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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. Faculty. Students. (Academic Affairs). UWT: A multi-lingual community. How you can help.
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Multi-lingual Writers at UWT • Supporting them Effectively
Hi, I’m Kelvin • 5th year at UWT • MA TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) • work with multilingual writers in the TLC
Faculty Students (Academic Affairs)
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) • Neitherdirect 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 • kelvin3@uw.edu • x24724