Writing in Second-Language Classrooms

Connections

Writers who easily sustain a line of thinking are able to concentrate on overcoming the word choice, grammar, spelling, and other such challenges a second language presents. One way effective teachers support second-language writers and help sustain their lines of thought is by offering them access to life experience topics that have personal connections.

Topics from life experiences enable writers to focus on expressing themselves. Life experience topics that promote ready connections include student favorites with regard to the following:

foods                                   
books/comics/magazinesclothes                               weekend activitiessports                                 adventuresgames                               pets/animals hobbies/collectionstelevision shows/moviesfriends                            songs/musical groups

Teachers often suggest topics such as one’s preferences for food, entertainment, and clothing, and students go into depth on particular ones. Producing a personal crest that heralds one’s identity and explaining the crest is another common practice that capitalizes on personal connections. Of course, when describing one’s personal background or family history, students should realize they are free to decide how much they will reveal about themselves.

Oral history projects with family or community members are good ways for second-language learners to capitalize on life experiences and personal connections. When students interview parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, and neighbors and business people in their communities, they are connecting the stories of others’ lives with their lives. They can see how past actions might have affected their lives and how conflicts and circumstances from the past might be similar to those of the present. Writing comes into play during oral history projects when students research the times in which people lived, prepare questions, record interviewees’ responses, and write up reports.

Finally, writers who address topics associated with their cultures also have ready access to personal connections. Practically everyone has personal experiences and understandings of distinctive holidays, foods, ways of dress, and pastimes. Addressing such topics allows writers to concentrate on expressing themselves, and it provides opportunities to honor and celebrate differences in culturally diverse classrooms. Teachers who share their interest and respect for others’ cultures model ways that students can do the same.

Collaboration

Promoting collaboration is another good way to support students who are writing in a second language. Collaborative writing projects call for students to work together in whole-class, small-group, or paired situations. Students with high proficiency and those with low proficiency in the second language might collaborate sometimes, and those with similar levels of proficiency might collaborate other times.

One key to the success of collaborative writing is the instruction students receive about how to act. Teachers typically demonstrate positive face-to-face interactions (e.g., praising others, encouraging participation, finding common ground) so students will do the same when they interact. Teachers often specify particular interactions, then they and the students reflect on the behaviors during and after collaborative work.

Collaboration during the planning, before-writing phase occurs many ways. If students are writing in their second language about particular life experiences, they first might jointly brainstorm possibilities. They could list key words that are related to what each plans to write. They could help each other decide on terms that would most appropriately articulate what they want to say. They could talk about the order in which they would use the words, stating orally what they plan to express in print. They could figuratively step back and talk with each other about what they want to write.

When students are getting their writing down, they still can benefit from collaboration. They might request a partner’s help with a particular term or a grammatical form (How do you say, “May I help you?”), or they might consult about the spelling of a word. Writers who cannot produce a particular word or phrase in their second language might insert a few words from their first language to get past the difficulty, later getting help to replace the native language terms.

Collaboration also is appropriate in the after-writing phase. Students can read their writing orally to a single partner or to a small group, and all concerned individuals can listen for points to praise and to question. Rather than listening, partners and small-group members can read what one has written, looking for points to praise and to question. Teachers typically model before a whole class the dynamics of small-group revisions. They demonstrate how to attend to specific features of writing as well as how to comment appropriately when they spot difficulties.