Studies of Multilingual Writers
Terry Myers Zawacki
Associate Professor, English Department, Director Writing Across the Curriculum
tzawacki@gmu.edu
Melissa Allen
Coordinator of Support Services for Non-Native Speakers,
English Language Institute
malle2gmu.edu
Laurie Miller
Instructional Technology Coordinator &
High Advanced Writing Instructor
English Language Institute
llmiller@gmu.edu
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Part1: Terry Myers Zawacki
“The University will develop more fully its leading role as a global university
…[it will] expand the number of international students by at least 20%
while improving the integration of international and domestic students in
extracurricular as well as academic activities.”
from George Mason’s 2014 Strategic Plan, goal 5
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“…within a decade or so, the number of people who speak English as a
second language will exceed the number of native speakers.” From his
2006 follow-up report English Next: The global spread of English raises
“not just linguistic, educational, and economic issues but also cultural,
political, and ethical ones.”
From David Graddol’s The Future of English, 1997
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“…to further promote academic literacy and to prepare students for disciplinary
discourse within and beyond the academy… the literacy support of second
language writers needs to extend beyond the composition requirement as well.
…[WAC programs] should include information about second language writing
development, …about second language populations at the institutions, approaches
for designing writing assignments that are culturally inclusive, and approaches for
assessing writing that are ethical in relation to second language writing” (p. 8)
From the CCCC (draft) position statement on Second Language Writing,
November 2009
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How can/should WAC engage with L2
Writing scholarship?
What are the central issues? (I’ve noted the range of issues, for example,
in Casanave’s Controversies and in Johns’ WAC/L2 publications. )
What are the terms I need to define? The must-read research and theory?
The L2 scholars currently engaging with WAC/WID?
What best practices are emerging for WAC?
How does one negotiate with World Englishes theory and practice in
U.S.-centric institutions?
And where do assessment mandates fit in with a culturally inclusive WID
pedagogy?
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Engaged Writers and Dynamic Disciplines:
Research on the Academic Writing Life
by Chris Thaiss & Terry Myers Zawacki
Research on the writing and teaching-with-writing
practices of faculty across disciplines and students’
understanding of disciplinary conventions, teachers’
expectations, originality, and voice
Sources of data:
. disciplines
Interviews with faculty across
Survey of students across majors (183 respondents/40 disciplines)
Focus groups with upper-division students across disciplines
Reflective portfolio essays by students from 20 disciplines for proficiency credit for
discipline-focused advanced composition
Data from discipline-based assessment of student writing proficiency
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Good writing is good writing is good writing …
David Russell calls this the “myth of transparency”:
Because apprentices in a discipline learn very gradually its
written conventions as an active and integral part of their
socialization in a community, the process of learning to write
seems transparent.
…the community’s genres and conventions appear to be
unproblematic renderings of the fruits of research.”
Writing in the Academic Disciplines: A Curricular History
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Development of a Disciplinary Writer:
Three Rough Stages
Stage One: sense of disciplinary consistency based on
writing in very few courses; expectations broad and
generic academic
Stage Two: with more experience, sense of teacher
inconsistency/idiosyncrasy supplants perception of
consistency
Stage Three: understanding of differences as part of a
nuanced idea of the discipline
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“Valuing Written Accents: Non-native
Students Talk about Identity, Academic
Writing, and Meeting Teachers’
Expectations”
http: writtenaccents.gmu.edu
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Excerpts from:
“Will Our Stories Help Teachers Understand?”
Multilingual Students Talk about Identity, Voice and
Expectations across Academic Communities”
By Terry Myers Zawacki and Anna Habib
Forthcoming in Reinventing Identities in Second Language
Writing, Eds Michelle Cox, Jay Jordan, Christina OrtmeierHooper, and Gwen Gray Schwartz.
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Student and Faculty Informants
We interviewed 26 students that had been in the
U.S. between four months and 10 years and spoke
20 different home languages.
With a research assistant, I’ve also interviewed
faculty members from fifteen different disciplines.
For the most part, these faculty have been active in
WAC, and I also know many of them through the
Diversity Research Group, which sponsored the
publication of Valuing Written Accents.
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Key themes:
1) What it means to be original and to write in one’s
own voice, a significant additional challenge for
multilingual students who are not yet fluent in the
language and who are members of a diverse range
of academic communities
2) what it means to think critically in writing, a
learnable skill that can be defined differently from
discipline to discipline, discipline but also a
“peculiarly Western construct,” as Casanave
(Controversies) points out.
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“In America, when I write totally different style
of paper, the professor say, ‘Where are you
from? How did you get into this college? Your
writing is behind the line, so you can’t really
catch up to the class.’ So, I don’t know how to
figure that out.” --Yoon, student from S. Korea
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“For many of these students, the primary issue
is not just grammatical but it’s having the
vocabulary, the ability, [to convey] the level
of ideas they are trying to express. And
sometimes I question whether or not they’re
really understanding or just memorizing.
While I’m sympathetic to the pressures they
face here, I don’t have a clue about how to
help them think independently and produce
material in their own words.”--Sociology
professor
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Ignacio, a government major from Spain,
discovered:
“I found out that you have to say in the introduction
what you are going to say, then you have to link the
introduction to the development with a final
sentence, and you have to start development with a
sentence, and you have to develop your thesis with
an example, then finish introducing the other
statement or argument, then wrapping up everything
with the conclusion. Tell me what you are going to
tell me, tell me, then tell me what you told me. I
found that pretty restricting at first.”
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Art &Visual Technology faculty member:
[Students] get this idea that authority in writing is
gained by having no “I,” so I really have to help
them understand, especially the ESL students, that
they are allowed to be in the writing, not in a casual
style, like ‘I had my breakfast and then I went to the
museum,’ but in a way that asks them to be fully
present in their learning and in their writing. And
this is exceedingly difficult for non-native writers
because they’re still struggling with the basics of
academic style and language.
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Kanishka, Sri Lanka, grad student in Public
Policy:
I had my initial friction between the cultures
here when I was told over and over again
“you know you have to cut down, clean up
your paragraphs.” I was very offended
because I came with a lot of confidence
behind me and suddenly I find that it is totally
different. But it didn’t take me long to catch
up though. I realized any nice language I use
is wasted; no one is going to look at it in that
way.
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Psychology professor on WID:
It’s not correctness per se but those sorts of
unwritten rules about the words that are
appropriate to convey a particular point.
Maybe other words would work, but they
aren’t conventional, and so readers will have
to stop and say ‘What do you mean?’ rather
than flowing through the logic.
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Haifeng, grad student from China, on using
models:
After his professor told him his writing was
awkward and gave him “examples of
how to express in a better way,” he did
“some reading and when I think piece is
very impressive, I …try to write it down
or remember it in another way, and I will
try to use it when I write next time.”
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Factors in transfer of knowledge from one
context to another:
• prior knowledge of the topic
• knowledge of contexts around the topic, e.g.
culture, class, race, gender, etc;
• active, problem-solving approaches vs.
memorizing;
• deliberate practice in multiple contexts;
• and monitoring and reflecting on learning
processes
(Bransford, Brown, and Cocking, 2009).
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We can’t assume that reflection is a “universal.”
We need to ask whether and how it might vary
in different cultures.
Yancey, Reflection in the Writing Classroom
Like our conceptions of originality and critical
thinking, is the practice of reflection, as we
conceive of it as a pedagogical practice in
composition, another “peculiarly Western”
process?
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However, the interviews themselves proved to be for
many of the students we talked to an opportunity to
reflect on the process of learning to learn and write in
the American academy.
For many of the faculty we interviewed, just as with the
students, the interviews also offered a valuable
opportunity for articulating their concerns and for
reflecting on the efficacy of the strategies they are
currently using to help multilingual writers gain
fluency.
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Part 2: Allen & Miller
Origins of the project
• High Advanced Writing class – IEP NNS
• Support Services – enrolled NNS
• New roles for the ELI at Mason
– Access – increased international student enrollment
– HAW class due to become credit bearing
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What We Wanted to Learn
• How have the former students in the HAW class done
academically at Mason?
• What are the students’ memories of HAW and to
what extent do they think it prepared them for
academic writing at Mason?
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What We Wanted to Learn
• What experiences have they had with writing at
Mason?
• What kinds of assignments have they had and how
confident do they feel in their ability to complete
them?
• How can the university support these students as
writers?
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Purpose
• Insights for improving the HAW class and support
services for enrolled students.
• Prepare ourselves and other ELI faculty for upcoming
new collaboration with faculty in the disciplines –
Access Program
• Add to scholarship on the development of academic
literacy by NNS
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High Advanced Writing
• Transition/Grad Core level in the ELI
• Student movement from ELI to enrolled student status
• HAW Syllabus
<http://mason.gmu.edu/~llmiller/Syllabi/AW/syllabus.html>
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Study Structure
Data collection
• How many HAW students were accepted at George
Mason University? What is the average GPA?
• What freshman & junior level writing classes have
they taken?
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Study Structure
On-line Survey - 55 students sent survey; 25 took
• Which of the following courses have you taken at Mason?
English 100, English 101, English 302
• Have you taken courses outside the English Department that
have required writing assignments? If so, how many and
which courses?
• What types of writing assignments have you been given?
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Study Structure
• What, if anything, did you learn in the High Advanced Writing
class that has helped you in your academic classes?
• How would you rate your proficiency in each of the following
areas?
• Development of main idea and support, organization of
ideas, grammar and sentence structure, spelling and
punctuation
• Are there any particular English writing skills that you wish
you had improved before you became a full-time enrolled
college student?
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Study Structure
• When you have a writing assignment for a class, how often do
you use the following resources?
• The Writing Center, course instructor, friends or relatives,
monolingual dictionary, bilingual dictionary, synonym
finder, grammar/spell check, ELI tutor
• Would you be willing to participate in an interview about your
experiences writing for George Mason courses?
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Study Structure
Interviews – Four students interviewed in pairs
Part 1 – HAW
•
Do any assignments in HAW stand out in your memory and
what do you remember about them?
•
In what way were the assignments in HAW similar to and
different from the assignments you have in academic classes?
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Study Structure
Interview Part 1 - HAW
•
What do you think about the amount of work and the
difficulty of the work?
•
What did you think about the feedback you received?
•
How did the HAW class affect your attitude or feelings about
writing in English?
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Study Structure
Interview Part 2 – Experiences in Academic Classes
• Can you talk about the kinds of writing assignments you have
in your academic classes? For example, what assignments do
you have this semester?
• Have you ever had an assignment that you found especially
confusing or challenging or problematic?
• How do you feel about your ability as a writer? What aspects
of writing are you most confident about? and What are you
least confident about?
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Study Structure
Interview Part 2 – Experiences in Academic Classes
• When you have a writing assignment, what are the steps you go
through?
• Can you talk about the resources that you use? (books,
technology, people, etc.)
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Study Structure
Interview Part 2 – Experiences in Academic Classes
• What kinds of feedback do you get from your professors and
do you find them useful?
• Is there anything George Mason can do to support you as a
writer?
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Results
High overall GPAs
• 59 admitted undergraduates -- former HAW students
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Results
Large variety of classes that require writing
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Business
Computer science
Communication
History
Psychology
Systems engineering
Dance
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Geology
Anthropology
Sociology
Physics
Economics
Health sciences
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Results
Common Assignment Types
• Research paper – most commonly listed (95%)
• In-class essays/test (91%)
• Journals & Blogs (86%)
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Results
Most Common Human Resources
• Course instructor – 78% (often/occasionally)
• Friends/Family – 72% (often/occasionally)
• Writing Center – 33% (always, often, occasionally)
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Results
Most helpful parts of the HAW class
• Grammar – 7 responses
• Research paper/ research skills – 7
• APA citation style – 4
• Writing in the American style - 2
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Results
Interview themes and insights
Desire for models and early feedback (prior to grading)
A: I think also what’s missing is they usually ask you to do one draft,
so you do one draft and that’s like the end of your life. But you
don’t know how good it is and they don’t give you a chance to
correct it . Sometimes you talk to the teacher and you think you
know what the teacher wants and then you stat writing and you
give in your paper and they’re like, “That’s not what I wanted,”
and there aren’t any more chances to correct it.
K: Good point! Bravo!
M: You’d like that too? A chance to rewrite?
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Results
Frustration with conflicting feedback
J: For example, the persuasive letter. The assignment is a resume
and a cover letter. And I write, “ It is a great opportunity to
….blah, blah.”
And somebody, English major, say “You can say, ‘I would love the
opportunity,….:’ That’s good.” And I turn it in and the professor
say, “In business writing, you can never say ‘love.’ “
You can never say “love,” I thought, “What?!? I just revise it!
Oh my God! Sometimes I feel, I don’t know….”
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Results
Students generally understand assignments – detailed specified
written objectives given by faculty
M: In your academic classes, have you ever had an assignment that you
thought was confusing, challenging or problematic – where your
couldn’t figure out what the professor wanted or…?
K: Until now, I think I’m fine because all the time before we need to
write a paper, the professor always give us like what points we want
to cover,
L: So, they're clear…
K: ….the purpose, what kind of idea or what style
we need to use. Basically, he’ll give us very
clear rubric.
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Results
Students use multiple drafting and their own
processes….
H: First I start worrying (laughter).
I don’t just take it easy. I start worrying just start thinking about
it , just going through a test. Sometimes it’s so confusing
understanding what they’re asking, the major topic.
To me, I start analyzing it so hard, asking my classmates, find out
what they’re writing about, plugging it into the assignment, see if
I can get something similar…
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Results
Want acknowledgement of effort, not a break (wounded-pride)
K: I want everybody to understand, the professor to understand,
you can give me a poor score, you can say my paper is the worst
thing you’ve ever seen, but I hope you can understand ….I know
you …have the same standard, I can understand you have to
treat everyone equally for your class but I hope the professor
will understand I’m trying. Maybe I will write the worst paper
but I’m trying. I’ve suffered because of this paper and I will
survive and I will improve.
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Conclusions
• Observations on the HAW course
• Research paper skills
• In-class Writing
• Grammar
• Access Program -- Knowing what comes next
• Support Services – knowledge of faculty expectations and
student perceptions can inform program design
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Directions for Further Research
• Discourse analysis
• Use of genre models
• Student interactions with faculty – how are they used
• Models – how are they used …if?
• Conflicts between disciplinary cultures
(you can’t say “love” in business)
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Questions
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