One on One with Second Language Writers: A Guide for Writing Tutors, Teachers, and Consultants

How to Use This Book

How to Use This Book This book is intended as a professional development tool for anyone who conferences with individual students about their writing, particularly when the students are writing in a second language. The organization of the chapters in the book suggests a general approach to the writing conference, beginning with planning questions and strategies (Chapter 1), then addressing more macro issues related to the past experiences of the student (Chapter 2) and the academic and rhetorical goals of the assignment (Chapter 3)—both of which should help us determine specific and appropriate goals for the conference. The focus then shifts to understanding the actual writing of the students, beginning with organization (Chapter 4) and language flow (Chapter 5) and followed by syntax (Chapter 6) and punctuation (Chapter 7). The final chapter presents a set of general goals to keep in mind when conferencing with second language writers. The book is appropriate for use in university and secondary school writing centers, teacher training programs for both general composition and ESOL instructors, and as an individual reference tool. In addition to the general discussion of issues outlined, it provides tutoring/teaching tips at the end of sections throughout the book as well as multiple examples of student writing that illustrate the various issues but that may also be discussed as general samples. The book uses non-technical language, although terminology is introduced where it might be helpful when conferencing with students. A glossary of terms is included, as is a list of useful resources. Suggestions as to how the book might be used in particular contexts follow. Writing Centers Whether a writing center employs undergraduates, graduate students , or professional staff as consultants, all benefit from an introduction to the needs of second language writers. This book xi may be integrated into both pre-service and in-service professional development programs. As a resource for a pre-service workshop or training session, focus on the general principles contained in Chapters 1 and 8, which could be introduced through a handout or slide presentation and supplemented with an overview of the book as a whole so that participants could come back to it at a later date. If time permits, it would also be helpful to choose one or two of the writing samples for discussion. Good possibilities might be the essay on page 26 by a Japanese immigrant to the United States about how she learned English and then the proposal for a course on citizenship written by an Arab student on page 64. They are complete essays but relatively short and offer the opportunity to discuss a range of issues. A key goal for the discussion should be to move participants past the initial tendency to focus on surface-level grammatical errors and instead to have them identify overall strengths of the writing and ways that it could be improved from the macro level. In-service training programs typically allow more time for working with a resource. Each chapter could be the basis for a series of weekly discussions addressing the needs of second language writers in the writing center, for example. If this much time is not available, the content could be divided into an introduction to the writing conference (Chapters 1 and 8), overview of writers and readers (Chapters 2 and 3), macro-level writing issues (Chapters 4 and 5), and surface-level issues (Chapters 6 and 7). In addition to discussing the designated topics, participants could be asked to demonstrate some of the teaching tips or to bring in copies of student papers that they think relate to the issues being discussed. Participants might also role play conferences using some of the sample texts. As advocated in Chapter 8, encourage participants to think not only in terms of immediate activities and responses but also in terms of long-range learning outcomes for individual students. Additionally, a list of Useful Resources begins on page 150. These are general reference materials that would be helpful to have in a writing center. They also provide more in-depth treatxii How to Use This Book ments of specific topics and so might be appropriate to ask individual tutors to report on as part of an in-service training. Teacher Training Programs Second language writers typically study in composition classes taught either by instructors with a background in English studies or TESOL. This book could serve as...