English As A Second Language Writing Research Articles

Structuring subjectivity in Asian Englishes

This study investigates the usage patterns of four near-synonymous mental predicates (believe, guess, suppose and think) across three Asian ESL (English as a Second Language) varieties as well as British and American Englishes. Using two multivariate techniques, multiple correspondence analysis and classification and regression tree analysis, the study shows the benefits of exploring cross-varietal variation through the lens of lexicalization patterns. The study also demonstrates that to make sense of semantic patterns it is crucial to account for extra-linguistic factors such as genre, as different ESL writers structure the meaning of believe, guess, suppose and think differently depending on their type of writing. Ultimately, in the broader context of the emancipation of ESL varieties, the results raise important questions about the developmental process of Asian Englishes and the place that semantic structure holds in this endeavor.

Mainstream Teacher Candidates' Perspectives on ESL Writing: The Effects of Writer Identity and Rater Background

This study explored the extent to which the ethnic identity of a writer and the background (gender and area of teaching) of a rater can influence mainstream teacher candidates' evaluation of English as a second language (ESL) writing, using a matched-guise method. A one-page essay was elicited from an ESL learner enrolled in an intensive English program and was manipulated to incorporate error patterns often observed among Chinese- and Spanish-speaking learners. Teacher candidates were led to believe it was produced by an ESL learner whose first language was either Chinese or Spanish. One-hundred-sixty-three undergraduate students enrolled in a teacher education program at a U.S. university were asked to score the ESL essay holistically, provide qualitative comments, identify the three most troublesome errors in order of seriousness, and offer advice on how to improve ESL writing. No significant effects of writer identity on the holistic scoring were detected, but the teacher candidates revealed different categories of rater responses depending on the writer's identity. Conversely, although the raters' backgrounds (gender and area of teaching) had significant effects on global scoring, they did not have any significant impact on the qualitative nature of rater responses.

When Less Is More: A Group Of First Year Undergraduate Malaysian Students’ Experiences Of The Essay Revision Process.

The teaching of English as a second language (ESL) in Malaysia has undergone many changes. Different ways of looking at and employing pedagogical approaches in Malaysian ESL classrooms have been considered and attempted; some of these have not only altered but also challenged traditional approaches in the classroom. However, writing, seen by many Malaysian students as the most difficult of the four, has often been neglected. ESL teachers cannot be entirely blamed for this minimal emphasis on composition writing. Factors, which work against both the teachers and students, include the time factor, which inevitably compels teachers to focus on a product-based rather than process-based writing. Although there is an extensive body of research on process-oriented first language writing, little attention has been given to second language classroom practice. Therefore, researchers who examine ESL writers in Malaysian universities are required to determine whether the process-oriented approach to teaching writing can be used effectively with ESL students so that the gap between the actual level of English language proficiency amongst Malaysian university students, especially writing skills, and the level of competence required for learning at tertiary levels can be bridged relatively quickly. This paper reports the finding of one of the research activities looking at the contribution of a teaching intervention based on the process centered approach; i.e. the types of revision changes employed by this group of students in developing the drafts. Revising is the process of making sure that the writing says what the writer wants it to say.

Managing Problems and Planning Activities Involving ICT Tools in Teaching ESL Reading and Writing

The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in English as a Second Language (ESL) teaching and learning has been one of the most widely discussed issues in the field of education. Various activities which involve the use of ICT could be adapted to assist the instruction of reading and writing. However, the teachers need to take note on several matters in managing problems which could arise from the activities planned. The purpose of this study is to identify how the teachers manage problems and plan activities involving ICT tools in teaching ESL reading and writing. To achieve the purpose of the study, a total of 19 secondary school English teachers were interviewed. The teachers were pragmatically and purposively selected from three different areas of Malaysia, 4 teachers from Kuala Lumpur, 7 teachers from Alor Setar and 8 teachers from Tawau, respectively. The findings of the study revealed that the teachers seemed to be weak in managing the problems occurred while using ICT in the teaching of ESL reading and writing. It was also concluded that the teachers’ creativity level seemed to be quite low as the activities planned only involve those of lower levels. Moreover, ICT is mostly used to search for reading and writing materials before teaching the new lesson. The findings of the study are hoped to provide the teachers and policymakers with a better and more accurate picture for managing problems and planning activities involving ICT tools in teaching ESL reading and writing.

Bucking the trend: improved evaluation and annotation practices for ESL error detection systems

The last decade has seen an explosion in the number of people learning English as a second language (ESL). In China alone, it is estimated to be over 300 million (Yang in Engl Today 22, 2006). Even in predominantly English-speaking countries, the proportion of non-native speakers can be very substantial. For example, the US National Center for Educational Statistics reported that nearly 10 % of the students in the US public school population speak a language other than English and have limited English proficiency (National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) in Public school student counts, staff, and graduate counts by state: school year 2000---2001, 2002). As a result, the last few years have seen a rapid increase in the development of NLP tools to detect and correct grammatical errors so that appropriate feedback can be given to ESL writers, a large and growing segment of the world's population. As a byproduct of this surge in interest, there have been many NLP research papers on the topic, a Synthesis Series book (Leacock et al. in Automated grammatical error detection for language learners. Synthesis lectures on human language technologies. Morgan Claypool, Waterloo 2010), a recurring workshop (Tetreault et al. in Proceedings of the NAACL workshop on innovative use of NLP for building educational applications (BEA), 2012), and a shared task competition (Dale et al. in Proceedings of the seventh workshop on building educational applications using NLP (BEA), pp 54---62, 2012; Dale and Kilgarriff in Proceedings of the European workshop on natural language generation (ENLG), pp 242---249, 2011). Despite this growing body of work, several issues affecting the annotation for and evaluation of ESL error detection systems have received little attention. In this paper, we describe these issues in detail and present our research on alleviating their effects.

Pros and Cons of Using ICT in Teaching ESL Reading and Writing

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) play a major role in creating a new and improved model of teaching and learning. A great number of studies have been conducted to examine the advantages of integrating ICT in language education in general and English as a Second Language (ESL) teaching and learning in particular. However, there is a need for more studies on the disadvantages of using ICT in language education. This study aims to identify both advantages and disadvantages of using ICT in teaching ESL reading and writing. To achieve the aim of the study, a total of 23 secondary school English teachers were interviewed. The teachers were pragmatically and purposively selected from three different areas of Malaysia, 7 teachers from Alor Setar, 8 teachers from Tawau and 8 teachers from Johor Bahru, respectively. This study is a qualitative research in nature because a semi-structured interview was used to examine the teachers’ perceptions of pros and cons of using ICT in teaching ESL reading and writing. The findings of the study revealed that attracting students’ attention, facilitating students’ learning process, helping to improve students’ vocabulary knowledge and promoting meaningful learning were regarded as the most important advantages of using ICT in teaching ESL reading and writing. Moreover, disadvantages found included the difficulty in classroom control and students’ distraction as well as their tendency to use short forms in writing tasks. The findings of the study are hoped to provide the teachers and policymakers with a better and more accurate picture of advantages and disadvantages of using ICT tools in ESL teaching and learning contexts.

The Use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Teaching ESL Writing Skills

Despite the existence of many studies showing positive effects of using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the teaching and learning process in general, the use of ICT in teaching writing skills in English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms is still not very encouraging. This study attempts to seek findings on the use of ICT in the teaching of ESL writing skills in Malaysian secondary schools. This paper just reports one part of the findings obtained from a big project which was conducted in Malaysian secondary schools in five areas of Malaysia. This study focuses solely on the data collected from four English teachers in a secondary school in Kuala Lumpur who were interviewed by the researcher. This study revealed that the use of ICT in the teaching of ESL writing was very low. Advantages of using ICT were reported to be attracting students’ attention, facilitating students’ learning process, helping to improve students’ vocabulary and promoting meaningful learning. Disadvantages found included the difficult class control, distraction and the students’ tendency to use short forms in their writing. It was also revealed that teachers are generally weak in managing problems and planning activities involving the use of ICT in the teaching of ESL writing. The results of this study are hoped to provide insights to the Ministry of Education in Malaysia to improve the low use of ICT in teaching ESL writing skills.

Providing a Sounding Board for Second Language Writers

English as a second language (ESL) writing teachers face distinct challenges as they try to help students write in the language that is appropriate and natural to the native‐English‐speaking audience. It is disheartening when the writings of even advanced‐level second language students often contain many awkward sentences and non‐English‐like patterns. ESL writers face various linguistic challenges as they write, and they should be allowed to navigate through the writings of others to attend to the linguistic features they may need in order to accurately express their thoughts. ESL writing teachers can help students by providing language support, through models and prewriting activities, that will encourage students to recognize certain linguistic forms and stock phrases used by native‐English‐speaking writers. The support of a writing center is also essential because a writing center not only introduces students to the academic community, but also serves as a forum where students can negotiate meanings and discover correct language forms so that they can then convey them.

Generalizability Theory as Evidence of Concerns About Fairness in Large‐Scale ESL Writing Assessments

Using generalizability theory, this study examined both the rating variability and reliability of English as a second language (ESL) students' writing in two provincial examinations in Canada. This article discusses expected and unexpected similarities and differences related to rating variability and reliability between the two testing programs. As expected, there was more desired but less unwanted variation in ESL and native‐English‐speaking (NES) students' writing scores in Province B than in Province A. But unexpectedly, the results demonstrated systematic differences between ESL and NES students in terms of rating variability. Further, there were lower reliabilities in ESL students' scores in comparison to NES students' scores. These findings raise potential concerns about the fairness of large‐scale ESL writing assessments.

Multi-draft composing: An iterative model for academic argument writing

Post-secondary writing teachers in composition and English as a second language (ESL) writing programs are likely familiar with multi-draft composing. Both composition and ESL writing programs share nearly identical multi-draft models despite the very unique and different cultures of each group. We argue that multi-draft composing as it is currently used within second language writing programs can be overwhelming for ESL writers. In this study, we introduce the iterative multi-draft model, a revised and more manageable version of the traditional multi-draft model that can be used specifically with ESL writers to help them master essential writing skills in academic argumentation. A study of 42 compositions written by 14 students over the course of one semester in a North American pre-university intensive English program demonstrates that the new model can be effective. Although no significant improvement was seen in word choice and academic referencing, the iterative model produced a statistical effect on writing scores in three writing skill subcategories (content, organization, and grammar). Additionally, the iterative multi-draft model led to higher writing scores when compared to a traditional multi-draft model. Student perspectives on the model further indicate its relative strengths and weaknesses.

A Corpus‐Based Evaluation of Syntactic Complexity Measures as Indices of College‐Level ESL Writers' Language Development

This article reports results of a corpus‐based evaluation of 14 syntactic complexity measures as objective indices of college‐level English as a second language (ESL) writers' language development. I analyzed large‐scale ESL writing data from the Written English Corpus of Chinese Learners (Wen, Wang, & Liang, 2005) using a computational system designed to automate syntactic complexity measurement with 14 measures that have been proposed in second language writing development studies (Lu, 2010). This analysis allows us to investigate the impact of sampling condition on the relationship between syntactic complexity and language development, to identify measures that significantly differentiate between developmental levels, to determine the magnitude at which between‐level differences in each measure reach statistical significance, to assess the pattern of development associated with each measure, and to examine the strength of the relationship between different pairs of measures. This research provides ESL teachers and researchers with useful insights into how these measures can be used effectively as indices of college‐level ESL writers' language development.

Effects of Dynamic Corrective Feedback on ESL Writing Accuracy

Though recent research has shown that written corrective feedback (WCF) may improve aspects of writing accuracy in some English as a second language (ESL) contexts, many teachers continue to be confused about the practical steps they should utilize to help their students improve their writing. Moreover, some have raised concerns as to whether commonly used approaches to ESL writing pedagogy and grammar instruction are effective in helping students improve their linguistic accuracy. This article describes an instructional strategy we developed for improving students' accuracy based on insights gleaned from practice, research, and theory. We refer to this instructional methodology as dynamic WCF. The article also discusses a test of the methodology's efficacy that compared the performance of two groups of students, one using a conventional process approach to writing instruction and the other using the dynamic WCF approach. Test results demonstrated that although rhetorical competence, writing fluency, and writing complexity were largely unaffected by the dynamic WCF pedagogy, significant improvement was observed for writing accuracy.

Exploring Academic Writing and Voice in ESL Writing.

This literature review explores two basic questions: First, why have English as a Second Language (ESL)/English as a Foreign Language (EFL) academic writing courses not been able to significantly help ESL/EFL students meet the academic writing demands of their university courses? Second, how can ESL/EFL writing instructors better help these students succeed in their undergraduate courses? To respond to these questions, the author reviews how notions of academic writing, text, and voice have changed over time, and how these changes have influenced (ESL) and (EFL) writing approaches and methodologies. The author also presents some of the critiques that scholars have posed regarding each of these notions, approaches and methodologies, and draws some conclusions based on these critiques.
 Received: 13-11-07 / Accepted: 08-12-08
 How to reference this article:
 Correa, D. (2009). Exploring Academic Writing and Voice in ESL Writing.Íkala. 14(1), pp.103-132.

The Contribution of Written Corrective Feedback to Language Development: A Ten Month Investigation

The call for longitudinal evidence on the efficacy of written corrective feedback (WCF) for ESL (English as a second language) writers has been made repeatedly since Truscott (1996) claimed that it is ineffective, harmful, and should therefore be abandoned. This article discusses some of the theoretical issues raised against the practice, outlines the status of recent empirical evidence and presents a 10-month study of the effects of WCF on two functional uses of the English article system given to 52 low-intermediate ESL students in Auckland, New Zealand. Assigned to four groups (direct corrective feedback, written, and oral meta-linguistic explanation; direct corrective feedback and written meta-linguistic explanation; direct corrective feedback only; the control group), the students produced five pieces of writing (pre-test, immediate post-test, and three delayed post-tests). Each of the treatment groups outperformed the control group on all post-tests and no difference in effectiveness was found between the three treatment groups.

ANGLES ON THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLD: WRITING AND VOCABULARY IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION (Vol. 4)

ANGLES ON THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLD: WRITING AND VOCABULARY IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION (Vol. 4). Dorte Albrechtsen, Kirsten Haastrup, and Birgit Henriksen (Eds.). Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2004. Pp. 151. $23.00 paper.Comprised of eight research-based chapters and one book review, this volume brings together a compelling and unique array of research studies on two topics of ongoing interest to second language (L2) professionals. The volume opens with three L2 writing studies, the first two of which draw from the same investigation of university and preuniversity English as a second language (ESL) writers. The first chapter, “Activity Systems for ESL Writing Improvement: Case Studies of Three Chinese and Three Japanese Adult Learners Of English,” is co-authored by Yang, Baba, and Cumming. Using an activity theory framework, the researchers explore writers' perceptions of their learning intentions, crosslinguistic relationships, vocabulary, grammar, and the role of instruction in promoting their L2 composing skills. As the participants progressed in their ESL writing development, their activity systems evolved as a function of the interaction between external factors and internal predispositions. In the second chapter, “Scaling Changes in Learners' Goals for Writing Improvement over an ESL Course,” Cumming, Eouanzoui, Gentil, and Yang report on an analysis of interviews conducted with 45 preuniversity ESL writers. Their method featured dual scaling, which showed that participants' short- and long-term goals as students and writers remained stable over time, although the actions taken by students to improve their writing reflected individual learning styles.

Learning to teach writing through tutoring and journal writing

Structured reflection on practical teaching experiences may help pre‐service teachers to integrate their learning and analyze their actions to become more effective learners and teachers. This study reports on 12 pre‐service English as a second language (ESL) teachers’ individual tutoring of learners of English language writing. The data of the study are the writing journal entries that the pre‐service ESL teachers maintained during their tutoring experience. These journals had common elements: all were used by the pre‐service teachers to consider what funds of knowledge they bring to their teaching of ESL learners, to evaluate their roles as writers, learners and teachers and to reflect on the educational, social and cultural implications of teaching writing in English to speakers of other languages. This article describes ways in which both native and non‐native English speaking pre‐service teachers adapted their instruction to meet the particular needs of individual ESL writers and what they learned in the process. It provides insight regarding the value of using tutoring and reflection generally in teacher education and specifically in the preparation of teachers of ESL.

TEACHING ESL COMPOSITION: PURPOSE, PROCESS, AND PRACTICE (2nd ed.)

TEACHING ESL COMPOSITION: PURPOSE, PROCESS, AND PRACTICE (2nd ed.). Dana R. Ferris and John S. Hedgcock. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2005. Pp. xiv + 431. $45.00 paper.This book presents theoretical and practical issues relevant to the teaching of composition to learners of English as a second language (ESL). As the subtitle implies, the book firmly grounds the purpose of teaching ESL composition in past and current research, puts emphasis on the writing process of ESL writers, and pursues pedagogical equilibrium with equal focus on theory and practice. The book approaches broad and general themes in the first few chapters and moves on to more specific pedagogical concerns in the later chapters.

Writing Better English (review)

Reviewed by: Writing Better English Li-Shih Huang Seick, Ed . (2004). Writing Better English. New York: McGraw-Hill. Pp. 200, $14.95 US (paper). Writing Better English is a user-friendly workbook on basic grammar and writing for second language learners of English. This workbook takes a building-block approach to improving ESL (English as a second language) learners' writing skills by guiding them as they progress from understanding the parts of speech to writing short sentences and then to completing stories. The workbook is organized into six brief, easy-to-follow sections, each building on the previous ones. Setting the foundation for the rest of the workbook, the first section opens with a review of grammar basics that covers, for example, verb tenses, auxiliaries, conjunctions, pronouns, possessives, plurals, and also comparative and superlative word forms. This coverage also provides a base from which learners can self-assess their familiarity with basic grammatical elements and structures, [End Page 594] as well as their readiness to write. The review then leads to a brief section on completing sentences, which prompts ESL writers to determine elements that are missing and the appropriate words to use. Following the sentence completion exercises, learners proceed to writing short sentences. The workbook then moves beyond sentence-level writing to story completion exercises. Before the final section on composing stories, with such suggested topics as 'The Most Unforgettable Day,' 'Peace or War,' and 'Your Autobiography,' the workbook includes a practical section on writing personal and business letters. This section includes sample letters and provides ESL writers with a simple way to approach letter writing by considering appropriate formats, structures, and components. In each section, the author provides non-technical explanations, examples, and plenty of guided application exercises, thus progressively promoting learner creativity in the writing tasks. While this workbook is easy to understand and includes information that would be useful to ESL learners, several aspects of its presentation raise questions about its value. First, the proficiency level of the learners this workbook is designed to help has not been clarified. Since the workbook is intended for self-studying and supplementary learning, indicating the intended readership's proficiency level would be helpful. Second, the author claims that ESL writers can use the workbook to 'learn essential vocabulary and grammar' (front cover). It is not clear that the vocabulary development approach was used to 'increase [ESL writers'] proficiency in vocabulary usage' (back cover). Each of the 11 topics suggested for writing stories is followed by instructions about which specific grammatical structures to use. Then there are four to five questions intended to help the writers generate ideas, and five or six 'helpful vocabulary words' (pp. 143–147). I do not think that simply providing a list of five to six words for each composition topic is the best way to develop ESL writers' 'proficiency in vocabulary usage,' since research has shown that vocabulary can best be learned through reading 'authentic' texts (see Wallace, 1992) and seeing words used in a variety of contexts (rather than the constructed and artificial examples commonly found in textbooks) (see, e.g., Coady & Huckin, 1997). With regard to grammar, I also wonder whether prescribing the tenses and grammatical structures to use is a helpful way to approach writing stories. In addition, there is no discussion of critical grammatical items that are particularly challenging or troublesome to ESL writers; that is, beginners and advanced learners alike. Such a discussion might include, for example, the use of singulars and plurals, articles, prepositions, modal auxiliary verbs, gerunds and infinitives, relative pronouns, [End Page 595] and ambiguous pronouns. These tricky elements are present in the written texts produced by ESL writers at all levels and deserve consideration for integration into the workbook. Third, I question the provision of rules, drill-like grammar exercises that involve the manipulation of form (e.g., changing 'Her brother is very rich' to the past, past perfect, and future tenses or filling in the blank with the correct verb form), and isolated sentences and artificial examples that are devoid of context and situations of communication. This approach seems to move the teaching of writing back to the practice of prescriptive grammar, which emphasizes...

Learning as Changing Participation: Discourse Roles in ESL Writing Conferences

This study investigates the acquisition of an unfamiliar discursive practice by an adult Vietnamese learner of English. The practice is revision talk in weekly English as a Second Language (ESL) writing conferences between the student and his ESL writing instructor. This research adopts the interactional competence framework for understanding the interactional architecture and participation framework of the practice. It also draws on the theory of situated learning or legitimate peripheral participation in arguing that changes in the student's and instructor's patterns of co‐participation demonstrate processes by which the student moved from peripheral to fuller participation. It appears that although the student was the one whose participation was most dramatically transformed, the instructor was a co‐learner, and her participation changed in ways that complemented the student's learning. Through close analysis of the revision talk in four successive writing conferences, this study contributes to our understanding of language learning as co‐constructed development in situated discursive practices.

‘B Seeing U’ in unfamiliar places: ESL writers, email epistolaries, and critical computer literacy

This article poses a rich, to date unexplored, resource for facilitating students’ development of critical technological literacy: the email epistolary novel. With reference to a developmental writing class populated primarily by international English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students, the article describes how the study of an email epistolary helped students to examine technology critically and made students’ technological literacies a course emphasis. This approach to writing pedagogy, the article argues, illustrates how ESL students negotiate their technological literacies in the context of their assimilation into American undergraduate communities. The article concludes by suggesting that email epistolaries can guide students at all levels toward more nuanced understandings of how technological literacy emerges in dialogue with other literacy practices.