Editing ESL Speakers
TECM 4190
Dr. 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 session 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 situations
uses grammatical 'feel'
uses grammatical rules
depends on attitude
stable order of acquisition
depends on aptitude
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
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 Emergence
 Noticeable increase in listening comprehension; students speak in short
phrases
 Students 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
Main 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
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 or
The 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 formed
by adding another word (le)
to the sentence.
English—
Each verb is conjugated
based on the number
of people
performing the action.
German—
Each verb is conjugated
Based on the number
and gender
of people
performing the action.
Plurals of Nouns
Plurals
Chinese—
Nouns are made plural
by adding a number
in front of the noun.
English—
Nouns are made plural
by adding a number
in front of the noun
Or
By adding an –s to the noun
Or
By adding an –s
and a number in front
German—
Nouns are made plural
By adding a number
in front of the noun
Or
By adding an –s to the noun
And sometimes
the vowel changes
when the noun becomes plural
Plurals of Nouns
Plural of Ball
Chinese—
Yi Qui (1)
Ar Qui (2)
English—
ball
balls
German—
Der Ball
Die 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-teachingenglish-in-china.htm
• http://www.eslall.com/learn_english_1071.html
India
• Official Language: Hindi—40.2%
mother tongue
• Recognized Official Languages: 15
• Official Working Language: English
• Estimated Dialects: 1600
Indian Language Links
• http://www.usingenglish.com/teachers/articles/not-bestway-to-teach-english.html
• http://www.ehow.com/how_5164971_learn-englishurdu.html
General Problems
• Sections may not be introduced
• Tenses may shift unnecessarily
• Probably be 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 on Wednesday
• The client will be a graduate student in the sciences or
engineering
• Most of you will edit some type of research paper
Our Client Stats
• Clients are in disciplines of STEM Education,
Biology, and Psychology
• Clients are from Nepal, India, and China
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.
YES
NO
• The top three ways to
improve your writing . . .
• The top three mistakes you
made the most often . . .
• These two techniques will
make your writing even
stronger . . .
• The two errors I noticed the
most . . .
Client Tutoring Session, cont’d
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 memo 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.
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” errors
What are the most frequent errors
What 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.htm
l
• http://www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/tutor/pro
blems/esl.shtml
• http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/