Casanave Chapter 3: Paths to Improvement

The criteria for good writing are ambiguous because that criterion necessarily varies according to the critic and the culture. As I read this chapter, I was most interested in the Casanave’s assertion that teachers, “can attend to different criteria selectively, according to who the students are, why they are writing, what they are writing, and whom they are writing for” (67). Personally, I think that it is very important to be able to situate yourself and your teaching practices within the context you are working. Everything you do with your students needs to be as relevant as possible to their needs which are certain to vary from course to course and location to location. Successful teachers will realize that they cannot and should not attempt to teach everything at once.

Matsuda Chapter 1- Writing Development and Biliteracy

As I read through this chapter, I kept being struck by the acknowledged fact that we just don’t do the things that need to be done for our L2 students if our goal really is to help them become bilingual in their first language and English. The authors admit that school teachers are rushed to quickly make students proficient within a year to three years when they know that it takes more time than that to give student learners an enduring learning experience that will cover more than surface issues. It is so frustrating to even think about education at times, because there are so many things that need to be done that people in power have been told need to done but those things just are not considered a priority.

I liked the idea of having students write in a code-switching style, it does seem like it could encourage the expansion and development of biliterate writing skills in a more flexible and less pressured way. I definitely agree that teachers should avoid looking at students as if they are deficient as they go through natural processes of learning to write coherently and fluently in their target language. Scientists make a living of repeating experiments with failing results until the process gets more and more refined with the end result of a successful experiment. Language learning requires trial and error, especially considering that culturally embedded meanings and connotations are built into any language.

I was very empathetic when I read the translation of one student’s poem on spring. It was so beautiful and eloquent in English that I can only imagine how wonderful it would be if I could read and understand it in its native Chinese language. When I wrote in German or Russian, I would also tend to write in English first to fully capture my expressions because I could not achieve the same depth with my L2 until I became more fluent in them. I was extremely proud one day when I managed to freestyle a poem in German that was equally eloquent when translated into English. It kept to a rhyme scheme and it made sense, it was like winning the language lottery when it came to classroom achievement. It had been a risk to attempt because the teacher had offered to allow us to write creatively if we would like and I suggested we try to write poems. The entire class looked at me as if I should be stoned for suggesting something as difficult as to produce a piece of creative writing in a foreign language. The teacher said he wouldn’t force anyone to write creatively if they did not want to but he let me know that he would enjoy seeing what I could come up with if I wanted to try. He was thrilled with my product, but I think he was even more thrilled by my willingness to attempt the process and the effect my success had on my classmates willingness to become more flexible with the language.

The Legacy of First Year Composition

While I was reading the legacy of first year composition, my first thought was a flashback to when I worked in the writing center and wondered why we (student writing center consultants) were receiving training to work with ESL students and special needs students, but professors were not. I used to wonder why the university saw nothing amiss with having student workers trained to tutor students in need of second language assistance but not bothering to offer courses to facilitate a more efficient and useful educational experience for those students. I still often wonder why more teachers are not required to receive this kind of training.

When it comes to oral proficiency being neglected in favor of writing, I am disturbed for both L1 and L2 students. Many first year students do not know how to speak and represent themselves orally in a professional manner. Only recently has this been addressed in L1 first year curriculums so I can only imagine how L2 oral training has been similarly neglected. Too often, students are trained primarily to write and, while writing is important, have no idea what to do when they need to make a coherent verbal argument. In the situation of the nursing student, Yang, she would have benefited from some courses that could address areas of communication that would prove most relevant to her nursing program. While I’m not really sure if the problem was that people couldn’t understand her accent rather than that they wouldn’t understand her accent, she would have benefited (as would any student I think) from being able to engage in spoken dialogue and oral presentation in her classes. I say this as someone who personally hates giving presentation; it helps to hear yourself talk as you consciously address an audience with purpose. That experience can give you something that you don’t necessarily pick up on when engaging in casual conversation.

According to Leki, assigning arbitrary topics in compulsory writing courses encourages plagiarism? Hmmm…I can see how that might happen. I think giving students arbitrary topics can lead to a lack of motivation. It’s like giving busy work, and when students are given busy work they resent it and they put as little effort into it as possible. A lot of the literature says that motivation has a lot to do with student learning and development. I like when the authors discuss why it doesn’t make sense to relegate writing to the freshman year when the freshman year is when most students haves courses that do not require them to use the writing they are learning. When I began college as a freshman, I was lucky enough to be put into an experimental “Cluster” course. I had one group of classmates with whom I took three classes, all intertwined. We took Writing 2, Geography, and Religions of the world. The courses were taught somewhat collaboratively in theme and we were made to apply the lessons of each class to the other classes. I am a staunch supporter of teachers working collaboratively to develop lessons which can be taken out of one classroom and applied or connected in another. Students wonder all the time what the importance is of the classes they are required to take and what possible connection there could be between subject A and subject B.

Politics, Perspectives, and Expectations in the Classroom

Chapter 14-Institutional Politics in the Teaching of Advanced Academic Writing: A Teacher-Researcher Dialogue

I was really interested in the discussion about the author’s perception of her role in the class. When it comes to the politics of the L1 or L2 classroom, the discussion usually focuses on the power of the professor and the powerlessness of the students. Rarely does the discussion turn towards the expectations of the students in the class, their expectations of the professor, fellow classmates, and themselves. The expectations that students and faculty carry into the classroom with them do have a profound impact on the interactions that take place in the classroom.
I’m not sure how other students orient themselves when they enter into a new class, but I tend to evaluate the professor, the professor’s stated and implied expectations, my classmates’ backgrounds as they are presented during the mandatory class introduction, and my perception of my own role within this framework.

I was also really interested in the way that the author acknowledged how low of a priority her class was considered in comparison with the rest of the load being carried by her students. I’m not sure that I can imagine feeling anything less than discouraged at the thought that my class needed to balance so very finely between being effective and being low pressure enough that students would choose to take rather than avoid it.