Scaffolding for second language writers: producing an academic essay.

Strategy: Intrigued by specific statements

On page 3.18 of the CN, the following statement caught my attention.

               

          "In a recent staff seminar, a member of the audience commented that such close 'echoing' of the original modeled text might encourage plagiarism and so should be discouraged. WE could not disagree more strongly. Whaat these learners are demonstrating is the ability to master the function and form of what are, after all, widely used and fairly formulaic signals of written discourse. Rather than penalize them for their efforts, we were impressed to see how naturally they had included these signals [...]."

                I cannot understand how opinions can diverge so drastically between people in the same domain. I would agree with the authors of this text on this aspect, knowing that modeling is a very important strategy for teachers. Of course the students will base their formulation on the previously shown model, if not, what would be its purpose? Plagiarism is a word to word transcription of the same elements however, borrowing would the right term for a writer willing to base oneself on an already existing and well approved model. Overall, I do believe that helping students (by perfectly accepted means such as this former one) should not be seen as a bad thing, but in fact a good way of encouraging them and ensuring final achievement.

Make connections with your own experience

                When reading the Assistance locating appropriate texts and data section, I was reminded of the many times in my student-life that I have been quite deceived by the choice of texts. Here, the author explains that the students were entitled to "individualized information packs [...that had...] all the essential information learners required, but did not prevent the more adventurous learners from seeking additional information" (3.17 CN). This reminded me about a class I had last winter, in which the final topic for the writing section was nothing familiar for me: compost. Of course we all know what it is, but most of us, I believe, would in the same situation that I was: lost, unprepared, and most of all, discouraged. I just can't understand why teachers (for the most part) don't let us prepare our topics in advance. After all, isn't it the writing that will be evaluated?

Writing academic texts: a challenge for second language learners

I can relate to the foreigners' experience in writing academic texts since I face a similar challenge in the Beals program along with other undergraduates .  In this article, Asian students studying in New Zealand have a low proficiency in English and a "relative lack of writing experience".  The university's in-house placement test administered to these foreigners showed that they needed 1 or 2 intensive English courses (300 hours).  In the Beals, the entering students need to have an advanced level of English, since  they are aiming at teaching English as a second language. The Toiec test, although reliable, is a multiple-choice test that does not measure the ability to write paragraphs or essays, nor does it measure oral skills.  It is an indirect exam which has little construct validity for the purpose of admitting students in the Beals program.  An essay writing , as required in the Tecfée to measure French, would provide a more reliable and valid portrait of students' abilities to write in English.  Beals students have different backgrounds.  Depending on the Cegep they attended or previous life experiences, their ability to write academic texts vary.  Some have been exposed to essay writing before, to APA/MLA presentation rules; others scarcely.  The challenge of being able to write texts that meet expectations is therefore different for each student.  The scaffolding approach taken by the teachers Cotterall and Cohen seems an effective and dynamic way to help beginners and intermediate students with the writing process.

Cotterall, C., Cohen, R.(2003). Scaffolding for Second Language Writers: Producing an Academic Essay. ELT Journal, 57 (2).158-66.

STRATEGY: Establish a personal connection with text (Mels,p.46).

Providing composition models, a temptation for plagiarism?

This article written by Cotterall and Cohen focuses on the writing process that has to be explained to Asian students who want to write academic texts in English.  The authors reveal  that Foreign Language Learners (FLL) from Asia who were registered in a writing programme in New Zealand "appeared keen to incorporate the language modelled during the group conversation stage into their own texts (p.164)."  The examples reproduced in the article illustrate that two learners converted a model developed on the whiteboard and reused it in their essay. "The model was converted into a parallel transition".  In this case, the authors argue that the students weren't copying, they were using formulaic signals of the writers discourse. Plagiarism was nevertheless raised as a concern by faculty members.  Since an writing academic essay is a highly challenging task, especially in a foreign language, one might be more tempted to plagiarize.  Moreover, in some cultures, plagiarism is not viewed as improper, as a violation of  intellectual property.  The other article written by I-Chia Chou(2010) is quite instructive.  It explains that the concept of plagiarism is a Western concept.  This author highlights the fact that foreign students who attend Western universities are not fully aware of the Western writing conventions.  They may copy on models as a learning strategy and have no intention to deceive.

I-Chia Chou (2010). Is Plagiarism a Culture Product: The Voice of a Chinese-Speaking ELLStudent. The International Journal - Language Society and Culture.37.

http://www.educ.utas.edu.au/users/tle/JOURNAL/issues/2010/31-5.pdf

Cotterall, C., Cohen, R.(2003). Scaffolding for Second Language Writers: Producing an Academic Essay. ELT Journal, 57 (2).158-66.

STRATEGY: Make connections with another text (Course notes guidelines).

The Lexical Advantages of Narrow Reading for Second Language Learners

Try Agreeing with the Author

            "Knowing a word well enough to use it competently involves more than just an awareness of a single meaning sense; it also includes knowledge of lexical assets such as its grammatical behaviour, collocations, register constraints, and even alternative meaning senses": also known as Communicative Competence.

            As a future teacher, I believe that the concept of Communicative Competence is crucial to understand, and just as important to know how to successfully pass-on to your students. Many of us wonder how we will achieve this however, I do believe that it is feasible. I appreciate that this author chose to talk about the use of magazines and newspapers as good tools, rather than books or movies. Even though allowing students to identify with popular interests that we often see in movies or books becoming movies, newspapers and magazines could play this role just as well, or even better perhaps. The latter might not be as popular with younger students but they do bring a lot of up-to-date material, cultural concepts worldwide, and often teach through authentic texts, non-fiction discussions, and most importantly, there is always something to please different types of people.

Establishing a personal connection with the text 

(I experienced something like that when...)

            "[I]ncidental learning from exposure" is surely one of my most precious assets. As a young girl, I moved to Quebec from Florida, and often wondered how I managed to have such a good communicative competence in both languages.. or even almost three. My parents and family spoke to me in English, while my French was shown to me in school and by my friends. This type of exposure is quite common to most bilingual students however, I have always wondered why I understand Spanish when my parents chose to refrain from using it around us in order to keep confusion away. I do believe that I learned from short incidental exposure to this language on the phone when my mother's friends called or when "mi abuela" came to visit. As a young child, I even thought that "Abuela" was my grandma's name until I heard other young kids calling their grandma figure the same way: what a way to learn! All in all, I do believe that exposure is the most crucial element in successful target language learning.

Schmitt and Carter

While reading Schmitt and Carter’s text The Lexical Advantages of Narrow Reading for Second Language Learners, I was reminded of my own personal experience as a foreign language learner. At one point during my teenage years, I had to learn a completely foreign language in a immersion context. The language being mandarin, I started with no background knowledge; I felt like a young child learning my alphabet all over again. I knew that I would learn the mandarin characters much faster by reading often, but I did not know where to start. By coincidence, I stumbled upon a newspaper geared towards teenage readers. As Schmitt and Carter write in their article, newspaper articles are full of extra lingual cues, and were therefore a lot easier to read than conventional novels. Not only were the subjects interesting, but I also learned a lot about my host country and its culture. The newspaper was produced weekly and I had the chance to experience what the authors call narrow reading as the subjects came up often in different articles.

 Subject : Make connections with your own experience.

How many words do you know?

I agree wholeheartedly with the authors Schmitt and Carter when they affirm that reading "should be a key component in most language learning programs"(8). Acquiring a large vocabulary in a second or third language takes time and can not be done through memorization of word lists, even when presented in authentic context. As the authors point out, for effective language usage one needs to know many more words than those that can be taught (4). It was interesting to learn that knowing 2000 words enables a person to function orally for everyday life, but the knowledge of 10000 words is required to read academic texts. I was interested to evaluate my own level of vocabulary knowledge. Being a francophone and a future English teacher, I felt I should have a real portrait of my skills, at least in terms of lexical competency. According to Test Your Vocab.com, which is relying on participants' answers and data, "most Native English adult speakers who have taken the test fall in the range 20,000–35,000 words". I was thus relieved to see that I attained the level of 22,400 words. There are many words that are not used in everyday life and that one finds in literature or academic reading. I must say that I acquired my knowledge of English through considerable reading over the years.
I had the great chance to be stimulated to read in English by my mother who had learned English as a second language as a young adult (German being her native language and French, her third one). She always had a passion for reading and still does. She introduced me to different authors, some that she was discovering herself. She read from varied genres and authors of different origins. She introduced me to beginner reading books, and later to native English-speaking teen and adult books. She would arouse my curiosity with a brief outline of a novel and encourage me to read it. Reading a second language text can be discouraging if the reader doesn't have the "prerequisite vocabulary necessary to read them, as mentioned by the authors Schmitt and Carter. They argue that narrow reading (Krashen, 1981), which is reading on the same topic over the course of a number of texts, facilitates reading experiences. Their article explains very well how to incorporate narrow reading into a ESL syllabus. Finally, it could be said that reading several books by the same author (for example, Agatha Christie) can also be considered narrow reading since there is also repetition of vocabulary, even if the topics vary.

http://testyourvocab.com/

PS: Test your vocab: The nitty gritty page of this test provides information on the test, the sample words chosen and the margin of errors.

STRATEGY: Time to write down anything in relation to the text. (Course notes guidelines)
ARTICLE : Norbert Schmitt; Ronald Carter (2000).The Lexical Advantages of Narrow Reading for Second Language, Learners. TESOL Journal. 9 (1) 4-9.

Literature-based instruction

Exploring historical fiction

In this article, Custodio and Sutton present inspiring ways to use literature-based instruction with L2 learners. They combine literature-based approach and content-based instruction in ESL classes and they point out to the numerous advantages of literacy development. I have never experienced such an approach in any of my second or foreign language learning classes. I have experienced a more traditional approach, an audio-lingual approach of language learning. However, I can relate to the text and to this presentation of literature-based approach, since my sons have experienced some literature circles in their ESL classrooms. I know some English high school teachers who work for a certain period of time exclusively on a novel in various ways. I agree, without reserve, that reading historical fiction novels can help develop cultural and historical knowledge. Literature-based instruction lends itself to interdisciplinary projects and develops language and literacy skills. If I were an ESL secondary teacher, I would certainly consider using literature circles for its values. I would take into consideration the various interests and learning styles of all students, select different genres, not only fictional novels, and plan activities and projects that would appeal to more than one type of learner (multiple intelligences). I would consider a classroom blog or a team blog to engage the students in the response process.
STRATEGY : Establishing personal connection with the text phase.(Mels, p.46)


Literature-based instruction and immigrant ESL learners in US schools

In this article, the authors present their own experience with their high school ESL students who come from different cultural backgrounds. They present a unit on immigration for intermediate-level readers with a selection of novels written by authors from different origins and depicting multicultural experiences. Consequently, as they read the selected novels, the students share their own immigration experiences and compare them. The authors observe that “the culture of students are often reflected in the novels and given value”.(p.22). The authors' expertise and relevant curriculum is influenced by their clientele, mostly immigrants in US high schools. Through reading historical novels such as Letters from Rifka by Karen Hesse (1992) or New Kids in Town by Janet Bode (1989), for example, the students are able to relate to characters who faced similar problems or situations. Finally, according to the authors, literature-based instruction allow students to learn about the history of their new country, since other selected novels cover various historical time periods and address various social issues.

STRATEGY: Describe the authors' point of view. (Guidelines in the course notes)

Brenda Custodio and Marilyn Jean Sutton(1998). Literature-Based ESL for Secondary School Students. TESOL Journal, 7(5).19-23.