Studies of Multilingual Writers

1. Studies of Multilingual Writers Terry Myers ZawackiAssociate Professor, English Department, Director Writing Across the Curriculumtzawacki@gmu.edu Melissa Allen Coordinator of Support Services for Non-Native Speakers, English Language Institutemalle2gmu.eduLaurie MillerInstructional Technology Coordinator & High Advanced Writing Instructor English Language Institutellmiller@gmu.edu

2. “The University will develop more fully its leading role as a global university …[it will] expand the number of international students by at least 20% while improving the integration of international and domestic students in extracurricular as well as academic activities.” from George Mason’s 2014 Strategic Plan, goal 5 Part1: Terry Myers Zawacki

3. “…within a decade or so, the number of people who speak English as a second language will exceed the number of native speakers.” From his 2006 follow-up report English Next: The global spread of English raises “not just linguistic, educational, and economic issues but also cultural, political, and ethical ones.” From David Graddol’s The Future of English, 1997

4. “…to further promote academic literacy and to prepare students for disciplinary discourse within and beyond the academy… the literacy support of second language writers needs to extend beyond the composition requirement as well. …[WAC programs] should include information about second language writing development, …about second language populations at the institutions, approaches for designing writing assignments that are culturally inclusive, and approaches for assessing writing that are ethical in relation to second language writing” (p. 8) From the CCCC (draft) position statement on Second Language Writing, November 2009

5. How can/should WAC engage with L2 Writing scholarship? • What are the central issues? (I’ve noted the range of issues, for example, in Casanave’s Controversies and in Johns’ WAC/L2 publications. ) • What are the terms I need to define? The must-read research and theory? The L2 scholars currently engaging with WAC/WID? • What best practices are emerging for WAC? • How does one negotiate with World Englishes theory and practice in U.S.-centric institutions? • And where do assessment mandates fit in with a culturally inclusive WID pedagogy?

6. Engaged Writers and Dynamic Disciplines: Research on the Academic Writing Life • by Chris Thaiss & Terry Myers Zawacki • Research on the writing and teaching-with-writing practices of faculty across disciplines and students’ understanding of disciplinary conventions, teachers’ expectations, originality, and voice • . Sources of data: Interviews with faculty across disciplines Survey of students across majors (183 respondents/40 disciplines) Focus groups with upper-division students across disciplines Reflective portfolio essays by students from 20 disciplines for proficiency credit for discipline-focused advanced composition Data from discipline-based assessment of student writing proficiency

7. Good writing is good writing is good writing … • David Russell calls this the “myth of transparency”: • Because apprentices in a discipline learn very gradually its written conventions as an active and integral part of their socialization in a community, the process of learning to write seems transparent. • …the community’s genres and conventions appear to be unproblematic renderings of the fruits of research.” • Writing in the Academic Disciplines: A Curricular History

8. Development of a Disciplinary Writer: Three Rough Stages • Stage One: sense of disciplinary consistency based on writing in very few courses; expectations broad and generic academic • Stage Two: with more experience, sense of teacher inconsistency/idiosyncrasy supplants perception of consistency • Stage Three: understanding of differences as part of a nuanced idea of the discipline

9. “Valuing Written Accents: Non-native Students Talk about Identity, Academic Writing, and Meeting Teachers’ Expectations” http: writtenaccents.gmu.edu

11. Excerpts from: “Will Our Stories Help Teachers Understand?” Multilingual Students Talk about Identity, Voice and Expectations across Academic Communities” By Terry Myers Zawacki and Anna Habib Forthcoming in Reinventing Identities in Second Language Writing, EdsMichelle Cox, Jay Jordan, Christina Ortmeier-Hooper, and Gwen Gray Schwartz.

12. Student and Faculty Informants • We interviewed 26 students that had been in the U.S. between four months and 10 years and spoke 20 different home languages. • With a research assistant, I’ve also interviewed faculty members from fifteen different disciplines. For the most part, these faculty have been active in WAC, and I also know many of them through the Diversity Research Group, which sponsored the publication of Valuing Written Accents.

13. What it means to be original and to write in one’s own voice, a significant additional challenge for multilingual students who are not yet fluent in the language and who are members of a diverse range of academic communities what it means to think critically in writing, a learnable skill that can be defined differently from discipline to discipline, discipline but also a “peculiarly Western construct,” as Casanave (Controversies) points out. Key themes:

14. “In America, when I write totally different style of paper, the professor say, ‘Where are you from? How did you get into this college? Your writing is behind the line, so you can’t really catch up to the class.’ So, I don’t know how to figure that out.” --Yoon, student from S. Korea

15. “For many of these students, the primary issue is not just grammatical but it’s having the vocabulary, the ability, [to convey] the level of ideas they are trying to express. And sometimes I question whether or not they’re really understanding or just memorizing. While I’m sympathetic to the pressures they face here, I don’t have a clue about how to help them think independently and produce material in their own words.”--Sociology professor

16. Ignacio, a government major from Spain, discovered: • “I found out that you have to say in the introduction what you are going to say, then you have to link the introduction to the development with a final sentence, and you have to start development with a sentence, and you have to develop your thesis with an example, then finish introducing the other statement or argument, then wrapping up everything with the conclusion. Tell me what you are going to tell me, tell me, then tell me what you told me. I found that pretty restricting at first.”

17. Art &Visual Technology faculty member: • [Students] get this idea that authority in writing is gained by having no “I,” so I really have to help them understand, especially the ESL students, that they are allowed to be in the writing, not in a casual style, like ‘I had my breakfast and then I went to the museum,’ but in a way that asks them to be fully present in their learning and in their writing. And this is exceedingly difficult for non-native writers because they’re still struggling with the basics of academic style and language.

18. Kanishka, Sri Lanka, grad student in Public Policy: • I had my initial friction between the cultures here when I was told over and over again “you know you have to cut down, clean up your paragraphs.” I was very offended because I came with a lot of confidence behind me and suddenly I find that it is totally different. But it didn’t take me long to catch up though. I realized any nice language I use is wasted; no one is going to look at it in that way.

19. Psychology professor on WID: • It’s not correctness per se but those sorts of unwritten rules about the words that are appropriate to convey a particular point. Maybe other words would work, but they aren’t conventional, and so readers will have to stop and say ‘What do you mean?’ rather than flowing through the logic.

20. Haifeng, grad student from China, on using models: • After his professor told him his writing was awkward and gave him “examples of how to express in a better way,” he did “some reading and when I think piece is very impressive, I …try to write it down or remember it in another way, and I will try to use it when I write next time.”

21. Factors in transfer of knowledge from one context to another: • prior knowledge of the topic • knowledge of contexts around the topic, e.g. culture, class, race, gender, etc; • active, problem-solving approaches vs. memorizing; • deliberate practice in multiple contexts; • and monitoring and reflecting on learning processes • (Bransford, Brown, and Cocking, 2009).

22. We can’t assume that reflection is a “universal.” We need to ask whether and how it might vary in different cultures. • Yancey, Reflection in the Writing Classroom • Like our conceptions of originality and critical thinking, is the practice of reflection, as we conceive of it as a pedagogical practice in composition, another “peculiarly Western” process?

23. However, the interviews themselves proved to be for many of the students we talked to an opportunity to reflect on the process of learning to learn and write in the American academy. • For many of the faculty we interviewed, just as with the students, the interviews also offered a valuable opportunity for articulating their concerns and for reflecting on the efficacy of the strategies they are currently using to help multilingual writers gain fluency.

24. Part 2: Allen & Miller • Origins of the project • High Advanced Writing class – IEP NNS • Support Services – enrolled NNS • New roles for the ELI at Mason • Access – increased international student enrollment • HAW class due to become credit bearing

25. What We Wanted to Learn • How have the former students in the HAW class done academically at Mason? • What are the students’ memories of HAW and to what extent do they think it prepared them for academic writing at Mason?

26. What We Wanted to Learn • What experiences have they had with writing at Mason? • What kinds of assignments have they had and how confident do they feel in their ability to complete them? • How can the university support these students as writers?

27. Purpose • Insights for improving the HAW class and support services for enrolled students. • Prepare ourselves and other ELI faculty for upcoming new collaboration with faculty in the disciplines – Access Program • Add to scholarship on the development of academic literacy by NNS

28. High Advanced Writing • Transition/Grad Core level in the ELI • Student movement from ELI to enrolled student status • HAW Syllabus <http://mason.gmu.edu/~llmiller/Syllabi/AW/syllabus.html>

29. Study Structure Data collection • How many HAW students were accepted at George Mason University? What is the average GPA? • What freshman & junior level writing classes have they taken?

30. Study Structure On-line Survey - 55 students sent survey; 25 took • Which of the following courses have you taken at Mason? English 100, English 101, English 302 • Have you taken courses outside the English Department that have required writing assignments? If so, how many and which courses? • What types of writing assignments have you been given?

31. Study Structure • What, if anything, did you learn in the High Advanced Writing class that has helped you in your academic classes? • How would you rate your proficiency in each of the following areas? • Development of main idea and support, organization of ideas, grammar and sentence structure, spelling and punctuation • Are there any particular English writing skills that you wish you had improved before you became a full-time enrolled college student?

32. Study Structure • When you have a writing assignment for a class, how often do you use the following resources? • The Writing Center, course instructor, friends or relatives, monolingual dictionary, bilingual dictionary, synonym finder, grammar/spell check, ELI tutor • Would you be willing to participate in an interview about your experiences writing for George Mason courses?

33. Study Structure Interviews – Four students interviewed in pairsPart 1 – HAW • Do any assignments in HAW stand out in your memory and what do you remember about them? • In what way were the assignments in HAW similar to and different from the assignments you have in academic classes?

34. Study Structure Interview Part 1 - HAW • What do you think about the amount of work and the difficulty of the work? • What did you think about the feedback you received? • How did the HAW class affect your attitude or feelings about writing in English?

35. Study Structure • Interview Part 2 – Experiences in Academic Classes • Can you talk about the kinds of writing assignments you have in your academic classes? For example, what assignments do you have this semester? • Have you ever had an assignment that you found especially confusing or challenging or problematic? • How do you feel about your ability as a writer? What aspects of writing are you most confident about? and What are you least confident about?

36. Study Structure • Interview Part 2 – Experiences in Academic Classes • When you have a writing assignment, what are the steps you go through? • Can you talk about the resources that you use? (books, technology, people, etc.)

37. Study Structure • Interview Part 2 – Experiences in Academic Classes • What kinds of feedback do you get from your professors and do you find them useful? • Is there anything George Mason can do to support you as a writer?

38. Results • High overall GPAs • 59 admitted undergraduates -- former HAW students

39. Results Large variety of classes that require writing • Business • Computer science • Communication • History • Psychology • Systems engineering • Dance • Geology • Anthropology • Sociology • Physics • Economics • Health sciences

40. Results Common Assignment Types • Research paper – most commonly listed (95%) • In-class essays/test (91%) • Journals & Blogs (86%)

41. Results Most Common Human Resources • Course instructor – 78% (often/occasionally) • Friends/Family – 72% (often/occasionally) • Writing Center – 33% (always, often, occasionally)

42. Results • Most helpful parts of the HAW class • Grammar – 7 responses • Research paper/ research skills – 7 • APA citation style – 4 • Writing in the American style - 2

43. Results Interview themes and insights Desire for models and early feedback (prior to grading) A: I think also what’s missing is they usually ask you to do one draft, so you do one draft and that’s like the end of your life. But you don’t know how good it is and they don’t give you a chance to correct it . Sometimes you talk to the teacher and you think you know what the teacher wants and then you stat writing and you give in your paper and they’re like, “That’s not what I wanted,” and there aren’t any more chances to correct it. • K: Good point! Bravo! • M: You’d like that too? A chance to rewrite?

44. Results Frustration with conflicting feedback • J: For example, the persuasive letter. The assignment is a resume and a cover letter. And I write, “ It is a great opportunity to ….blah, blah.” And somebody, English major, say “You can say, ‘I would love the opportunity,….:’ That’s good.” And I turn it in and the professor say, “In business writing, you can never say ‘love.’ “You can never say “love,” I thought, “What?!? I just revise it! Oh my God! Sometimes I feel, I don’t know….”

45. Results Students generally understand assignments – detailed specified written objectives given by faculty • M: In your academic classes, have you ever had an assignment that you thought was confusing, challenging or problematic – where your couldn’t figure out what the professor wanted or…? • K: Until now, I think I’m fine because all the time before we need to write a paper, the professor always give us like what points we want to cover, • L: So, they're clear… • K: ….the purpose, what kind of idea or what style we need to use. Basically, he’ll give us very clear rubric.

46. Results • Students use multiple drafting and their own processes…. • H: First I start worrying (laughter). I don’t just take it easy. I start worrying just start thinking about it , just going through a test. Sometimes it’s so confusing understanding what they’re asking, the major topic. To me, I start analyzing it so hard, asking my classmates, find out what they’re writing about, plugging it into the assignment, see if I can get something similar…

47. Results Want acknowledgement of effort, not a break (wounded-pride) • K: I want everybody to understand, the professor to understand, you can give me a poor score, you can say my paper is the worst thing you’ve ever seen, but I hope you can understand ….I know you …have the same standard, I can understand you have to treat everyone equally for your class but I hope the professor will understand I’m trying. Maybe I will write the worst paper but I’m trying. I’ve suffered because of this paper and I will survive and I will improve.

48. Conclusions • Observations on the HAW course • Research paper skills • In-class Writing • Grammar • Access Program -- Knowing what comes next • Support Services – knowledge of faculty expectations and student perceptions can inform program design

49. Directions for Further Research • Discourse analysis • Use of genre models • Student interactions with faculty – how are they used • Models – how are they used …if? • Conflicts between disciplinary cultures (you can’t say “love” in business)

50. Questions