Volume 2, Number 1 (1993)
ESL Essay Evaluation: The
Influence of Sentence-level and Rhetorical Features
CAROL O. SWEEDLER-BROWN
San Diego State University
This study compares the
relative influences of rhetorical and sentence-level features on the
holistic scores assigned by graders who are experienced English writing
instructors but who are not trained in ESL. Six intermediate ESL essays
were selected from a university developmental writing class in which NS
and ESL students were mixed. These essays were transcribed with the ESL
sentence-level errors corrected. Both the original and corrected essays
were holistically scored by graders who had no ESL training. Graders also
assigned analytic scores on two sentence-level and two rhetorical features
of the essays. T-test analyses indicated a significant difference between
the holistic scores of original and corrected essays. Correlation
coefficients revealed that the analytic scores on the sentence-level
features of sentence structure and grammar/mechanics correlated with
holistic score. Analytic scores on the rhetorical features of organization
and paragraph development showed no correlation with holistic scores in
either the original or corrected essays. In this study, graders who were
experienced writing instructors, but not trained in ESL, placed far more
scoring emphasis on the ESL sentence-level errors in these essays than on
the essays' strong rhetorical features.
Three Disk-Based Text
Analyzers and the ESL Writer
MARK N. BROCK
City Polytechnic of Hong Kong
Among the variety of
computer-based writing aids now available to ESL composition teachers,
computerized text analysis is one of the most popular and controversial.
As its name implies, computer text analysis utilizes computer technology
to analyze text and offer suggestions for improvement. This article
examines three popular disk-based text analyzers and considers their
effectiveness in analyzing texts written by ESL student writers. Results
of this examination raise doubts about the effectiveness of computer text
analysis as a stand-alone revision aid for ESL writers. The programs
examined sometimes offered incorrect advice and potentially could focus
the user's attention on relatively trivial surface-level matters rather
than more substantial meaning-level problems in need of revision. Teachers
who use text analysis with ESL writers should be prepared to offer careful
guidance in interpreting and using computer feedback productively.
Comparing Writing Process
and Product Across Two Languages: A Study of 6 Singaporean University
Student Writers
MARTHA C. PENNINGTON
City Polytechnic of Hong Kong
SUFUMI SO
Ontario Institute of Studies in Education
A number of studies have
attempted to probe the writing process of skilled and unskilled native and
nonnative speakers of English. However, very few investigations of the
writing process of students learning other languages have been published
to date. This article reports a study of 6 Singaporean university students
as they produced written texts in Japanese and, for comparison, in their
primary written language (English or Chinese). The study examines process
and product data separately to see if any relationship exists between an
individual writer's process skill and product quality in the two
languages. The findings indicate no clear relationship between process and
product data in either language, nor between written products in the two
languages. At the same time, the investigation uncovers a similarity in
writing process for individual subjects across the two languages and a
relationship between general level of proficiency in Japanese and the
quality of the subjects' written products in that language.
Examining L2 Composition
Ideology: A Look at Literacy Education
SANDRA LEE MCKAY
San Francisco State University
This article seeks to
clarify the ideological assumptions that presently inform L2 composition
research and pedagogy and to suggest several alternate assumptions. In
clarifying L2 composition ideology, it is advantageous to consider
literacy education. Specifically, the article discusses three widely
accepted assumptions in literacy education, namely, that literacy is a
social practice, that there exists a plurality of literacies, and that
literacy educators must address issues of power. The implications of these
assumptions for defining L2 composition ideology are then explored.
Volume 2, Number 2
(1993)
Entering a Disciplinary
Community: Conceptual Activities Required to Write for One Introductory
University Course
PAT CURRIE
Carleton University
Although previous research
in both first and second language composition has called for the
examination of the various intellectual or conceptual activities required
for university content courses, this coil has gone largely unanswered.
This article presents the results of a study of one introductory
university course in Organizational Behaviour, a subcommunity or "forum"
within the academic community of business studies. It analyzes the
conceptual activities the students were required to carry out in order to
write their weekly assignments and shows how these activities determined
the nature of the expected discourse. The article argues that learning how
to carry out such activities can be profitably transferred from the
English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classroom to university content
classes. It suggests that nonnative-speaking (NNS) students can use these
activities to explore their own disciplinary communities and thus
facilitate their initiation into those communities. The results of this
study also offer important implications for first and second language
writing pedagogy as well as for course design and teaching assistant (TA)
preparation in academic content classes.
The Design of an
Automatic Analysis Program for L2 Text Research: Necessity and Feasibility
DANA R. FERRIS
California State University, Sacramento
Several first and second
language (L1 and L2) text researchers have recently utilized automatic
analysis programs and computerized corpora to facilitate large-scale
multivariate analyses of written discourse (e.g., Biber, 1988; Connor,
1990; Connor & Biber, 1989; Grabe, 1987; Grabe & Biber, 1987; Reid, 1990).
Although it is clear that automated analyses make important quantitative
research much more feasible, there is a potential problem with applying
computer programs to L2 texts: Many lexical and syntactic features of L2
writing are in varying developmental stages, and programs created to
analyze L1 texts in "target" form may underestimate and/or mislabel
structures in L2 writing. This article explores the necessity for and
feasibility of the design of a computer program specifically for the
analysis of L2 texts. Using data from a large L2 text analysis (160 texts;
62 variables) in which automatic analysis was not used, it is demonstrated
that a program designed for L1 texts would not be accurate enough to
capture completely the structures used by L2 writers. Following this
analysis, suggestions are made as to how an L2 text analysis program could
be created and applied.
Perspectives on
Plagiarism From ESL Students in Hong Kong
GLENN D. DECKERT
Hong Kong Baptist College
This inquiry aimed to
discover how well students pursuing higher education in Hong Kong can
recognize plagiaristic writing, in what terms they perceive it as
inappropriate, and how they view students who plagiarize. The study
included 170 first-year and 41 third-year Chinese students all majoring in
fields of science in one of Hong Kong's tertiary-level institutions. A
questionnaire was administered to the first-year students prior to any
classroom mention of plagiarism. The results indicated these students had
little familiarity with the Western notion of plagiarism and poor ability
to recognize it. As for the inappropriateness of plagiarism, their chief
concern was its detrimental effect on learning. They expressed less
concern for the rights of the original writer or for the effect of
plagiarism upon one's classmates, academic institution, or instructors.
The questionnaire also determined that these students view persons who
plagiarize as weak and lazy. On the other hand, third-year students were
more able to recognize plagiarism and showed greater concern for the
original writer and the issue of honesty. It is concluded that these
first-year students need explicit orientation and training on how to avoid
plagiarism when writing in a Western academic community.
The Writing of Southeast
Asian-American Students in Secondary School and University
ELAINE TARONE
BRUCE DOWNING
ANDREW COHEN
SUSAN GILLETTE
ROBIN MURIE
University of Minnesota
BEVERLY DAILEY
St. Paul Public Schools
This article reports on a
study of the English writing skills of Southeast Asian-American immigrant
children in English as a Second Language (ESL) classes and in 8th-, 10th-,
and 12th-grade mainstream classes in a public secondary school in St.
Paul, MN. Their writing is compared at each level and is also compared to
the English writing of Southeast Asian-American immigrant students,
international students, and native-speaking undergraduates at the
University of Minnesota. All subjects wrote on the same topic, and scores
on four writing traits (accuracy, fluency, coherence, and organization)
were assigned to each essay. Results show that writing scores for the
mainstreamed secondary students were the same at the 8th-, 10th-, and
12th-grade levels and were the same as the scores of the nonnative
university students. Only the native-speaking university students obtained
scores which were significantly better. For the public school subjects, a
lower age on arrival, a lower grade at entry into the school system, and a
higher number of years in the U.S. were all significantly correlated (p =
.001) with success in the writing traits measured. Regression analysis
indicated that age on arrival was a more important factor than number of
years in the U.S. and grade at entry.
Volume 2, Number 3
(1993)
The Sociopolitical
Implications of Response to Second Language and Second Dialect Writing
CAROL SEVERINO
University of Iowa
In response to Terry
Santos' (1992) "Ideology in Composition: L1 and ESL:" I argue that second
language/English as a Second Language (L2/ESL) pedagogy is as politically
charged as first language (L1) pedagogy, but its ideological implications
need to be openly articulated and discussed-the purpose of this article.
As classrooms become more multicultural and ESL students become more
difficult to distinguish from non-ESL students, L1 and L2 pedagogies will
begin to converge, possibly causing L2/ESL pedagogy to become more
expressly political, but also causing L1 pedagogy to become more
pragmatic. To demonstrate the political implications of L2/ESL pedagogy
and to make connections with L1 pedagogy, I offer a continuum of responses
to second language and second dialect writing, based on teachers'
political stances on linguistic and cultural assimilation. The three
response stances, related to those from ethnic studies, sociolinguistics,
and L1 composition, are the separatist, accommodationist, and
assimilationist. This response continuum is then used to analyze actual
and hypothetical responses to the writing of {a) an ESL international
student, (b) an ESL bicultural student, and (c) a Standard English as a
Second Dialect (SESD) student.
The Implications of
Cognitive Models in L1 and L2 Writing
JOANNE DEVINE
Skidmore College
KEVIN RAILEY
State University of New York, College at Buffalo
PHILIP BOSHOFF
Skidmore College
Research has suggested
that metacognition is composed. of three general dimensions: knowledge of
cognition, regulation of cognition, and the use of compensatory strategies
when cognition fails. The first dimension, knowledge of cognition, can be
further divided into three types: personal, task, and strategy variables.
Knowledge of these variables is highly interactive in successful task
performance, and taken together they constitute an individual's cognitive
model of a cognitive task. Although research has investigated the role of
metacognition, particularly the impact of cognitive models, in first
language (L1) and second language (L2) reading performance, to date there
has been little research in writing-L1 or L2-about the role of
metacognition If generally or the impact of cognitive models on task
performance more specifically. The current study reports on the role of
cognitive models in L1 and L2 writing. Twenty first-year college
students-10 L1 basic writers and 10 L2 writers from various language
backgrounds-were surveyed to elicit information concerning their notions
about personal, task, and strategy variables in writing. Based on their
responses, writers were determined to possess various cognitive models of
writing. Subjects' writing samples were evaluated holistically; further
evaluation determined compositional and grammatical proficiency. Analysis
reveals that L1 basic and L2 writers hold different cognitive models and
perform differently on writing tasks, suggesting that cognitive models
have important implications for writing task performance.
A Critical Examination of
Word Processing Effects in Relation to L2 Writers
MARTHA C. PENNINGTON
City Polytechnic of Hong Kong
This article offers an
assessment of the effects of word processing with reference to writers for
whom English is a second language. A review of the findings reported in
the published literature on the application of word processing in English
first language (L1) and second language (L2) composition leads to an
attempt to find explanations for the conflicting results of different
studies. Method and context effects are identified which help to account
for the differential findings. These effects are attributable to variation
across studies in one or more of the following variables: (a) the nature
of the students, (b) the abilities and attitudes of the teachers, (c) the
setting for computer use, (d) the time span of the implementation, (e) the
type and amount of instruction offered in writing and in word processing,
(f) the nature of particular word processing software and hardware, and
(g) the measures used for assessing the effects and effectiveness of the
implementation. It is concluded that word processing can be of value for
nonnative writers if it is employed under certain conditions, and
recommendations are offered for research with such populations.
Computers, Revision, and
ESL Writers: The Role of Experience
MARIANNE PHINNEY
SANDRA KHOURI
University of Texas at El Paso
Four advanced English as a
Second Language (ESL) writers enrolled in a second-semester university
composition class were observed while they used a computer to write and
revise a paper on an assigned topic. The writers were selected for English
proficiency (high vs. low) and computer writing experience (one semester
vs. two or more semesters). Each student was videotaped for two sessions
of writing and revising the paper. The tapes were transcribed and scored
using an adaptation of the categories described by Faigley and Witte
(1984). The results indicated that experience with the computer was a
stronger factor than writing proficiency in determining computer writing
strategies. The two inexperienced computer users spent less time revising,
made more surface changes, and used the computer functions less than the
experienced computer users. In post taping interviews, the experienced
users also showed a greater concern for content than did the inexperienced
users, who indicated apprehension about using the computer and concern for
correctness.
|