Teacher Written Commentary In Second Language Writing Classrooms

Although second language writing instructors know that providing effective written feedback is essential to any good composition course, beginning and seasoned teachers alike struggle with this challenging task. InTeacher Written Commentary in Second Language WritingClassrooms, Lynn M. Goldstein uses ample research and experiential evidence to explain both how and why teachers should comment on their students' writing assignments. Among the problems that Goldstein addresses are how to attend to the product without slighting the process, how to intervene in process without appropriating product, how to facilitate student comprehension and use of teacher feedback while promoting student independence, and how to respond efficiently while remaining attentive to individual student needs. While it may not necessarily reduce the time spent on commenting, the book will enable teachers and teachers-in-training to provide written commentary that will help their students to become stronger and more independent writers in English. This volume is the only source that contains such in-depth consideration of the issues and the range of practices within teacher written commentary and the only resource that focuses solely on issues of rhetoric and content in multilingual writing students' texts. Teachers and teacher educators will appreciate the Goldstein's thorough and well-grounded analysis. Lynn M. Goldstein is Professor, TESOL and Applied Linguistics, Monterey Institute of International Studies (CA).

This volume synthesizes and critically analyzes the literature on response to the writing of second language students, and discusses the implications of the research for teaching practice in the areas of written and oral teacher commentary on student writing, error correction, and facilitation of peer response. The book features numerous examples of student texts and teacher commentary, as well as figures and appendices that summarize research findings and present sample lessons and other teaching materials. It is thus simultaneously comprehensive in its approach to the existing research and highly practical in showing current and future teachers how this material applies to their everyday endeavors of responding to student writing and teaching composition classes. Response to student writing--whether it takes the form of teachers' written feedback on content, error correction, teacher-student conferences, or peer response--is an extremely important component of teaching second language writing. Probably no single activity takes more teacher time and energy. Response to Student Writing is a valuable theoretical and practical resource for those involved in this crucial work, including L2 composition researchers, in-service and preservice teachers of ESOL/EFL writers, and teacher educators preparing graduate students for the teaching of writing.

This collection of scholarly articles by leading researchers offers empirical data and analysis of complex issues related to providing feedback during the writing process.

A collection of 13 original articles, this book is intended to provide a series of discussions about multiple aspects of second language writing, presenting chapters that collectively address a range of issues that are important to new teachers at the post-secondary level. The chapters provide scholarly visions, insight, and interpretation oriented toward explaining the field of teaching academic writing to non-native speakers. The book is designed to provide foundational content-knowledge in this area, each chapter authored by recognized experts in the field. Throughout the chapters, presentation and review of scholarship is presented primarily in the interest of understanding how such knowledge directly or potentially impart teaching, making this a pedagogically relevant book. In addition to helping train new teachers, the book will serve as an updated reference book for practicing teachers and scholars to consult.

While assessment and feedback tend to be treated separately in the L2 writing literature, this book brings together these two essential topics and examines how effective classroom assessment and feedback can provide a solid foundation for the successful teaching and learning of writing. Drawing upon current educational and L2 writing theories and research, the book is the first to address writing assessment and feedback in L2 primary and secondary classrooms, providing a comprehensive, up-to-date review of key issues, such as assessment for learning, assessment as learning, teacher feedback, peer feedback, portfolio assessment, and technology enhanced classroom writing assessment and feedback. The book concludes with a chapter on classroom assessment literacy for L2 writing teachers, outlines its critical components and underscores the importance of teachers undertaking continuing professional development to enhance their classroom assessment literacy. Written in an accessible style, the book provides a practical and valuable resource for L2 writing teachers to promote student writing, and for teacher educators to deliver effective classroom writing assessment and feedback training. Though the target audience is school teachers, L2 writing instructors in any context will benefit from the thorough and useful treatment of classroom assessment and feedback in the book.

Since the publication of the first edition in 2002, there have been two major developments in L2 writing and peer response teaching and research. The first is the increased interest in CALL and computer-mediated communication (CMC) for L2 pedagogy; the second is the accessibility and viability of research on L2 peer response from all over the world. Both developments are thoroughly addressed in this new edition. Now that classes are as likely to be online as held in physical classrooms and now that a new generation of digital natives can routinely read and respond to what others write via laptops, tablets, and phones, peer response as pedagogical practice is not just more easily implemented, but it is more likely to feel natural to L2 learners. The Second Edition is a highly accessible guide to how the world is using peer response and serves as a motivator and facilitator for those who want to try it for the first time or want to increase the effectiveness of the activities—whether via CMC or not. The volume includes 11 forms useful in training students to provide good peer feedback, including a final checklist to ensure teachers have taken all the necessary steps to achieve a successful peer feedback activity.

Assessment in the Second Language Writing Classroom is a teacher and prospective teacher-friendly book, uncomplicated by the language of statistics. The book is for those who teach and assess second language writing in several different contexts: the IEP, the developmental writing classroom, and the sheltered composition classroom. In addition, teachers who experience a mixed population or teach cross-cultural composition will find the book a valuable resource. Other books have thoroughly covered the theoretical aspects of writing assessment, but none have focused as heavily as this book does on pragmatic classroom aspects of writing assessment. Further, no book to date has included an in-depth examination of the machine scoring of writing and its effects on second language writers. Crusan not only makes a compelling case for becoming knowledgeable about L2 writing assessment but offers the means to do so. Her highly accessible, thought-provoking presentation of the conceptual and practical dimensions of writing assessment, both for the classroom and on a larger scale, promises to engage readers who have previously found the technical detail of other works on assessment off-putting, as well as those who have had no previous exposure to the study of assessment at all.

On Second Language Writing brings together internationally recognized scholars in a collection of original articles that, collectively, delineate and explore central issues with regard to theory, research, instruction, assessment, politics, articulation with other disciplines, and standards. In recent years, there has been a dramatic growth of interest in second-language writing and writing instruction in many parts of the world. Although an increasing number of researchers and teachers in both second-language studies and composition studies have come to identify themselves as specialists in second-language writing, research and teaching practices have been dispersed into several different disciplinary and institutional contexts because of the interdisciplinary nature of the field. This volume is the first to bring together prominent second-language writing specialists to systematically address basic issues in the field and to consider the state of the art at the end of the century (and the millennium).