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Best tools and reflections to introduce creative and collaborative learning in our lessons... especially in ESL. Super cool website I found just "surfing" the web and I think it could be of some use to students interested in fun, creative ways to learn as well as ESL!! This is like a board where interesting articles related to innovative education are posted! Enjoy!!!

This article deals with creating writing opportunities for ESL/EFL students so that they can feel confident in their writing abilities. The author talks about developing meaningful writing task. Writing about cultural,social and emotional experiences are critical on building confidence in the students writing. When ESL students see that their life is related to meaningful issues of the world that can be portrayed in writing, they become more engaged;Their confidence in writing begins to build.

This article describes a study similar to one that we read about with the 10 UCLA students, except these students in the study are ESL students; something I want to follow with this thread. This study basically shows that L1 and L2 writers had many strategies in common, the main difference being that L2 writers weren't as concerned as the L1 writers in correcting their work, their main focus being, just get it out! We have discussed in class about writing for a specific purpose and how you audience affects your writing; this study shows that ESL students' composing strategies were not inhibited by their purpose or audience.

This article by John Bitchener, Stuart Young, and Denise Cameron of the Auckland University of Technology explores the value of grammar-related feedback in ESL writing. They found a combination of explicit written and oral feedback to be the most effective method to enact change. However, the change in grammar accuracy did't always last. The authors suggest prolonged exposure to this kind of feedback would show a more consistent result. 

The author of this article explores the writer identity of a college ESL student in order to understand how embedded ideologies and power relations shape understanding of writer identity. The research method is Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The author presents the definitions of three important terms before proceeding to the analysis (identity, traditional formal discourse, and expressivism), where they are frequently used, to help the reader to understand them better. In the end, she comes up with concrete and practical implications for teaching. She recommends strategies for working with writers that are designed to encourage rather than silence the multicultural voices in our communities. Also, she suggests varying the types of assignments instructors give, using a process approach and discussing the sociopolitical implications of language use with students in order to overcome language policies that can work against ESL students. Unfortunately, you will have to log in as a member to view this article. It can also be found in Chico State's e-library.

This article is explaining in detail the differences in cultural factors of education between North American students and Chinese students (both college level). Some of the major factors discusses are Confucianism, communism, behavior reform, authority, and organization. The article explains the differences in expectations between the two cultures. Although it is not focused on the specifics of writing, it takes a deeper look into ESL learning as a whole for Chinese students. I think that every student aspiring to become a teacher should read this article. It is only eight pages, but it answers a lot of questions about Chinese students that might arise.

Exploring the Role of Reformulations and a Model Text in EFL Students' Writing Performance Yang, Luxin ; Zhang, Ling The article by Yang and Zhang shares the results from a study of a three-staged writing task by ESL students in a Beijing university. The three stages are composing, comparison (of the reformulation), and revising. The students were asked to study and compose, in English, a narrative of a short picture prompt. The short narratives were then reformulated by a native English speaker, but still maintained the student's original meaning. The students then compared the two to "notice" the differences. The article clearly explains the many types of differences between the two texts; mainly language-related episodes (LRE) and content-related episodes (CRE). The students were also asked to compare their narratives with a model narrative. Though the students tended to focus more on the lexical issues, they were able to more clearly relate their current stage of English language learning with that of a native English speaker. This helped them to "notice the gap". I would recommend this to anyone focusing their attention on ESL learners.

This article was really interesting because it targeted exactly what I'm doing at the ESL resource center and gave me a lot of insight into what kinds of questions I should be asking students who come in, how I can better understand their writing and most importantly, how I can better help them with their writing. It discussed how as tutors, we should maximize our resources and skills to better help these students. In the ESL resource center, we have such a good mix of backgrounds, that it really helps accomodate the students as we better understand them. This article emphasized pointing out the differences between HOC (Higher Order Content) vs LOC (Lower Order Content) something I have definitely come across in my internship: students coming in focusing solely on grammar, or pronunciation, or content (a rare one.)

In this article, Oura discusses authentic materials and task-based lessons in ESL instruction. The more I read about motivation in the classroom and successful skill learning, the more I read about authenticity and  task-based lessons (as well as a couple of other things not explicitly covered in this article). Though I've many authors talk about these two topics, this article stands out for it's clear and concise explanations and included examples. Interestingly, the examples aren't authentic tasks for any class I foresee teaching, but I can see their value in other courses.

This article addressed the all to common problem of second language students being placed in mainstream English classes well before they have developed second language proficiency. These students are then expected to compete with their fellow peers who have developed proficiency since childhood. This article confronts the issues students face transitioning from ESL classroom environment to the mainstream environment. According Harklau the importance peer interaction and socialization should be used as tools to increase second language proficiency. Peer interaction and peer editing can help students develop a level of comfort and proficiency in their second language that is often missing in mainstream classrooms.

This classroom in Japan supplemented their English course with an additional grammar course. I find this interesting because it's another way of looking at what we've been studying, understanding how ESL students and teachers and bridging the grammar gap, either with additional coursework, courses or teaching methods.

This study investigated semantic transfer in second language. The author studied Korean ESL speakers who were asked to perform a semantic judgment task in which they decided whether or not 2 English words were related in meaning. I'm not sure if it's because I did a similar project in semantics or what, but this article is just jumping off the page to me and I feel like I need to share it with others. Semantic transfer from L1 to L2 is so fascinating and I have a feeling I can link this to where my inquiry is going.

The authors discussed to common occurrence of teachers "bending over backwards" for their NNS (Non Native Speaking) students, especially when evaluating surface errors. The study in this article seemed well orchestrated. It presented a variety of English teachers with six compositions: two from native English speakers, two from Danish speakers, and two from speakers of Thai. These students however were not real and the "student profile" assigned to each composition was constantly rotated. The results found that NES (Native English Speakers) were judged more harshly because "they should know better". The northern European, the Danish, students were pretty neutral. The Asian, the Thai, students were given the most leniency. I found this article interesting because it gives insight to the impact that teachers' grading has on the development of ESL students' writing proficiency.

The article describes language teacher preparation in the use of learning technologies. Three focus group interviews were held with 28 pre-service teachers; 9 in-service teachers were interviewed, and a post focus group interview was held with student teachers after they completed their field teaching experience. The article continues on by describing teacher response to technology in the classroom. In correlation to that idea is that of the effect of technology to the students of ESL classroom. This article demonstrated that if a teacher is not adequately in the technology at hand then they will not use it. If a teacher is not using it the neither will the students. To prepare a teacher is to prepare the teacher to prepare the students. It has a cyclical effect.

This is quite a small article, but it presents a certain interest as it connects writing with other social practices. I guess this assumption is crucial for teaching because it presupposes writing in the classroom with real-life purposes. The article also mentions interculturality and constant interaction of two languages, which is important when teaching writing to ESL students. The author is concerned about the specifics of effective transfer of literacy skills in bilinguals and heritage speakers. According to Martinez, as a result of traditional teaching, bilingual students tend to write with "conformity to rhetorical traditions in the dominant language" ("backwards literacy"), which creates certain problems with style, thoughts expression, choice of words and sentence patterns (i.e., mechanical transfer of the dominant language features into L2 writing). Therefore, it is necessary to develop "forward literacy", which accepts a non-standard way of writing ("writers carve out their own transcultural paths of expression"). In other words, writing of a bilingual or heritage learner implies constant shifts (transfers) between languages and cultures, and using the multiple resources of both languages in order to create an original pattern. The instructor's task is: (1) to identify multiple literacies (i.e. writing practices) that students possess and / or should possess in their heritage language and their dominant language; (2) to teach the students how to shift without mixing two languages. E.g. in early works of Spanish heritage learners, English norms penetrate Spanish writing: estoy the acuerdo instead of estoy de acuerdo. The shift should concern rhetorical strategies, which reflect cultural and aesthetical values of the two languages worlds, but not grammar or writing vocabulary; (3) teaching writing in the context of multiple social practices and contents While teaching writing, it is important to distinguish between positive transfer of skills already acqu

Wow, i like your article. It state purposely on how to help ESL student to write English better.

In this article, the author describes how journal writing can help ESL learners improve writing by examples and introduces different types of journals. Journal writing is a popular tool used in writing class to get students practice and provide students the method and space to explore their ideas and reflect on action, questions and experience they have had out of class. I am interested in limited-free writing and journal can be considered a good method of limited-free writing. The general topic will not limit students' thoughts, and journals can build the conversation with teacher outside of class by written language; in this sense, journals can help students develop critical thinking skills and practice English writing. Besides freewriting, there are more writing practices helpful for students.

Unfortunately, I got this article from the library's research portal, so you will have to log in to view it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Investigating the Role of Identity in Writing Using Electronic Bulletin Boards Valia Spiliotopoulos & Stephen Carey This paper details the findings of a study on the effectiveness of using online bulletin boards, in this case WebCT, in a university writing class for ESL students. The study finds that the asynchronous nature of posting online allows students to participate more fully and in ways which may not be possible in traditional class interaction. The authors also argue that the process of forming an online community of English language learners affords the students the opportunity to develop a greater sense of identity as an English speaker and as part of a community of English speakers.