Abstract
This case study describes the achievement of a South Korean graduate student at a mid-sized midwestern university in a senior/graduate-level course on the essay. While a place for imaginative literature in ESL pedagogy has long been established, with the genre commonly utilized being the short story, this study by contrast focuses on the use of the essay (that is, the literary essay, the personal essay, creative nonfiction) and the writing of a mature (nontraditional) student. The study illustrates the beneficial effects of the student’s reading literary essays on her motivation and level of performance as a writer, specifically her command of English syntax. This case study argues for a special affinity between the quintessential essayist and the ESL writer as “ethnographer” vis-a-vis a culture whose foreignness spurs observation and expression. Most generally, it supports an argument for the value to ESL students of “aesthetic” reading, even when the end of instruction is basic competence.
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