Responding to Errors in ESL WritingWIC Brown Bag Lunch, February 24, 2014

Melanie Gonzalez, English/LCLD Department, mgonzalez@salemstate.edu

Who are our ESL college writers? Eye learners

International students who are highly literate in their L1

Have had some L2 learning experiences in home countries

Acquired L2 through their “eyes” – book study, grammar focus, etc.

Know grammatical terms, meta-cognitive knowledge of language

Ear learners Early- or late-arriving resident immigrants;

Generation 1.5 students whose L1 literacy has been interrupted or never developed

Acquired L2 through their “ears” – what “sounds right”, interactions with native speakers

(Reid, 2000; 2006)

What are the differences between L1 and L2 writing?In the L1, writers create ideas and then find the words to express them; the opposite occurs when composing in the L2

Similarities: process of writing, both have structure, brainstorming, editingDifferences: less planning, smaller lexicon, background knowledge, organizational patterns

Research has shown that literacy skills have a high transfer from L1 to L2 (Cummins, 1979) Positive transfer: reading + writing skills learned in the L1 translate well to the L2Negative transfer: reading + writing skills learned in L1 oppose/differ from the L2

Global errorsContent/ideas/styleRhetorical structureSentence structureWord choice*

Local errorsVerb tenseNoun endings (plural/singular)Spelling*Punctuation

Options for providing feedback on ESL writing differences Selective vs. comprehensive Direct vs. indirect Explicit vs. implicit

Best practices for working with ESL writers in the WIC classroom Provide explicit, clear written assignments and instructions (provide examples if possible) Selective feedback early in writing process; comprehensive feedback on final drafts (for student’s future

reference) Reduce amount of teacher feedback as term progresses; require more student involvement Use peer- and self-editing workshops in class to build student autonomy Combine direct/indirect feedback (e.g., direct/explicit feedback for global errors, indirect/implicit feedback

for local errors students should be able to correct)

The following essay is the first draft of an essay composed by an international student in their sophomore year. The student’s L1 is Mandarin and has studied English in China for almost 10 years. Read the essay and discuss some options for providing feedback with a colleague.

Technology can make life easier and happierWith the development of science, education and technology, individuals nowadays become more

irrational and they desire to find out the disadvantages of one thing, so as to technology products. Would not it be better not to know the negative effects of one thing and just know how it would benefit us? As we all know, most of the technology products might be used to make our life easier and delightful. In my perspective, the advantages of technology should outweigh the disadvantages. In particular, most of the technology products have positive effects on my daily life because it offers many helps in my daily life such as study, cooking, and personal care while also gives me more options of entertainment and relax.

Technology provides such a great many of advantages that I am able to lead a convenient and easy life. Nearly 90 percent of young adults from across the world agreed technological innovations help make life easier (Suciu, 2013). I have microwave, oven, shaver, hairs clipper, hairs drier and portable power in my life and they was like a part of my body that they have their roles to function my life. For instance, I would use microwave and oven at lease an hour a day to cook by myself. Are there any disadvantages of it? Not many. This technology product, on the contrary, makes my life easier and I do not have to bake the stuff on the fire. And I have shaver nowadays instead of razor with blade. Moreover, I am able go to sleep immediately after shower because I have a hairs drier and I do not have to wait for the hair to dry naturally. As for the hairs clipper, I am capable of cutting the hairs personally without going to the salon. What I am trying to say is that technology, to some degree, changed our life style into a convenience one and there is no denying the fact that its advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

As for the disadvantages of technology, I suppose it was abruptly create by those negative people. It is obvious that technological advancement has failed at its mission of making everybody's life easier, as many people are reacting negatively to it (Beliak, 2013). This kind of people would say computer or phone game made people addicted and became lack of social connection. They might say telescreen is harmful to our eyesight and In-ear headphone is not benefit for our audition. But how many disadvantages they could find? The fact is that most of the technology product is beneficial and the over-concerned of personal health and life quality made people think more of the disadvantages. As human begins, we have no idea how long can we live in this world and would not it be better to live happily and optimistic? If so, we should not always think of those disadvantages but care more about how the technology can make us happy and lead a better life. And remember that those disadvantages are not a big deal which compare to the advantages of technology, was really a tiny part.

In conclusion, technologies were used to improve the quality of our life and make it easier and happier for us. However, each coin has two sides and technologies have no exception. Therefore, what we should do is to know how to use it in a proper way so as to gain more knowledge and lead a cheerful and healthy life.

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The following essay is the first draft of an essay composed by an early-arriving resident of the U.S. The student’s L1 is Spanish and has studied English in some form since starting 6th grade in the U.S. Read the essay and discuss some options for providing feedback with a colleague.

Technology Drives the WorldTechnology is a word that has multiple implications and touches at the same time. When we talk about

technology that means we are talking about everything we use regular starting with our cellphones and ends with laptops. Technology has entered our lives without permission if we look over our lives we can notice how much.

Hence, like me today I woke up on my phone alarm raining loudly, to be honest without that alarm I would not weak up. after that I start checking my Email and what is new, so I found a message from my boss telling me I have extra work today so I went to work I start working using calculators, computers witch safes time and make my work tranquil. When I came back home I started playing video games on my smart TV, during my game I was listening music on my digital speakers after a long day I was starving so I opened the fridge and microwaved my food honestly I love it. And because I am indolent student I just remembered that I have an assignment to wright so I went to my canvas to make sure about my homework’s and what I have to do which it was so supportive for me.

When I am using technology as a device or a backing for communicating with others, textbook, students are actively making option about how to create, obtain, operate, or display information. “Technology use allows many more students to be actively thinking about information, making choices, and effecting skills than is classic in teacher-led lessons, when technology is used as a tool to support students in performing authentic tasks, the students are in the position of defining their goals, making decisions, and assessing their progress” (Ganguly, 2013).

For me as an computer scientist all my work depending on all deferent kinds of technology having all these programs gave us unlimited opportunities to apply our imagination about designing and how we can make it, the technology advanced in this generation in a big way. It helps us a lot, instead of that now we can make ether a phone calls or a video calls where ever and any time we want. Communication recently start to be essayer we can reach our families and friends more, in other words we cannot manage our lives without using technology. “The advancement in technology is even in everyday medicine. Because of technology we can more accurately diagnose and treat certain forms of cancer and more easily narrow down diseases while improving a person’s health with tailored forms of drugs and treatments” (McCoy, 2010).  

After all that I do agree that technology has some bad effects in our social live. However, everything comes with a price if we over use it, but if people use internet in a conservative way there will be no bad effects for people to worry about, any ways in my opinion we have not seen anything yet from technology and there is a lot more to come this is just the beginning, and what we see now from technology is only a little portion of what is coming next in this world.

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