写作教学方法,"过程法"注重写作的过程,因而在实施中特别重视写作过程中的不同阶段,并就各阶段设置了多种多样的练习活动,以使学生写出更有意义的作品.然而,我们不能将"过程法"降为一种具有规定技巧和惯例的"办法",而应创设有效的写作学习环境,在这种环境中,学生不仅对写作感到轻松愉快,而且能自主探索并培育个性化的写作方法.     

Reflective thinking on communicative teaching in writing

For second language learners, English writing as one of the forms of communication is particularly tough. In order to help learners to write correctly and fluently, teachers could guide learners to integrate genre and content reasonably to meet their communicative needs, to motivate their interest and to improve their writing skills. The paper provides diverse teaching techniques and strategies for teachers to help learners from the elementary level, the intermediate level or the advanced level to be fully exposed in communicative activities in class. And teachers are expected to give feedbacks to ideas, feelings, or perceptions that students have tried to communicate through their writing in a sensible way. Teaching writing is a process of aiding learners to discover themselves and implicit communication with readers with purposes.     

课堂互动与二语学习的关系

课堂互动为二语学习者提供了类似母语的教学环境，增加了学习者的可理解输入，有利于二语学习。对课堂互动中教师话语、纠错方式，国外有不少实证研究。课堂互动的实施方式以任务型教学、小班授课和小组活动为主。课堂互动是二语学习的方式之一，但不是惟一的方式。同时这种方式并不适合各种层次的学习者。了解这一点对我们英语教师十分必要。     

Raising the language awareness of pre‐service English teachers in an EFL context

This study investigates the challenges that non‐native pre‐service English teachers (Haluk, Gaye, Selin, Öznur and Serkan) experience in their target language use when they do their practicum in actual language classrooms. This study found that the common difficulties the student teachers encounter related to certain grammatical structures, explaining unknown words to students, modifying language according to students’ level, and authenticity of the classroom language. During this study, the target language awareness training session was offered by the university supervisor in order to improve the student teachers’ target language use in the classroom. The training sessions included classroom observations, feedback sessions, semi‐structured interviews, retrospective protocols and discussion meetings with the student teachers. The findings indicated that the language awareness training had a positive impact on the target language use of the pre‐service English teachers. Furthermore, this study discusses the curriculum and the requirements of the language teacher education programme in an EFL setting and makes suggestions for the professional development of non‐native pre‐service language teachers.     

ESL TEACHER EDUCATION ABROAD AND AT HOME: A CAUTIONARY TALE

In this article, we compared teacher attitudes and beliefs about culturally appropriate language teaching resulting from an examination of two groups of preservice teachers. One group of preservice teachers enrolled in an English as a Second Language (ESL) study abroad program in Mexico; the other enrolled in a traditional on-campus ESL program. Our findings indicate that study abroad students gained a more empathetic understanding of language and cultural issues that affect language learners than their on-campus counterparts, but that they also developed some misconceptions about language learning based on their study abroad experience.     

Exploring teachers' perceptions of children's imaginative writing at home

This study explores an area of writing that has been largely neglected – children’s imaginative writing at home. In an educational climate dominated by the standards agenda and top‐down directive discourses, this study draws inspiration from children who are creating opportunities for writing themselves and are developing agency through their writing at home. The positive approach to reading advocated in Margaret Clark’s (1976) seminal work on ‘young fluent readers’ has been very influential. Rather than reporting what children are unable to do, Clark explored the early experiences and home setting of competent pre‐school readers, posing the question: what can they teach us? Taking this lead, one of the premises of this study is that we should similarly seek to understand the experiences of young competent writers so that we can learn more about children who choose to write of their own volition outside of school. This paper presents the findings of the preliminary phase of an ongoing doctoral study. Drawing on questionnaire data, it specifically focuses upon Year 5 and 6 teachers’ views of children’s imaginative home writing, exploring problems of identification and teachers’ perceptions of their pupils as imaginative writers at home.     

母语负迁移对中国学生英语写作的影响

英语学习者在学习目的语时往往容易将母语的特征迁移到目的语中,从而导致表达错误,造成负迁移。本文根据迁移对于第二语言学习的影响,着重从三个方面讨论汉语负迁移对英语写作的影响,即词汇、句法和语篇。最后提出了原因与对策。     

Teacher education as identity construction: insights from action research

This paper reports on the results of a qualitative study that explored the experiences of one group of pre‐service English language teachers in Hong Kong as they undertook an action research project as part of their undergraduate teacher training programme. Grounded in a theory of teacher identity construction as both practice and discourse, the paper examines how participation in an action research project by one group of pre‐service English language teachers in Hong Kong shaped their experiences of becoming teachers. The study indicates that as teacher researchers, the trainee teachers contested previously held perceptions about their engagement in teaching, their images of teachers and teaching, as well as their alignment with some aspects of contemporary educational discourse. Implications for teacher education and future research are also discussed.     

Teaching writing to middle school students: a national survey

A random sample of language arts, social studies, and science middle school teachers from the United States were surveyed about their preparation to teach writing, beliefs about responsibilities for teaching writing, use of evidence-based writing practices, assessment of writing, use of technology, and adaptations for struggling writers. The findings from this survey raised concerns about the quality of middle school writing instruction. Many teachers believed their preservice and inservice preparation to teach writing was inadequate. Middle school students spend little time writing or being taught how to write. While most teachers used a variety of evidenced-based writing practices and made adaptations for struggling writers, such methods were applied infrequently. Most teachers did not appear to use assessment data to shape how they taught writing, and computers played a relatively minor role in middle school writing instruction. Even though teachers generally agreed that writing was a collective responsibility, language arts teachers placed a greater emphasis on writing instruction than social studies and science teachers.     

浅谈国内英语学习者写作中的“替代现象”问题

本论文尝试性的采用了国内英语学习者写作语料库CLEC和英语本族语者在线书面语语料库LOB进行对比研究,希望通过对比分析发现中国英语学习者和本族语者在英语写作中替代现象的使用情况,找到各自的特点以及相互之间的差异。同时,本文从二语习得理论的视角,试图从更深层次上找到形成中国英语学习者写作中替代特点潜在的原因。     

Developing writing skills of learners with persistent literacy difficulties through explicit grammar teaching

The benefits of grammar instruction in the teaching of writing is contested in most English‐speaking countries (Jones et al., 2012). The majority of Anglophone countries abandoned the teaching of grammar in the 1950s based on the conclusions that it had no positive impact on learners’ development of reading, writing and language (Locke, 2005). Through an action research design, this study aims at gaining a further understanding of how the explicit teaching of grammar in context can benefit learners with persistent literacy difficulties by adapting the Grammar for Writing materials (Myhill, 2013). It intends to improve educational practice (Koshy, 2010) through action, analysis and reflection.     

Jordanian student teachers' perceptions of teaching writing in kindergartens during their field training experience

The purpose of the study was to examine student teachers' perceptions of teaching writing in kindergartens and to identify to what extent the cooperating teachers influence the student teachers' perceptions. To achieve the research aims, a 31‐item questionnaire was developed by the researchers and administered to 50 student teachers and their cooperating teachers. The questionnaire was administrated to both groups as a pre‐test and to student teachers as a post‐test. The results of the study revealed that student teachers were more likely to be emergent literacy‐oriented in their perceptions of teaching writing than they were to the reading readiness philosophy. Furthermore, the influence of the cooperating teachers was insignificant as the student teachers' perceptions of teaching writing developed earlier were more stable and difficult to alter later. In light of these findings the researchers addressed a number of suggestions and recommendations.     

Transformations in learning and teaching through Initial Teacher Education

In England, little research has been carried out into how pre‐service secondary English teachers transform what they know as they learn to teach. They are seldom asked to reflect explicitly on the connections between the pedagogy of their undergraduate studies and their pedagogical experiences as student teachers. The initial teacher education committee of the National Association for the Teaching of English decided to explore these connections by asking student teachers on English Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) courses in five different university departments of education to respond to a series of questions at the start and end of the academic year 2004–2005. The questions fall into four broad areas: student teachers' experiences as learners at undergraduate level and developing ideas about teaching; the nature of the subject English; tensions encountered during the PGCE course; new learning about teaching. The purpose of this article is to discuss some patterns emerging from the research. The most prominent of these is student teachers' realisation that good teaching comes from teachers seeing themselves as learners. We argue that ‘reflexivity’ ( Moore, 2004 ) is a valuable way to help student teachers begin to understand this transformation from learner into learning teacher.     

远程英语写作教学中的书面反馈调查与研究

在远程语言教学中,由于交流机会有限,书面反馈就成为了开启和维持指导教师与学习者对话的重要手段。基于网络平台开放英语写作课程,以书面反馈为研究对象,采用问卷和访谈等方式,探索在远程语言教学环境下,指导教师和学习者对反馈的理念与实践。研究发现不同指导教师所提供的反馈类型和形式有明显差异,而不同学习者之间的期望和理解也差异较大。建议指导教师提供反馈前应了解学习者的学习需求与特点,同时,需要对指导教师和学习者进行有关有效利用书面反馈系统的培训,以提高书面反馈的对语言教学的促进效果。     

读写危机:当今英语专业面临的最大挑战

英语专业在新的历史时期面临着诸多挑战,读写危机则是最大的挑战。读写危机的发生有其时代背景,但更有其深刻的语言学和语言教学原因。本文指出,读写危机的发生折射出优秀外语教育传统的丢失,反映出对读写在高素质英语人才培养中的作用存在认识误区。要化解危机,必须在教学实践中恢复读写的应有地位,正确处理好读写与听说的关系,通过加强读写能力的培养,提升英语人才的质量。     

Vocabulary Use by Low, Moderate, and High ASL-Proficient Writers Compared to Hearing ESL and Monolingual Speakers

The written English vocabulary of 72 deaf elementary school students of various proficiency levels in American Sign Language (ASL) was compared with the performance of 60 hearing English-as-a-second-language (ESL) speakers and 61 hearing monolingual speakers of English, all of similar age. Students were asked to retell "The Tortoise and the Hare" story (previously viewed on video) in a writing activity. Writing samples were later scored for total number of words, use of words known to be highly frequent in children's writing, redundancy in writing, and use of English function words. All deaf writers showed significantly lower use of function words as compared to their hearing peers. Low-ASL-proficient students demonstrated a highly formulaic writing style, drawing mostly on high-frequency words and repetitive use of a limited range of function words. The moderate- and high-ASL-proficient deaf students' writing was not formulaic and incorporated novel, low-frequency vocabulary to communicate their thoughts. The moderate- and high-ASL students' performance revealed a departure from findings one might expect based on previous studies with deaf writers and their vocabulary use. The writing of the deaf writers also differed from the writing of hearing ESL speakers. Implications for deaf education and literacy instruction are discussed, with special attention to the fact that ASL-proficient, deaf second-language learners of English may be approaching English vocabulary acquisition in ways that are different from hearing ESL learners.     

The nature of error in adolescent student writing

This study examined the nature and frequency of error in high school native English speaker (L1) and English learner (L2) writing. Four main research questions were addressed: Are there significant differences in students’ error rates in English language arts (ELA) and social studies? Do the most common errors made by students differ in ELA and social studies? Are there significant differences in the error rates between L1 and L2 students in ELA? Do L1 and L2 students differ in how frequently they make the most common errors in ELA? Written work of 10th and 12th grade students in five states was collected. The sample included 178 essays (120 in ELA and 58 in social studies) from 67 students (33 10th graders and 34 12th graders; 49 native English speaking students and 18 English learners). Results indicate that there were significant differences in the frequencies of errors between ELA and social studies, with higher error rates in social studies. In addition, L2 writers had significantly higher error rates than L1 writers in ELA. Aside from a few types of errors (spelling, capitalization, and some punctuation errors), most types of errors appear relatively infrequently in school-sponsored writing. Moreover, the eight most common errors accounted for a little more than half of all errors, and these did not differ significantly between ELA and social studies writing or between L1 and L2 writers.