Volume 6 (2015) Issue 2
Encouraging
Student Engagement in ESL Writing Classes in Asian Classrooms:
Recommendations for Actions to be Taken
Andrew
Szanajda (Taichung,
Taiwan, ROC) / Wei-Yu
Chang (Durham, United Kingdom)
Abstract
This
paper examines how to improve EFL/ESL students learning engagement,
especially in writing classes. Many other such works have dealt with
related issues, but they fail to give a series of recommendations to
solve this common problem because students, especially Asian
students, usually are in lack of learning motivation and engagement.
In order to help students overcome barriers that block confidence and
motivation, some recommended methods are addressed, including
providing a menu of options, having students write about their
experiences, providing context with writing sample, making critique a
part of the process, making connections with the real world, and
celebrating writing success. Firstly, giving a menu of options is a
way to allow students to choose their preferable genres to write, so
they might find that writing is interesting. Secondly, having
students write about their experiences helps them connect their own
lives with learning, which makes learning meaningful and purposeful.
Thirdly, by providing context with sample pieces, students might have
clearer ideas about what to write and how to write it, especially for
less competent writers, because they could have a model to simulate.
Fourthly, students are expected to learn a lot by giving feedback to
others after reading. Through making critiques, students could
understand the differences between well-written and poorly-written
texts. It is suggested that connecting students’ writing with the
real world (e.g. business life) that they are going to face is
important, and it will help them understand the world outside the
classroom and realize how to deal with problems in the future.
Finally, adequate praise cannot be underemphasised when students
complete writing tasks effectively so that they may be motivated to
engage in further such tasks. The primary purpose of this work is
thus to bring forth effective teaching and learning methods for both
instructors and learners in EFL/ESL writing classrooms, and to help
students find some different perspectives in writing in order to
cultivate their writing competence.
Key
words: EFL/ESL students, writing classes, writing competence,
learning motivation and engagement
1
Introduction
In
the current increasingly globalised business climate, it has become
more important than ever for those who wish to be successful to speak
two or more languages. In order for students to engage in the global
conversation, it is also nearly imperative that one of these
languages be English, since it is the most prevalent language of
academic scholarship as well as of business and technological
innovation. Learning English is therefore of great importance for
students in Asian countries. In fact, this importance cannot be
overstated. Students can be better prepared for success in the
classroom and in wider contexts if they can speak, read, and write
English with some degree of fluency. Writing is particularly
important in this equation, since it exists in both formal and
informal contexts. Students will use writing in one or more of these
contexts, no matter what field they will work in during their future
careers. To put students who come from non-English speaking
countries, on the same footing as their peers from English-speaking
countries, the most effective means of having non-native
English-speaking students interact with others is to train them in
using foreign language skills in both professional and private
contexts. This starts at home: making sure that students learn
English before they launch their careers is the responsibility of
those teaching in universities around the world.
In
recent years, scholarly literature on educational practice has
focused on how to engage students from other cultures who are
learning English as a second or foreign language, with learning
English, and there
also being
a particular focus on writing and speaking. A wide variety of
approaches to all aspects of language learning - from grammar to
reading comprehensio - have been examined with varying degrees of
scrutiny in order to determine the best possible methods. A consensus
seems to have emerged: students need to be engaged in their learning
in order to succeed, and different students can be best engaged,
using different methods and activities in the classroom. How to
engage university-level students in learning languages in particular
is a difficult question.
This
paper will examine how to engage Asian students at the university
level in learning English - particularly learning writing skills in
English - with a focus on authentic assessment and product
differentiation in order to provide the highest possible level of
student buy-in and engagement for writing tasks and assessments. It
will provide background material on related issues as they have
already been covered in the body of the peer-reviewed literature,
including the idea of authentic assessment and the existing knowedge
about university students' engagement, particularly in the context of
learning English. The literature review will be followed by
recommended activities and classroom practices for university
instructors.
2
Literature Review
2.1
Student Engagement
A
university classroom should theoretically have an unmistakable
appearance: students are motivated, busy, and engaged with each other
and with the instructor. They are on task, and talking to them would
reveal that they are interested in their work. This sort of student
engagement has repeatedly been shown to lead to higher levels of
learning and academic achievement, and such engagement begins with
teacher-student relationships. Although many instructors do not
consider this to be a priority of their pedagogy, positive
teacher-student relationships have a considerable impact on student
engagement, and also impact academic success, albeit to a slighter
degree. This correlation between engagement and teacher-student
relationships is especially strong at higher levels, such as with
university students, and negative teacher-student relationships can
lead to corresponding negative outcomes in student engagement as well
(Roorda et al. 2011). High levels of student engagement repeatedly
show a wide range of positive correlations with desirable outcomes in
ESL populations, including higher speaking skills, better mastery of
academic content delivered in English, and more student-centered
learning (Bondie et al. 2014). All of these are important, and so it
follows that student engagement is a crucial concept for the best
teaching of ESL students at any academic level and to any student
population, regardless of ethnic or cultural factors.
Student
engagement is related to strong academic outcomes, including higher
grades, better attendance, and better performance on critical
thinking tasks. It is also worth noting that these correlations have
been found to be higher for students who are relatively weak (Carini
et al. 2006). Students who might otherwise be considered difficult to
reach by teachers and who might be at risk of poor grades,
uncooperative behaviour, or other such negative outcomes are
especially affected by engaging activities, and therefore,
modification of activities and the application of engaging material
for students is of even greater import, since it can be key for
educators who consider how to engage their most problematic students
or those who are, for whatever reason, difficult
to reach.
Even
students whose expectations of a course are being met do not always
report engagement and may still be absent from class quite often. A
study that was conducted at the university level included allowing
students to choose whether or not they would go to class on their
own, without the influence of parents or others directly in contact
with them on a daily basis. Engagement thus does not easily take
place by default. It is therefore the responsibility of educators to
determine how to best engage students so that they attend class (Lobo
& Gurney 2014). Furthermore, they must come prepared to learn
and to meet the instructor's expectations. Students are simply more
likely to do so if they consider that they are going to face useful
material that is worth learning, and if they are interested in the
class work and assignments. The essence of student engagement is
whether students are willing to cooperate in facing the challenge of
acquiring course contents through active participation.
In
order for students to be as engaged as possible, it is important that
teachers address their concerns and make sure to teach the skills
that students think it is most important to learn, although this must
be balanced with the teaching skills that students need, even if they
do not perceive them to be important. For Asian students in
particular, who are learning in the context of being international
students in graduate programs, the skills that they most want to
learn and are thus most likely to be easily engaged in include test
taking skills, and, most particularly, oral communication skills.
Students report being concerned about being asked to lead discussions
or do oral presentations in class, and these particular skills should
therefore be addressed in the ESL classroom (Kim 2006).
Of course, these are not the only important skills: basics including
grammar fundamentals, both in spoken and written expression, need to
be taught as well, and it is important that they be taught in-depth
and in engaging ways, even when this means that instructors need to
make additional efforts to create materials and to teach very
actively by paying attention to each individual student, rather than
merely providing students with conventional tasks, such as completing
workbook exercises or using other traditional
instructional tools. Students
should be asked leading questions to be answered in class in order to
provide them with learning opportunities to figure out concepts with
inductive reasoning. This approach involves attempting to anticipate
individual answers, rather than merely delivering traditional direct
instruction, which can lead to making deeper impressions and
establishing fundamental understanding of English language building
blocks
(Puji
Widodo 2006).
Without these basics in place, students are going to make slower
progress in learning to
write well and confidently in English, and it is less likely that
they will enjoy or be engaged in writing tasks. Hence, teaching
grammar and other foundational concepts must take place in every ESL
classroom before written assignments are to be completed
independently or with some peer cooperation during class time under
the instructor’s supervision.
Asian
students learning English also report that they sometimes struggle
with motivation and self-efficacy. Problems with self-motivation to
learn new contents and mastering understanding, or taking ownership,
of those contents can lead to academic difficulties in general and in
English classes in particular (Phakti & Li 2011). Another
argument for engaging students as much as possible in the ESL
classroom is that students who enjoy and are intrinsically motivated
by their ESL learning experiences, may have fewer overall academic
difficulties in all types of coursework. Writing is particularly
important here, since students write across the curriculum, from
science classes to literature and other humanities-based topics. If
students can be engaged in writing in particular, they are more
likely to be academically successful in all classes, since they are
asked to write on a variety of topics in almost ever class situation.
Across
the Asian and Pacific countries that participated in a recent survey,
students' attitudes toward study were found to be predictive of
academic success and of students' relationships with instructors and
even with peers. Students who had more positive feelings toward their
study scored higher on reading assessments in both their native
languages (L1) and English (L2), and were more interested in reading.
Students who were more interested in study also had fewer discipline
problems than others (Lai et al. 2015). All of these are positive
factors for education, and they all stem from student engagement.
Making students enjoy study and want to do their work is not merely
superfluous added value. It should be the key to students’
educational attainment.
Although
Asian students are commonly thought to be reticent in terms of class
participation, at least one study shows that they actually have a
strong desire to participate in classroom activities and may be held
back only by situation-specific factors, such as activities they are
uninterested in or a lack of the necessary proficiency to feel
comfortable interacting in English with each other or with their
instructors (Chen 2000). These are conscientious and even
enthusiastic students, but current modes of instruction are not
engaging them as much as they might be, leading to a seeming
reticence on the part of the students, which may not accurately
reflect their feelings. In fact, although it has long been thought
that cultural factors inherent in the Confucian educational and
philosophical model make Asian students passive and prone to rote
learning, recent scholarship has found that situational factors, such
as school culture and the learning environment, as well as social
interactions at school, make far more difference to the way students
present their existing knowledge and to the way they learn new
contents (Gan 2009). Students can be motivated and even pushed to
have positive attitudes toward learning in general and toward
specific language-learning strategies in particular, which also holds
true when they are learning a second or foreign language, such as
English. Asian students studying English want to be engaged: the
question is how this can best be done?
2.2
Authentic Assessment and Product Choice
Assessing
students authentically involves ensuring that the way that students
are assessed and the skills that they are being asked to use are
analogous to what they will have to use in real world experiences
outside of the classroom. This type of assessment has been shown to
make students more engaged and motivated, and this sort of assessment
in language learning begins with the assessment of specific oral
language skills in terms of fluency and grammar, and not just as a
byproduct of writing or reading skills. That is, instead of assessing
students' speaking only when they, for example, read aloud or when
they explain the contents of a research paper they have written,
authentic assessment should start with assessing students' practical
abilities in having the types of conversations they will have in
English in the world outside of the classroom (Hallam 2004). This
idea that students should be assessed based on what they will
actually need to do and their application of these skills, rather
than based on the artificial context of the classroom, is the
essential idea of authentic assessment. Authentic assessment does
not, by definition, mean that such assessment must involve
conversation, rather than written or other types of products, since
the goal of teaching students English is that they will be able to
communicate fluently. However, assessing oral communication is an
important beginning and can then lead to assessing writing.
Authentic
assessment can lead naturally to higher levels of student engagement
because students will be demonstrating their mastery of content,
possibly in any subject, in ways that will appear to be relevant to
their lives as well as in future endeavours. Chung & Behan's
(2010) study found, for example, that students engaged in
inquiry-based science content learning both enjoyed their work more
and learned more when assessed authentically, as opposed to being
assessed in traditional testing-based formats. Connecting academic
content to the real world by providing examples of practical
applications can help students, especially millenials (i.e. those
born between 1982 and 2003) engage better. Since the majority of
students who are currently enrolled in secondary and higher education
are part of this generation, it is important to understand this
phenomenon and to account for it. In order for millennial-aged
students to be engaged, teachers must meet them where they are, and
make efforts to tap into their specific interests, skills, and
strengths in order to teach them English language skills. Encouraging
ESL students to write about topics that are of interest to them will
lead to better writing, in terms of content and also organisation,
provided that sufficient practice is administered during class times
in order to provide adequate amounts of guided practice and offering
feedback, regardless of whether these topics correlate to topics
found on standardised tests. Since writers need writing skills, and
not just test-taking skills in the real world, it is clear that topic
choice in writing is part of effective ESL teaching (Lo & Hyland
2007).
This
concept also relates to the idea of product choice.
Different students can use different products to show their mastery
of content. For example, one student might like to write a research
paper, while another shows their knowledge of the same content with a
PowerPoint presentation. Both products feature written English and a
display of content knowledge, but the two students would have
demonstrated their knowledge in ways that were interesting for each
of them individually.
According
to current research, millenials also prefer to learn using technology
and are especially engaged when pop culture is connected to their
learning (Nicolette & Merriman 2007). This can fit well with
product choice: learners can show what they have learned in ways that
are intrinsically motivating to them, because they will be interested
in the activities. Giving a choice of authentic assessment products
and options is, thus, the key to student engagement. Students who
perceive that they have autonomy in their own learning and are
supported in this autonomy by their teachers self-report higher
levels of emotional engagement and behavioral engagement, i.e. being
actively engaged with their schoolwork assignments (Shih 2008).
Product
choice also ties into the widely-supported idea of differentiation -
different levels of materials and different assignments for different
students - in order to best support all learners within the same
classroom (Konstantinou-Katzi et al. 2013). In today's
budget-conscious educational environments, it is important that all
learners be supported, but at the same time, there are often not
enough teachers to have separate classes for students at every
possible level and for every type of learning style. Thus, teachers
need to be able to make sure that the diverse learners in their
classrooms, who may come from different backgrounds, have different
skills, or have different goals for or modes of learning, can all
learn together and experience success and content mastery. Product
choice, in which students are able to select their own preferred
learning modalities from a given menu of options, is one way for
teachers to ensure appropriate levels of differentiation within their
classrooms, regardless of the subject matter. This can be made
possible through administering writing practice assignments during
class times.
When
it comes to writing, studies have shown that not all students engage
with traditional writing assignments in which they must use sources,
paraphrasing and synthesizing to communicate their points and
thoughts. While the skills tested by such assessments are important,
students do not always have true understanding of the skill of
paraphrasing and why it is important, even when they are doing it
(Hirvela & Du 2013). Teaching this skill and assessing it in the
context of real-world writing, such as asking students to summarize a
text in their own words in a memo or email, rather than a complete
research paper with multiple paragraphs, is one way to get around
this problem. Product choice can, thus, help give students such
options so that they can completely show their mastery of crucial
skills in a way that
is going to hold their attention by being
engaging
to them.
2.3
ESL Specific Concerns
ESL
learners, of course, need deliberate supports
in
order to learn English successfully, and a great deal of research has
been devoted to this topic (Nikula & Courtney 2014). There are
particular issues that instructors who teach English to Asian
students must address specifically, and these factors must not be
discounted when making recommendations about how to best engage ESL
students from Asian countries learning English.
Although there has been a great deal of recent scholarly work on how
to engage students in second language or English learning in the
classroom, other recent studies show that the ways students engage
with both their first language and their newly-learnt English outside
of the classroom are equally important. Such engagement can have a
huge impact on literacy skills in English, as demonstrated by a study
examining Korean adolescents (Youngjoo 2005). Teachers can and
should use this fact to their advantage by bringing interactions with
English, that typically take place outside of the classroom, such as
interactions with social media interactions,
into
the ELS learning context.
Another
important goal for ESL students in particular is inciting them to
speak. Although conversational assessment is an important part of
authentic assessment for students, in the example of a study at a
Japanese university, many ESL students reported feeling awkward and
uncertain about speaking tasks and choosing not to speak in class.
One major way to make these problems less difficult for teachers and
learners was to change the class syllabus, to have it include
personalized topics, more support in students' L1, and direct
instruction of some strategies for decoding and speaking (Talandis &
Stout 2015). These forms of support should be paramount to any
successful instruction for ESL students in English at the university
level.
Asian
students learning English also need to be prepared for possible
academic experiences as international students, such as at
universities in English-speaking countries. Many Asian students
report that in these situations, they have trouble dealing with
classroom expectations and learning norms in English-speaking
classroom contexts (Campbell & Li 2008), and this is something
that should be addressed throughout the process of learning English
in students' native countries. In a quantitative study, Leki (1995)
found that Asian students learning in an ESL context employ a variety
of coping strategies in order to deal with the new demands of
learning in English-based environments, and that the more these
environments can be made familiar to them, i.e. the more they can
experience these environments in English classes in their home
countries, the easier such coping will be. This finding may arguably
be especially important for writing tasks. Since in Asian countries,
many teachers rely on memorisation and recitation in their classes,
students are not necessarily prepared to write extemporaneously with
comfort and confidence. Therefore, the more their teachers can help
them to be confident in these particular areas, the more successful
these students will be in their future endeavours, regardless of
whether the latter will be educational or career-focused, no matter
where in the world students may find themselves in the future.
Of
course, teaching English to Asian students in particular has
advantages as well as the above-mentioned specific concerns, and
these positive aspects must also be addressed in order for ESL
teachers - whether experienced or aspiring - to have a complete
picture of the unique functions they have to fulfill. One of these
advantages is the extremely low amount of off-task behaviour that
students tend to engage in when compared to their peers in Western
countries. This behaviour cannot be attributed to curricula only: in
fact, when American and Asian students followed the same online
curriculum with identical activities, the Asian students were far
less likely to engage in off-task behaviour, indicating a cultural
component in this equation. This may give the ESL teacher a bit more
flexibility in terms of providing exciting activities, such as
computer-based learning, that might otherwise invite students to be
off-task, since students in Asia are less likely to take advantage of
these situations in a negative manner and may instead learn more from
them (Rodrigo et al. 2013).
A
final issue that needs to be brought up is ESL / EFL teachers'
professionalism. In Zan & Goh's (2011) study of Chinese teachers
of English at the university level, it was found that teachers were
hindered by their own lack of comfort speaking extemporaneously in
English, and their perception that they lacked pedagogical resources
and experience. In combination with large class sizes, which teachers
also reported, teaching ESL is clearly a difficult undertaking at any
level. Offering teachers training to help them become more
comfortable with their teaching assignments is obviously an important
step that must be taken, but it is easy to imagine that more engaged
students might make the teaching of ESL easier by simplifying
classroom management tasks and raising potential student achievement,
thus reducing the stress on the instructors’ performance concerning
consistently attaining positive results. Although teacher training
and pedagogical help are outside the scope of this article, it is
important to note that not all issues of the ESL classroom can be
solved with differentiated assessment, as other types of change may
well be needed as well.
Teaching
English as a second or foreign language to Asian students is an
undertaking in which managing class times and course pacing is
imperative. Research shows that repeating a year of an English-based
language curriculum has either no effect on students' scores on
comprehension tests in English, or can even have a negative impact on
these scores (Morrison & Leong On No 2007). Teachers must
therefore teach effectively and engagingly from the very first day of
an English class in order to best serve the particular population of
Asian higher education students.
3
Recommendations
Student
engagement is an important part of what responsible educators need to
do in order to teach students to write with the best possible
outcomes, particularly when one is discussing how to face ESL
students. There has also been enough research specifically on Asian
students to make it clear that these issues pertain specifically to
this student population in the higher-education sector. One way to
engage students is to allow for product choices within the framework
of authentic assessment, giving students options as to how they will
demonstrate their learning while making sure that the skills and
competencies on which they are assessed are directly related to
real-world tasks, rather than artificial constructs. The following
recommendations are designed to help classroom teachers implement
this research-based intervention successfully and as accessibly as
possible, with a minimum of disruption to their previously
established and currently existing teaching practices.
3.1
Give a Menu of Options
The
first practice teachers can adapt is
fairly straightforward.
For each writing task students will be turning in for a grade,
present a menu of options. This can be as simple as a handout that
lists possible options, or it can be a poster displayed in the
classroom with options that students can use for all assignments. It
may be effective to make a different menu for each of the
assignments, rather than having one generic list of options for
students.
Students
can be asked
to
do
research and present their findings in written form on the topic of
dining in a restaurant (a common topic for students in a beginning
English class), the following options might be presented. One student
might decide to write a traditional paper explaining his or her
research into a certain type of cuisine. Another student might create
a mock menu for a restaurant, and a third student might decide to
write a collection of recipes reflecting what he or she has learnt. A
student with a creative bent might even be able to write a story, or
the script for a short skit or play that would take place in a
restaurant setting. All of these students would be working on the
same concepts, and all would be using the same vocabulary word bank
and engaging with the same cultural tropes and ideas, but each
student would be doing something they chose, thus making the task
more inspiring and engaging. These options can be presented to
students when the assignment is given, and students could select one
of them at that point. It is important to note that students should
be asked to commit to a specific project in writing and / or by a
certain deadline so that they do not try to switch back and forth in
order to make their work easier or less. Each option that the teacher
provides needs to be given a rubric, although the same rubric might
be able to be used for many different assignments throughout the
semester or year, so that students know exactly what is expected of
them. In some cases, the same rubric can be used for multiple types
of products, since the same things, e.g. using certain vocabulary
words correctly, will be assessed.
Example
1:
Write
an essay on the topic
My
Favourite Restaurant
- Organise the content of your essay according to a logical division of ideas to provide readers with reasons why this restaurant is worth frequenting.
- Present your reasons, ranging from the least to the most important one and add qualifying details so as to support them. Do not forget to give examples in order to illustrate the different points.
- Think of your readers: express your ideas clearly and intelligibly.
3.2
Have Students Write about Their Experiences
At
any level, students enjoy expressing their thoughts about themselves
and their own lives, and using this tendency can make assessment a
lot more authentic. The teacher can ask students to use the
vocabulary or concepts that are being learnt to write about
themselves or their experiences. For example, in a unit about travel,
students could produce a travel guide for their own home city.
This
intervention does not just make writing more interesting for
students. In fact, it can be connected to speaking tasks as well,
especially since research shows that Asian students in particular are
nervous about and often do not feel prepared for these types of
tasks. Students can have natural conversation in English when they do
not have to think about the content, and this is easiest when
students discuss their own experiences, opinions, and preferences.
Any unit that can be adapted with at least the possibility or option
for students to write something to which they are personally
connected should be modified in this way. This will, in turn, change
the class so that students consistently write and speak in English
about topics with which they are comfortable, allowing them to gain
and then to show their mastery of English that differs from their
mastery of any particular or specific academic content. The following
examples will clarify this point:
Example
2:
Write
an essay on the topic
My
Best Friend
- Provide reasons why you like and respect him or her such as:
- his or her character,
- his or her behaviour in a certain situation
- the way he or she helped you in a difficult phase of your life.
- In addition describe his or her in detail, e.g.:
- his or her appearance and / or
- his or her personality and / or
- his or her interests.
- Organise your essay in such a way that your readers will enjoy reading it, by making it clear, easy to understand, and vivid.
Example
3:
Write
an esay on the following topic:
My
trip to ...
- Describe your trip in chronolgocal order.
- Say why it was so enjoyable and what you liked in particular.
- Express the feelings you had at a certain moment, at a certain place or in a certain situation.
- Make sure you connect the different parts of your text logically, using the correct linking phrases and transitional elements.
- Try to make your description so interesting that your readers would like to go for the same trip (perhaps even with you).
Inciting
students to write their own experiences does not only mean to take
them seriously and respect them. Expecially in Asia, where their
personal opinions are usually not asked for in a classroom context, an
approach as the one described here and exemplified in the above
instructions, permits to show students that they are
important and that their opinions and feelings do
have an impact on their teachers and classmates and, eventually, on
their future lives.
3.3 Provide Context with Sample Pieces
Many
students know, in the abstract, that there are certain skills that
they will need to demonstrate in English with regard to writing, such
as writing an email. However, many students, even the most dedicated
or interested ones,
have not seen examples of such a document in English. Along with
explaining to students how to do the task, it is worthwhile to
provide context by showing them real-world examples of such a
document.
Doing
this provides students with a model to follow when they write their
own product, but it does more than that. Before writing, students can
spend time analysing the sample pieces provided by their instructor.
This strategy allows them to take ownership of the process of
composing such a document, since they will have a chance to notice on
their own and compare multiple examples of the different elements of
an email (e.g the subject line or the closing). This strategy
connects with the idea of authentic assessment. Nothing is more
authentic, and thus more engaging to students, than something which
they can see clearly and will be able to use in real life
outside
the classroom environment.
Showing students examples from real-world applications of the
targeted skills will help them to engage further and be more
motivated as they learn these skills and apply them.
A
highly practical application for this type of writing is learning how
to write business letters in the workplace or other such formal
situations. These may include writing to make enquiries or send
information or complaints, requesting actions to be taken, providing
news, as well as writing memos, business reports, and press releases
about launching new products. The following example will clarify this
point:
Example
4:
Commercial
Correspondence: Write a Complaint
- Specify the product you would like to complain about.
- Say why you are not satisfied with the product in question.
- Specify your conditions:
- Would you like the product to be replaced with a new one – and, if so, by when?
- Would you like to have a discount?
- Can you imagine any other form of compensation?
- Respect the official format of this text type.
- Use the specific style which is typical of business correspondence.
3.4
Make Critique a Part of the Process
Writing
does not happen in a vacuum. In the world outside the classroom,
students will be critiqued on what they write, and may have to
produce multiple drafts. Responsible and competent teachers are
likely to require their students to write and revise multiple drafts
of assignments as appropriate and as deemed necessary. However, few
teachers take the opportunity to take the next step and bring
students into the critiquing process. Allowing
students to engage in hands on experiences through having
their
writing evaluated through peer revision, having multiple students
read it and provide constructive feedback,
is
helpful for all students.
The students receiving the critique will have multiple perspectives
on their work, while the other students see examples of writing that
may contain ideas or devices that they wish to emulate or that may
give them important lessons as to what not
to do. All of the students will also gain practice conversing and
making themselves understood in English. Students tend to enjoy being
asked to use their own expertise, and they will take more ownership
of the English writing conventions they know if they are asked to
critique each other. Furthermore, seeing each other's work can help
the whole class because struggling students then have more models
from which to work, while students who are excelling can be
encouraged in this way to reach an even higher level so that they
keep becoming increasingly better.
Teachers
can - and should - also grade students on their critiquing. That is,
students should be held responsible for giving clear, consistent, and
constructive oral and written feedback to their peers. This
is the ultimate form of student empowerment
in
authentic assessment, since this is certainly something students will
need to do and experience in the business world,
should
they ever be
working
in English. Giving them this experience is crucial to building their
capabilities in English.
Peer
review in a classroom environment can be orchestrated in two
different ways.
- To model student correction under the supervision of the instructor as a class, anonymous examples of students’ mistakes (not indicating the author of the written contents) can be written on the board. Every student is asked to provide feedback with regards to clarity of the contents as well as to come to the board at the front of the classroom and correct any mistakes with the assistance of their peers who should be encouraged to forward their thoughts orally to their classmate at the board.
- After students’ writing samples are collected, the instructor redistributes these examples of written assignments at random among the students in the classroom, and have either individuals or pairs examine their classmates’ contents for clarity and grammatical accuracy, and write written corrections or suggestions that the instructor can take into consideration. In either case, students who actively participate in the process can be given class credit for participation. Students must also be given the opportunity to rewrite their assignments after both their peers and the instructor have indicated their earlier errors.
3.5
Connect Explicitly with the Real World
Writing
is a skill that students will need throughout their lives, and
writing in English is an especially marketable skill that will put
students, currently in Asian universities, in good stead as they
progress throughout their careers. However, too many instructors
forget to remind students of this advantage
whenever possible. Students should experience English writing as a
crucial skill that they must learn. Raising expectations
in this way increases student engagement, and the
way to do this is simple: make it clear to students
that precisely what
they
are learning to write will be used in the professional contexts in
which they will later find themselves.
Different
instructors may want to do this in different ways. For one
instructor, explicit real world connections might take the form of
stories from their own life and career. For another instructor, who
does not have much experience in his or her own career writing in
English, having guest speakers in class or inviting students to
brainstorm about when they might use different writing products or
skills in their own lives may be a good way to ensure that things are
connected to reality. Above all, students need to understand that
writing is a hugely important form of communication, regardless of
the language in which it is done, and that they need to master this
form of communication in order to reach their full potential.
Bringing each assignment, unit, or idea out of the classroom and
connecting it to what students will later do in their adult lives
will help them to remain engaged.
Instructors
ought to provide clarification about future job requirements that
will involve having to complete written tasks in different
situations. Those who are interested in being engaged in the field of
education need to be informed about how the students themselves can
apply writing skills in teaching work at various levels of
proficiency, which is also a specialised skill in demand in Asian
schools and universities. Students aiming toward careers in business
or the civil service must be advised that clarity and accuracy will
be expected from readers in those spheres of professional activity.
Using writing can also have unlimited possibilities for communicating
with others in a common language in the social sphere for different
purposes, such as expressing their views, regardless of whether these
are informal contents posted by individuals in different forms of
social media that has users worldwide, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and
YouTube, etc., or in terms of fulfilling necessities, such as making
personal travel arrangements in writing by using email. Examples of
writing these types of contents can be practiced in the classroom.
3.6
Celebrate Writing Success
A
final recommendation is one that, although it does not directly
concern authentic assessment, has much to do with keeping students
engaged. Often, students are asked to complete assignments and given
grades, but no additional positive reinforcement. Grades
are, for the most motivated students, their own reward, since
students will gain good outcomes, such as gaining praise from their
parents, or better job prospects, from good grades.
However, in order to make writing specifically something students are
excited about and engaged in, teachers should build in time to
celebrate writing. Students
should be able to share their writing with peers and applaud or
otherwise celebrate each other, giving comments of what they liked
about each other's writing and getting a chance to bask in the
adulation of their fellow students. By giving students extra
recognition for writing, teachers are providing extrinsic motivation.
While not being as important to long-term success as intrinsic
motivation, this strategy will still help students be more excited
about writing in English.
4
Conclusion
Ultimately,
engaging students in writing in English is a crucial endeavor for
teachers at any level, and this may be especially true at the
university level. At this age, students are very close to starting
their careers and to moving into fields in which, in many cases, they
will need to communicate effectively in English, since it is the
lingua
franca
of science, business, and a variety of other growing fields in
today's world. When
teaching Asian university students who have grown up with the
cultural tropes and norms of many Asian countries, it is especially
important to take into account the unique interests, challenges, and
strengths of these students in order to teach them in the best
possible way. These students want to be engaged, and it is student
engagement that leads to long-term positive consequences in terms of
academics and independently taking charge of their own learning.
Students do best when they are learning material that they perceive
as important or necessary to their success, not just because they
will be graded on it, but because they will use the acquired skills
and knowledge in their future endeavors. This is the essence of
student engagement: making students want to learn and want to excel.
One
way to make student engagement happen is to leave behind the
conventions of traditional classroom learning of language, and allow
students to come as close as the constraints of the environment will
allow to doing real-world tasks that have relevance to their lives.
These tasks will then be graded in order to determine students'
competencies. This is the concept of authentic assessment. Giving
students choices of products to show their learning and allowing them
to write the same sort of things they will as career-driven adults,
is the best way to engage them. Although more research is needed as
to how well various interventions and strategies, including those
discussed in this article, work in the classroom with different
student populations, it is clear that students engaged in writing
should be the goal of every ESL instructor.
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Authors:
Andrew
Szanajda, PhD
Associate
Professor
Overseas
Chinese University
Taichung,
Taiwan, ROC
E-mail:
andrew.szanajda@gmail.com
Wei-Yu
Chang
Doctoral
candidate
Durham
University
E-mail:
wei-yu.chang@durham.ac.uk