In these last few weeks of the semester, my upper-level writing class and I writing argumentative research papers. This assignment is pushing them to exercise new skills such as developing their own organizational outline, and encouraging them to respond to critics of their own positions.
I say "we" because I am doing this along with my students. In conjunction with the L2WRG (Second Language Writing Research Group), a few other researchers and I are "responding" to a recent debate in error correction. As my class and I discuss how to respond to research, it means as much to them as it does to me.
So how does an instructor teach how to write an argumentative research paper? Good question, and I wish I knew; this university - for all the emphasis that it places on writing - offers few courses on the teaching of writing. But despite my lack of training, I have done my best to pick up writing-pedagogy professional development opportunities. One such opportunity was a Writing Matters Seminar (sponsored by the university writing initiative) with a guest speaker who recently wrote the "They Say, I Say" composition help book.
"They Say, I Say" is based on the premise that new university students need to learn the language of academic English. Rather than simply expect students to learn this language implicitly, the authors suggest that university instructors need to raise students' awareness of these phrases and forms in order to facilitate this type of "language acquisition."
Although this book is intended for native speakers of English, it is even more relevant in our ESL class. If natiev speakers struggle to know how to put academic ideas into academic words,
then it is even more imperative that ESL students be explicitly taught these phrases of academic language.
The book offers templates for phrases and their functions, but the book does not explain how to teach them. So I'm trying to figure this out.
There are a few techniques I have used to teach phrases/vocabulary.
- Allow students play vocabulary games with partners using the AWL (Academic Word List)
- Require the use of AWL words in their essays (a portion of their grade is tied to this)
- Model, show examples, and encourage practice with academic phrases in a lecture format
1 comment:
Whether using the "They say/I say" book or others, teaching how to write means providing examples of what is expected, giving clear explanations of those examples, and then having the students practice using the examples in their own writing.
On teaching argument, students have a tendency to make many claims and sometimes provide some evidence, but have trouble explaining how the evidence supports the claim. So, I've taken a nuts-and-bolts approach saying that every paragraph needs a claim, evidence, and reasoning/analysis. It helps to provide examples numbering or color coding (using MS Word) the three different parts.
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