Editing ESL Speakers

TECM 5195Dr. Lam

Today’s Plan

• How do students acquire a second language?

• What types of errors will you see in their editing?

• What is comprehensive editing? (review)

• What should your tutoring video be like?

First, some vocabulary

• ESL = English as a Second Language

• L1 = "Language 1" or the student's native (primary or first acquired) language

• L2 = "Language 2" or the language being learned or studied

Language Acquisition vs. Learning

Acquisition Learning

implicit, subconscious explicit, conscious

informal situations formal situationsuses grammatical 'feel'

uses grammatical rules

depends on attitude depends on aptitudestable order of acquisition

simple to complex order of learning

L2 Acquisition and Second Culture Acquisition

• How you believe second language acquisition occurs is usually connected to what type of cognitive psychologist you are.

• Generally speaking, however, linguists believe that L2 acquisition proceeds rather predictably and does depend in part on your native language.

Models of L2 Acquisition (Krashen, 1985)

1. Pre-production• Students do not usually produce their own

language• Students understand language that has been

made comprehensible

2. Early Production• Students have a small, active vocabulary• They feel ready to speak in one- or two-word

phrases

Models of L2 Acquisition

3. Speech EmergenceNoticeable increase in listening comprehension; students speak

in short phrasesStudents begin to use the social language necessary in the

classroom

4. Nearly fluent Students understand what is said in the classroom Express their ideas comprehensibly in both oral and written

communication Ability to read most grade-level material

So what?

• How we understand the way people acquire a language gives editors insights into how to teach.

• Essential to find patterns of errors

• Even more important to understand and describe why those errors are occurring

• What does the article “editing > educating” say specifically about this?

Some Common Types of Mistakes

• Translating the native language into English

• Mistaking one word for another in English

• Mistakes in features that are non-existent in the native language, or generalizing a pattern which does not generalize (e.g., he work in a store)

• Mistakes in sociocultural knowledge

Translation Exercise

Mistaking One Word for Another in English

• Its/it’s

• Where/wear

• To/two/too

Having difficulty with features not in the native language

Articles

Chinese—No articles

English—A, an, or the

Can go with every noun.A table orThe table

German—der, die, or das.

Each noun has one of the three articles

Der Wagon (masculine)Das Auto (neuter)

Verbs

Verbs

Chinese—No conjugation.

Past tense is formedby adding another word (le)

to the sentence.

English—Each verb is conjugated

based on the numberof people

performing the action.

German—Each verb is conjugated

Based on the numberand genderof people

performing the action.

Plurals of Nouns

Plurals

Chinese—Nouns are made plural

by adding a numberin front of the noun.

English—Nouns are made pluralby adding a number in front of the noun

Or By adding an –s to the noun

OrBy adding an –s

and a number in front

German—Nouns are made pluralBy adding a number in front of the noun

OrBy adding an –s to the noun

And sometimesthe vowel changes

when the noun becomes plural

Plurals of Nouns

Plural of Ball

Chinese—Yi Qui (1)Ar Qui (2)

English—

ballballs

German—Der BallDie Bälle

Gender and Nouns

Male I am a teacher.

Female I am a teacher.

Male, Chinese Wo shi laoshi.

Female, Chinese Wo shi laoshi.

Male, German Ich bin Lehrer.

Female, German Ich bin Lehrerin.

Sociocultural Knowledge

• China airlines flight crashed into side of mountain

• Last words were “What does pull up mean?”• Modern jets use buttons, so no pulling is actually

involved

• Official term used in “control tower” is climb

• Phrasal verbs like Pull up are difficult for ESL learners

• *Excerpt from Emily Thrush’s Technical Communication article.

Chinese Language

• Two prominent “languages” (also called dialects)• Mandarin is widely used in Mainland China,

Taiwan, and Singapore

• Cantonese is widely used in Hong Kong

Chinese Language

• No alphabet like in English

• No plural nouns

• No gendered pronoun when spoken

• No past tense in verbs

• No articles

• Different question formation

Chinese Language Links

• http://www.china.org.cn/e-changshi/index.htm

• http://middlekingdomlife.com/guide/section-I-teaching-english-in-china.htm

• http://www.eslall.com/learn_english_1071.html

General Problems

• Sections may not be introduced

• Tenses may shift unnecessarily

• Article issues

Visuals Problems

• Visuals might not be adequately explained

• They might appear before or after the text that mentions them

• They might not be referenced in the text at all

More visual problems

• The captions on the visuals may be inconsistent (some are bold, some are sentences, some are fragments)

• Their numbers might not be in order (Figure 2 then Figure 4)

• The figure that’s being referenced may not be the same as the one that has that number (the author is talking about a statistic in Figure 3 that actually appears in Figure 4)

Comprehensive Editing (a review)

1. Analyze the document’s readers, purpose, and uses to determine what the document should do and the ways it will be used.

2. ***Evaluate the document’s content, organization, visual design, and style to determine whether the document accomplishes what it should

3. Establish editing objectives to set forth a specific plan for editing.

4. Review the plan with the writer to work toward consensus.

Your ESL Client

• You will be assigned your client today

• Ph.D.’s in psychology or STEM field

• Formal research papers submitted to journals

Client Tutoring Video

1. Begin with two to three examples of what your client did well.

2. Briefly describe the changes you made.

• Show the client how he or she can tell what changes you made (explain the comment function, point out the change in color, etc.)

• If your client begins to ask many questions at this point, stop your explanations and go on to the next part.

Client Tutoring Session, cont’d

3. Using POSITIVE LANGUAGE, describe the top two or three areas for improvement.

NO• The top three mistakes

you made the most often . . .

• The two errors I noticed the most . . .

YES• The top three ways

to improve your writing . . .

• These two techniques will make your writing even stronger . . .

4. After explaining the first technique, have the client practice the technique—ideally, on his or her own paper, rather than isolated examples.

5. Then, explain the second technique and practice it.

6. Then, the third.

7. Summarize what you have done with the client.

Client Tutoring Session, cont’d

8. Express good wishes for the success of his or her project, and say goodbye!

9. Write up a reflection for me about the experience:• Explain what you did• Explain how you think it went• Explain what you learned

*Your examples and resources should be clearly labeled, so if you run out of time to practice each technique, your client can still follow what he or she should practice.

Client Tutoring Session, cont’d

Overall, be encouraging!

• You probably know how difficult it is to take a foreign language; imagine taking graduate courses in it.

• And finally, remember that this client has probably struggled with the errors you are pointing out, in addition to others, for years, and may be very, very frustrated. Be kind.

Choosing Errors

• Choose the errors you review based on a number of factors (and please communicate this thought process to me in your memo):What you would consider the “worst”

errorsWhat are the most frequent errorsWhat errors can you teach your client in a

half hour (naturally, they won’t master it by then, but you can discuss it)

Tips on ESL Tutoring

• http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/esl/esltutoringtips.html

• http://www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/tutor/problems/esl.shtml

• http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/