Multi-lingual Writers at UWT Supporting them Effectively

Hi, I’m Kelvin 5 th year at UWT MA TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) work with multilingual writers in the TLC

UWT: A multi-lingual community

How you can help encourage students to go to the TLC check for cultural background knowledge integral to assignments incentivize correction of grammatical errors in assignments (i.e. reward labor not perfection)

Language Acquisition is not on a quarter schedule can be facilitated with explicit instruction (See CCCC and TESOL position statements)

Content & Language commenting on content organization cohesion assignment parameters citation formatting indicating grammatical errors sentence structure coherence noting vocabulary issues source integration

Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) Consider your purpose: writing development, language learning, “perfect grammar”? For L2 writers, focused CF is more useful than unfocused CF Labeled CF more likely more useful writers with prior explicit grammar instruction

Corrective Feedback Is more likely to be useful when revision is required (Ferris et al., 2013) Neither direct feedback nor indirect feedback is always more useful “does not guarantee learning” (Matsuda, 2012, p.155)

Who’s/Whose Perfect? Must students attain native-like grammatical accuracy? Writing, like speech, may have an accent

Grades Grading on grammatical accuracy “punish[es] students for what they don’t bring with them” (Matsuda, 2012, p.155). Is it fair to grade something you don’t teach? “Grammar grading can discourage grammar learning by encouraging avoidance strategies...” (Matsuda)

Grammar & Grades, ctd. Matusda (2012) suggests “put[ting] grammar learning into the category of incidental learning––to facilitate learning and reward success...” (p. 155) “To facilitate learning, writing teachers need to continue to provide grammar feedback for second language writers along with metalinguistic commentary.” (Matsuda, p.155)

Vocabulary teaching key academic and field/discourse-specific words is not remedial... it’s foundational Folse (2008) contends that if you believe better vocabulary will improve student writing, then teaching it is part of your job

Plagiarism is often NOT malicious or devious can happen because students do not understand the fundamental reasons why we cite The cultural values that animate source attribution in academic discourse are neither universal nor obvious to people encountering them for the first time

“I was born here” Answer I received when I once asked a student what other language she spoke Many students have felt stigmatized by the labels ESL/ELL (Ortmeier-Hooper, 2008)

Please Empathize Don’t rub students’ noses in less than “perfect” grammar… (e.g. don’t say things like “your English is broken”)

Refs & Resources always happy to share, consult, research x24724