Are you Dreaming in English
Yet?
Improving the Writing Skills of ESL Students
Cathy Romans, Sacha Schick and Shelley Steer
Vancouver, British Columbia
A different language is a different vision
of life.
—Federico
Fellini
Let’s face it, English
is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor
ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins were not invented in England or French
fries in France. Sweet meats are candies while sweet
breads (which are not sweet!) are meat. And skating on
thin ice can get you into hot water (Franklin P. Jones,
1919). English speakers tend to take these contradictions
for granted and yet they are confusing paradoxes for
new English language learners. How might educators help
students navigate the muddy waters of the English language?
It
is crucial for educators to recognize that English as
Second Language (ESL) students come to them with a prior
knowledge of language. They are seeking to learn English,
not language. Elements that constitute effective teaching
strategies of English language are as diverse as the
learners themselves. The teacher’s job is to help students
navigate the voyage leading them to fluency in English.
Language teachers like to say that a person has mastered
a new language once they are able to comprehend jokes,
use appropriate slang, and finally, dream in the language.
The question ESL teachers often pose, “Are you dreaming
in English yet?” is a benchmark for new language speakers,
and it was a question that initially stimulated us, as
educators, to seek ways to improve the writing skills
of our ESL students.
Our
goal as teacher-researchers was to see if a specific,
directed, non-fiction writing strategy would foster success
for ESL learners in our classrooms. We used a simple,
step-by-step set of lessons based on research from the
Disadvantaged Schools’ Program established in Australia,
and passed on to us by Russell Collins, a former principal
of Shelley’s, who wanted to share his work on non-fiction
writing with us. The
rationale behind the Disadvantaged Schools’ Program was
a need for the educational community, including parents,
to improve the literacy standard in schools. Many of
the students in the Australian project came from non-English
speaking backgrounds. The Program emphasized the need
for educators to pay attention to the social contexts
for which the language is to be written, the structure
of written text, and the grammar for written language.
The
Language that is Me
Our
mother tongue has particular significance to our being.
It is the language through which the norms and values
of our culture are acquired, and it is while learning
our mother tongue that we come to know the world and
ourselves.
—Promislow,
2003
Countless
manuals, theories, and handbooks have been written discussing
how best to teach ESL students. Canada has always been
a popular nation for immigrants. Many varied ethnic,
linguistic, and religious groups are represented in our
teaching environments. In the lower mainland of British
Columbia, there is currently an influx of ethnic groups,
requiring new strategies to assist in second language
learning. A narrow approach suited only to a specific
linguistic orientation is neither practical nor useful.
Our
guiding philosophy on ESL learning is to acknowledge
that all ESL students arrive in Canada with language.
The majority of these children have the ability to speak,
read and write, although not necessarily in English.
Our job is to take that prior knowledge and apply it
to the acquisition of our students’ new language. It
is important to remind ourselves, as classroom teachers,
that the level of language proficiency in a second or
third language of a student is not necessarily an indicator
of intelligence nor an inability to learn. Educators
need to be empathic to the struggle by ESL students as
they search for the words to express ideas, and to be
patient when dealing with the varied speed with which
students acquire the tools of communication.
ESL
education is evolving; renouncing culture and language
is no longer an expectation of ESL students, although
the practice continues in schools where new students
are required to speak and behave as Canadian students
do. The documentation and consequences of such assimilation
experiences and practices are explored by Promislow (2003)
and Aoki (1999). This approach ignores the importance
of the application of the linguistic skills of a first
language, the creation of meaning that language essentially
is, as well as the cultural knowledge and understanding
that is part of language. Losing the mother tongue is
akin to losing part of a history and sense of self.
When your
mother tongue is at risk of being lost because you are
in a different language environment for an extended period
of time, you may become aware of the fact that it is not
replaceable, that you cannot express your “self” or your
feelings in another language in the same way.
—Promislow, 2003
Sara
Promislow (2003) worries about those educators who do
not engage culturally with ESL students nor build on
the resources that students already bring with them,
and she fears that their mother language is not being
respected. The mother tongue has previously been viewed as
a constant block to the absorption of the new language:
Sometimes
the presence of the native language is so obsessive and
dominant that it shuts off the second language. The patterns
of the first language turn into containers into which the
second language has to fit itself. The process of breaking
away from the confinement of the mother tongue is a painful
one. It sucks out the learner’s energy and creates an insurmountable
barrier.
—Gomaa, 2001, 2
Promislow
(2003) argues that educators today are not educated themselves
in how to best teach ESL students to become successful.
As she says, “In-service educators often do not receive
instruction in this area at all, and find great difficulties
in adapting their instruction to meet the needs of a
growing diversity of students in their classrooms” (7).
Hudelson
(1989) supports the philosophy that educators should
embrace what children already know about their first
language and culture, and that the first language should
not be discarded. “The process of first and second language
acquisition in children are more alike than different” (3).
She suggests that language is easier to assemble if it
is viewed as culturally significant. “Young writers,
whether in their native language or in a second language,
creatively construct written language and develop their
understanding of writing within their homes, communities,
and schools” (3). Children who learn to read and write
in their first language apply those skills to acquiring
a new language. Hudelson examines a whole language approach
to learning another language. “Learning is enhanced through
the use of all four modes: reading, writing, speaking
and listening” (78).
Not
all second or third languages are taught or learned in
the same way. The ESL students we teach all come from
such distinct linguistic backgrounds. The common link
is that currently they are learning English. Ted Aoki
defines multiculturalism as “a polyphony of lines of movement that grow
in the abundance of middles, the “betweens” and “ands” that
populate our landscape...a landscape of multiple possibilities
in a shifting web of rhizomean lines of movement” (1993,
7). We try to make meaning based on our histories. The
process of integrating into a different or new society
poses interesting and particular challenges for our ESL
students. Learning the new language is only part of the
process. Aoki tells us that language is not only to communicate;
learning a new language shapes us into different people
(1999, 81).
Power
Structuring to Writing a Report
Our
directed strategy for report writing accommodates ESL
students who have little or no writing experience in
English. Our strategy is like a math equation; following
the steps promotes success and reduces feelings of inadequacy.
A few months before we started our research, we prepared
our students with a short unit teaching Power Structure.
Russell Collin’s term, Power Structure is an outline
format for teaching organization through headings and
sub-headings and provides a necessary hierarchy framework
for report writing. For example, power one (p1) is a main topic heading, while
(p5) is lower down on the list of points. Next
we embarked on a ten-lesson unit as
set out by Russell Collins to help our students use
Power Structure to organize and write a report. The step
by step approach takes students through the process of
identifying the elements (main ideas, facts, subtitles,
bibliography), organizing facts under key headings, and
stages of report writing to final presentation. Strategies
of deconstruction, cutting/pasting and categorizing were
key to helping the students learn how to write a report.
The
success of the set of lessons is highly dependent on
the ability of students to link information to previous
steps and build their report through precise and deliberate
instruction. This methodology of scaffolding is supported
by educators including Mary Eckes and Barbara Law (1990),
who suggest that providing scaffolds for students allows
them to concentrate on the content. Students are able
to model and imitate a structure given to them. They
feel that this is “especially important in the upper
grades and for the content areas as writers need examples
of good writing in order to write well themselves” (1990,
121). Eventually, say Eckes and Law, students are able
to gain more control and ownership of their writing as
their confidence and knowledge of the English language
increases. The feeling is that “with some instruction
on how the sample is organized, students can follow the
same format for clearer, more readable papers” (1990,
122). Eckes and Law also state that when teaching ESL
students, the most important focus for teachers is to
provide students with an organizational structure.
The
data we collected comprised all the steps involved in
the writing of their report by students and their responses
to the process. This data also included informal observations
through field notes as well as exit slips completed by
students at the conclusion of some lessons. As
novice researchers, our research project had challenging
moments, but the experience was valuable for a variety
of reasons.
Reporting
on Our Experiences as Teacher-researchers Using a New
Writing Strategy
Realizing
the Dream
The
process of researching our classrooms is an incredible
undertaking. At first glance it seems almost simple;
teaching is a daily reality. Researching is, however,
an overwhelming task, not only to document the process
but to know what to look for and to then understanding
what it means or how to make sense of it. Overlooking
important information was a constant fear. Teaching and
observing simultaneously seemed like a job meant for
two people rather than one. As teacher-researchers, we
found it hard to step back from the lesson and just watch
the process unfold while we were teaching.
Organization
was the foundation for this strategy to teach the genre
of report writing that we were investigating. Through strategies
of Power Structure, deconstruction, cutting/pasting and
categorizing, the students had concrete examples from
which they produced their own research reports. In reviewing
our data, it became apparent that this strategy for report
writing was highly successful for the majority of our
students, whether or not English was their first language.
Students who had previously produced short, unstructured,
unorganized reports were now producing lengthy, structured,
and organized ones. The students were able to replicate
the structure that they were taught.
We
believe their success is partially attributed to the
fact that students were given autonomy of choice of research
topics along with a structured process to follow. Students
were able to follow all of the steps throughout the unit
and share their findings with their peers. Our experience
highlights some fundamentals of effective teaching, which
include clarity, pacing, and student choice. Time was
spent learning how to take and organize proper notes
while also spending time ensuring that students understood
the purpose of the tasks.
Although
all students met with success using this strategy, it
became apparent that this approach works best if used
by classroom teachers and then reinforced by resource
teachers, where necessary. The writing strategy that
we researched proved an important method of support for
ESL students in understanding English; it follows a step-by-step
format to ensure that students know what is expected
of them. The strategy also benefited those students needing
extra support, whether English was their first language
or not. Ideally, this strategy would be most successful
in situations where an entire school adopted it and used
it as its writing scope and sequence. We know that there
are some schools in the province of British Columbia
that have done just that.
From
Writing Reports to Dreaming in English…
The
writing strategy that we have examined in this project
is a simple, straightforward strategy which ensures that
students receive the instructions that they need to succeed
in report writing. It allows success for at-risk students,
many of whom are ESL students. These are the students
who often misunderstand their teachers’ intentions or
instructions. Russell Collins’ writing strategy, based
on the Australian research, proved very effective in
our classrooms. It clarified the processes of categorizing
information, note-taking, and writing a specific type
of research report. Students were able to clearly communicate
information and experience success in writing a research
report. This success reaffirms our belief that teachers
need to recognize and celebrate the importance of a student’s
first language and culture. And as ESL teachers, we need
to teach students the tools necessary to succeed in their
new language.
Teachers
need to think about what is most important for their
students. Is it to communicate understanding of the material
taught or grammatical correctness? We propose that many
of the concerns and frustrations of our students arise
from the fact that they are not able to communicate what
they know. All students have background knowledge of
all subjects; they all interact and live in the world.
The problem is to find the ways in which they are able
to communicate this knowledge.
My experience
transcends language and place, although it is defined by
them, embodied in the geographical distance, in the history
contained in my languages, my life history, the history
of my identities. I am bilingual, I live in two worlds
in tandem. I am here both in English and in Hebrew, I am
both with my family in Israel as I am here in Canada. I
carry with me memories from Canada as a child, before emigrating
to Israel, before becoming bilingual, memories of Israel
of becoming and being bilingual, memories of Canada since
I returned. My present is shaped by these memories, their
continuity fragmented by change. My experience is shaped
by the fragments of my present, not here but here all the
same...I am in Israel, but I am not there. I am here.
—Promislow, 2002
Reflections
a Year Later….
The experience
of working through our research project reaffirmed the
way in which each of us works with ESL learners. We each
believe that it is important to look beyond the language
of the ESL learner and find ways for our students to meet
with success in their learning of English. The importance
of our research was to share with other teachers a process
in which ESL learners can be successful in our schools.
Each of us felt the frustration of our ESL learners who
were upset because they could not produce written assignments
that received grades that they felt they deserved. They
knew how to research information and present it to an audience
but did not know how to put it into proper format or wording
expected in Canadian schools. Our research strategy was
a process for ESL students to learn a step-by-step way
in which to write and succeed in writing a research paper.
While
each of us has not formally utilized the strategy this
year, we still believe in the process. In the hectic
reality of classrooms sometimes what we want to teach
is not the reality in the everyday routine of our schools.
As resource teachers there is also the reality of different
teaching methods. This strategy will not be effective
for every research project that a teacher would want
their students to work through. The frustrations of
ESL students still remain a reality in many classrooms.
Resources
Aoki,
T. (1999). Rethinking curriculum and pedagogy. Kappa Delta Phi,
Summer, 180-181.
Eckes,
M. & Law, B. (1990). The
more than just surviving handbook.
Winnipeg, Canada: Peguis.
Gomaa,
S. (2001). ESL
writers T.A.
handbook.
Dartmouth: University of Massachusetts. See:
www.enl.umassd.edu/InteractiveCourse/assistant/TAHndbook_ESL.htm.
Green,
John M. (1998). Helping ESL writers grow. Crosscurrents, (3, January), Salem State College.
Hudelson,
S. (1989). Write
On. Children Writing in ESL.
Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents.
Promislow,
S. (2003). Mother tongues, second languages and languages “in-between”:
On multicultural landscapes and curriculum. Educational
Insights,
8(2) December. See www.educationalinsights.ca.
Teaching
Factual Writing.
(1990). N.S.W., Australia: Language and Social Power
Project.
Zamel,
V. (2002). Strangers in academia: The experience of faculty
and ESL students across the curriculum. Dialogue
on Writing: Rethinking ESL, Basic Writing and First Year
Composition. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.
