WHAT UNSKILLED ESL STUDENTS DO AS THEY WRITE: A CLASSROOM STUDY OF COMPOSING

Research on composing by native speakers of English has shown that the processes used by skilled writers can be described and taught in the classroom. Researchers have also examined the composing behaviors of unskilled writers to determine common features and to make recommendations for classroom teaching. While ESL composition research has pointed out the similarities between the processes of experienced L1 and L2 writers, less attention has been directed to unskilled L2 writers and how their composing processes differ from those of unskilled L1 writers. This article attempts to begin to fill that gap. It first examines, from a theoretical perspective, what we know about composing in a first and second language and what we need to know. It then describes a study in which unskilled ESL writers in a “developmental” college writing course wrote an essay in class. The findings from this study are then compared to those of some major studies of the composing process, and conclusions are drawn about the specific needs of unskilled ESL student writers.

[1]  John R. Hayes,et al.  Uncovering Cognitive Processes in Writing: An Introduction to Protocol Analysis. , 1981 .

[2]  L. Faigley,et al.  Coherence, Cohesion, and Writing Quality , 1981, College Composition & Communication.

[3]  Jack Selzer,et al.  The Composing Processes of an Engineer. , 1983 .

[4]  Terry Mischel,et al.  A Case Study of a Twelfth-Grade Writer. , 1975 .

[5]  Linda Flower,et al.  Writer-Based Prose: A Cognitive Basis for Problems in Writing. , 1979 .

[6]  Sondra Perl,et al.  The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers , 1979, Research in the Teaching of English.

[7]  L. Odell.  Measuring the Effect of Instruction in Pre-Writing , 1974, Research in the Teaching of English.

[8]  Ann Matsuhashi,et al.  Pausing and Planning: The Tempo of Written Discourse Production , 1981 .

[9]  N. Sommers.  Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers , 1980, College Composition & Communication.

[10]  Charles K. Stallard,et al.  An Analysis of the Writing Behavior of Good Student Writers. , 1974 .

[11]  H. Jacobs.  Testing Esl Composition: A Practical Approach , 1981 .

[12]  K. A. Ericsson,et al.  Verbal reports as data. , 1980 .

[13]  S. Krashen.  Writing--Research, Theory, And Applications , 1984 .

[14]  Sharon Pianko,et al.  A Description of the Composing Processes of College Freshman Writers , 1979, Research in the Teaching of English.

[15]  J. Hayes,et al.  A Cognitive Process Theory of Writing , 1981, College Composition & Communication.

[16]  B. P. Taylor,et al.  Content and Written Form: A Two-Way Street* , 1981 .

[17]  J. Emig.  Writing as a Mode of Learning. , 1977 .

[18]  Jane B. Hughey.  Teaching Esl Composition: Principles and Techniques , 1983 .

[19]  Vivian Zamel.  The Composing Processes of Advanced ESL Students: Six Case Studies , 1983 .

[20]  Mike Rose,et al.  Rigid Rules, Inflexible Plans, and the Stifling of Language: A Cognitivist Analysis of Writer’s Block , 1980, College Composition & Communication.

[21]  Marilyn M. Cooper,et al.  Talking About Protocols. , 1983 .

[22]  R. Beach.  The Effects of Between-draft Teacher Evaluation Versus Student Self-evaluation on High School Students’ Revising of Rough Drafts , 1979, Research in the Teaching of English.

[23]  Vivian Zamel,et al.  Writing: The Process of Discovering Meaning , 1982 .

[24]  Suzanne E. Jacobs.  Composing and Coherence. The Writing of Eleven Pre-Medical Students. Linguistics and Literacy Series: 3. , 1982 .

[25]  David L. Heuring,et al.  The Revision Strategies of Skilled and Unskilled ESL Writers: Five Case Studies , 1985 .

[26]  Ruth Spack,et al.  Student-Teacher Working Journals in ESL Freshman Composition , 1983 .