Developing Language Skills in the Writing Class: Why, What, How, and Who

Mechanics Awareness

When reading and writing, I am constantly aware of vocabulary, grammar, and usage. As my literacy skills developed I would notice the how author’s syntax was different from how I would frame my sentences, but were still grammatically correct nonetheless. English is such an interesting language because there are so many different ways to be simultaneously right and wrong when reading and writing. There are so many different ways that the meaning of our writings can be interpreted; I do my best to ensure that my meaning is plain and clear.

Acquired Language

I view literacy as a daily, lifelong process which includes academic and informal language acquisition. I learned what acceptable academic documents were by reading academic articles. When presenting a formal project I also took on the voice of the academic article and used similar vocabulary when speaking. Without this knowledge, my research papers would probably be littered with personal voice with little additional insight.

Like most people, any informal development literacy activities were acquired when I was young and usually involve reading various topics of interest. My mom always encouraged me to read everything: newspaper comic strips, magazines, signs. I soon developed a tendency to read anything that could catch my eye. I’m still learning about how to approach various forms of formal and informal literacy opportunities because there are still words I’m learning and styles I’m adapting to that furthers my knowledge.

L2 Students’ Language Development

It depends on the student’s readiness for language development in a writing or literacy course. There could be a system of recommendations based on class scores and performance that demonstrates how prepared an L2 student is for the next class. However, seeing that the vast majority of native English speakers in the US don’t speak or write in completely correct English, I don’t see the need for L2 students to go beyond a certain point in English literacy learning. Things such as vocabulary, active voice, punctuation, and transitioning should be the focus for L2 learners that are advanced acquirers in academic settings. The purpose of writing in academic settings is to present data and convey multiple ideas that follow a central theme or ultimate finding. If students are able to stay in the present tense, use higher-than-expected vocabulary, correctly punctuate, and transition to the next idea then small things like subject-verb agreement and word choice or word form are simple editing fixes.

Developing Students’ Linguistic Knowledge

As a prospective teacher, I feel very comfortable developing the linguistic knowledge of my writing students. It wouldn’t necessarily be an easy task, but it’s an important one. My major concern is deciding if what I’m teaching them is vital to their writing or insignificant. Ferris’ ideas of treatable and untreatable errors is mentioned on page 336 and I’m still reflecting on the idea of errors such as lexical choice or sentence structure (Ferris & Hedgcock, 2014).  Should these errors be ignored and left for students to figure out on their own or could students end up fossiling the errors as correct information? Would the mini-lessons that are suggested help the student that’s struggling the most? I fear teaching topics in a way that students might find hard to comprehend or too simple to pay attention to.

References

Ferris, D.R. & Hedgcock, J.S. (2014). Teaching L2 composition: purpose, process,        

   and practice, 3, 40.