Teaching writing to Spanish heritage
speakers:
Drawing from L1 and L2 research
Kim Potowski
The University of Illinois at Chicago
Department of Spanish, French,
Italian & Portuguese
Teaching heritage speakers
Need for theory of heritage language development
(Valdés 2001)
Classroom-based experimental studies:
The development of Spanish heritage grammar:
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Potowski, Jegerski & Morgan-Short (2009):
Processing instruction with the past subjunctive
Montrul & Bowles (2010): Dative case marking
The development of Spanish heritage speaking,
reading, writing:
______________________________________
NHLRC survey results:
How important is it for you to accomplish the
following goals in your HL class?
[1= unimportant, 5 = very important]
What is writing?
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Continuum of activities that range from mechanical or
formal aspects of "writing down" on the one end, to the
more complex act of composing on the other end
(Omaggio Hadley, 1993).
Composing: the ability either to tell or retell pieces of
information in a particular form (narratives,
description) or to transform information into new texts
(expository, argument).
The ability to write well is not naturally acquired;
usually learned in formal instructional settings.
We know that SHS often have
difficulties with writing in the HL
Spicer-Escalante (2005):
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Heritage Spanish writers produced weaker thesis
statements than either monolingual Spanish
writers or Spanish L2 writers.
Arguments tended to come from personal
experiences more often than objective sources.
Simple coordination: Tended to unite short
sentences by a string of comas instead of using
subordination.
Difficulties with writing/composing:
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Lack of knowledge of the HL (general
vocabulary, grammar, transition words, etc.)
Lack of ability to write/compose in the L1 
What we know generally about the academic
preparation of many U.S. Latinos.
Unclear tasks, lack of time & resources, etc.
Selected characteristics of students who
enroll in Spanish for Native Speakers
language courses (from Valdés, 1997, p. 14).
Types of students:
Newly arrived (Types A & B)
Bilingual (Types A-F)
Types of students
Characteristics
Newly arrived-Type A
Well-schooled in Spanish-speaking country
Speakers of prestige variety of Spanish
Newly arrived-Type B
Poorly-schooled in Spanish-speaking
country
Speakers of stigmatized variety of Spanish
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Types of students
Characteristics
Bilingual-Type A
Access to bilingual instruction in U.S.
Basic academic skills in Spanish
Good academic skills in English
Fluent functional speakers of contact
variety of rural Spanish
Bilingual-Type B
No academic skills in Spanish
Good academic skills in English
Fluent but limited speakers of
contact
variety of rural Spanish
Bilingual-Type C
No academic skills in Spanish
Good academic skills in English
Fluent but limited speakers of
prestige
variety of Spanish
Some contact phenomena present
Types of students
Characteristics
Bilingual-Type D
No academic skills in Spanish
Poor academic skills in English
Fluent but limited speakers of contact
variety of rural Spanish
Bilingual-Type E
No academic skills in Spanish
Poor academic skills in English
Very limited speaker of contact variety
rural Spanish
of
Bilingual-Type F
No academic skills in Spanish
Poor academic skills in English
Receptive bilingual in contact variety of
rural Spanish
At the university level we typically
see:
Newly arrived-Type A
Well-schooled in Spanish-speaking country
Speakers of prestige variety of Spanish
Bilingual-Type A
Access to bilingual instruction in U.S.
Basic academic skills in Spanish
Good academic skills in English
Fluent functional speakers of contact variety
Bilingual-Type B
No academic skills in Spanish
Good academic skills in English
Fluent but limited speakers of contact variety
Bilingual-Type C
No academic skills in Spanish
Good academic skills in English
Fluent but limited speakers of prestige variety
Some contact phenomena present
We don’t know much about HS writing
development
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Schwartz (2003): Think-aloud protocol to elicit students’
writing & revising strategies.
Colombi (2003): Systemic functional linguistics. Builds
abilities in identifying characteristics of academic
register; lexicon; subordination; etc.
Chevalier (2004): Proposed that students should initially
draw on their knowledge of the spoken language;
introduce norms of various written gradually, progress
from less to more formal and more complex discourse
type, with emphasis on text cohesion.
Given the variety of sources of difficulties
in HS writing, we should look to:
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Research on how to develop L1 composition
skills  language arts.
Research on how L2 writing is developed
What do we know about writing
development from L1 and L2 research?
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Specifically: The genre of “Western argument.”
Why argument?
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Description, narrative, poetry, and other forms of
fiction/creative writing are certainly important in a repertoire
of literacy skills. But most of the writing students do in college
is argumentative in some fashion.
Why “Western”? Fishman & Valdés (2000) found that
most SHS work in the U.S.
Characteristics of Western argumentative writing: Clear
thesis statement, supporting points, exposition of
competing opinions, conclusion.
Work on developing L1 writing
Most literature is K-12.
College level:
Graff, G. & Birkenstein, C.
(2006). They say, I say:
The moves that matter in
academic writing.
“Too often, academic writing is taught as a process of
saying true or smart things in a vacuum, as if it were
possible to argue effectively without being in a
conversation with someone else.
In the real world, we don’t make arguments without
being provoked. We make arguments because
someone has said or done something and we need to
respond.
You must find a way of entering a conversation with
others’ views. If your own argument doesn’t identify
the “they say” that you’re responding to, then it
probably won’t make sense.”
“They say” = The discussion.
“I say” = The author’s thesis.
They say, I say contains explicit instructions for
students on:
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How to frame what others are saying
How to summarize, quote, and distinguish their
point from others’ points
How to anticipate objections to their argument
How to connect the parts of their argument.
Provides students with templates such as this:
“When it comes to the topic of __________, most of us will agree
that __________. Where this agreement usually ends, however,
is on the question of __________. Although ________, it is much
more useful to _______________ .”
Do templates stifle writers’ ideas or
creativity?
It has been argued that students who cannot
write well cannot think well.
This may be a chicken-or-egg question. But if
thinking and writing are reciprocally supportive
processes, guiding students in the use of these
templates may help them sharpen their
thinking.
L2 writing: Myles (TESL, 2009)
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Academic writing requires conscious effort and practice
in composing, developing, and analyzing ideas.
However, language proficiency underlies the ability to
write in the L2 in a fundamental way.
Therefore, L2 writing instructors should take into
account both strategy development and language skill
development.
A focus on the writing process as a pedagogical tool is
only appropriate for second language learners if
attention is given to linguistic development, and if
learners are able to get sufficient and effective
feedback with regard to their errors in writing.
An L1 language arts approach
When you studied your societal language in high
school – e.g. Korean in Korea, English in
suburban NY – what did you study?
Literature
Grammar (?)
Spelling
Writing
Public speaking
Other?
Does this approach have value for heritage
speakers? Particularly if supplemented with
the kinds of linguistic support they need?
Writing as a process
Many times, writing assignments are given as a
demand for a product.
“Write a composition about your
family.”
Perhaps this directive will contain additional
paramaters like:
• “Three pages in length.”
• “Use the vocabulary from page 19.”
• “Use the present perfect.”
Here’s what happens:
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Students turn in composition
Instructor “grades” it & gives it back to
students
How much do students pay attention to
instructor feedback?
Metaphor: Cooking
Tell an 18-year-old:
“Prepare a pasta dish.”
What will you likely get?
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Use rigatoni.
6 servings.
Use roasted red pepper.
What could you tell the person to end up
with a better product (dish)?
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What else is being served during the meal?
Formal or informal setting?
Any allergies, vegetarians, etc?
What produce & other items are readily available?
Cooking equipment?
Step-by-step recipe
For better products (compositions, dishes):
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Give necessary details about AUDIENCE and
PURPOSE
Provide a recipe
Question:
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Does this restrain students too much? Restrict
the development of personal style in writing?
Recall Graff & Birkenstein (2006): Providing
students with templates pushes them to
develop sophisticated opinions.
Three years to develop skills for strong writing
(Hakuta, Butler & Witt 2000)
Writing as a process
1)
2)
3)
4)
Writing prompts (tasks)
Audience & purpose
Multiple drafts
Feedback
(1) Writing prompts
Compare two writing assignments (see handout).
What is different about Prompts A vs. B?
Who is the audience?
What is the purpose?
What support is provided for the writing
process?
(2) Audience & purpose
Even if it’s invented or feels a bit forced, students –
particularly in lower level courses – should be provided with
a concrete audience (beyond the instructor) and purpose.
“Your purpose is to propose ways in which to reduce domestic
violence. You will submit your proposal to the Mayor’s
office in a competition to receive funding for your proposal.”
“You will respond to letters about the changing of
the name of the Sears Tower, and submit your
letter to Hoy (local Spanish language newspaper).”
(3) Multiple drafts
At the University of Illinois at Chicago, we changed
from:
3 compositions x 2 drafts each
to
2 compositions x 3 drafts each
 Much higher quality.
Grade:
40% = Draft 1 (primary focus = content)
50% = Draft 2 (increased focus on form)
10% = Quality of comments on peer review
Peer review
Very specific questions.
Maybe one grammar point
10% of final grade
(See example on handout)
(4) Feedback
Selective. Semke (1984) “The effects of
the red pen”.
 Respectful.
 Clear rubric.
 Dependent on the version.
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NOTE: Nichols & Colon (2000): Use of mixed
language during first drafts resulted in much
stronger final texts.
Normative spelling
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Very common in Spanish textbooks: word lists
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Words with C, S, Z
Words with B, V
Alternate approach: Spellchecker + focused
practice on things the spellchecker can’t catch
(some accents, homonyms)
No: huviera, conosco, comio
Yes: hablo vs. habló, esta vs. está, hacer vs. a ser
Example of focused accent/spelling activities:
Input followed by output
The role of reading in writing
development
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Have students dissect readings: What is the
“they say,” “I say,” audience, purpose, etc.?
Read like writers, write like readers.
Towards building a research base
What can classroom-based research on HS
writing development look like?
 Pre-treatment, treatment, post-treatment
 What to measure? How to measure it?
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Lexical density
Rubric-based grading: What categories?
Templates vs. no templates
Peer review vs. no peer review
Can MLTs be useful?
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MLU = measure of linguistic
oral productivity utilized to
gauge the level of development
of children’s speech.
Calculated by collecting 100
utterances spoken by a child
and dividing the number of
morphemes by the number of
utterances (Brown 1973; Klee
1999; Miller and Chapman
1981, 2000,; Parker 2005).
MLU was applied to children’s writing and then to
second language acquisition studies involving a number
of languages (Cooper 1976 L2 German, Monroe 1975 L2
French, Vann 1978 L2 English)
MLU  MLT
The adaptation of MLU to written language is called
MLT or Mean Length of T-units (Hunt 1970). A tunit is the shortest unit that can stand alone as a
sentence.
For example:
“He stopped and he sat down on the soft grass.”
= 2 t-units (2 words and 7 words)
“When he arrived home, Allen took a bath and
quietly ate his dinner alone.”
=1 t-unit, 14 words.
The longer the t-unit, the more proficient the
language sample is said to be.
Informal examination of MLT
Calculated MLT in 100 Spanish texts written by
UIC heritage speakers as part of their Spanish
placement exam.
Experimental idea:
Explicit instruction on how to combine sentences
for longer MLTs?
Thoughts/comments/questions
Thank you!