Grammar, Writing, and Technology: A Sample Technology-supported Approach to Teaching Grammar and Improving Writing for ESL Learners

English language learners are frequently unable to benefit from the prevailing process-writing approaches due to a lack of grammar and vocabulary knowledge relevant to academic writing. This paper describes how the need for explicit grammar instruction as part of preparing students to write can be addressed by using a collection of learner texts and transforming that collection into an online grammar resource for intermediate nonnative speakers (NNS) of English. Drawing on research in grammar and writing, the use of learner texts, and online interactivity, we outline the development and the prototype of the Internet Writing Resource for the Innovative Teaching of English (iWRITE). We discuss how the judicious use of advanced technology (e.g., XML) facilitated the implementation of iWRITE, an example of one possible approach to embodying aspects of second language acquisition (SLA) theory while taking advantage of the Web's potential for interactivity.

[1]  Ann Raimes,et al.  Techniques in teaching writing , 1983 .

[2]  T. Santos.  Professors' Reactions to the Academic Writing of Nonnative-Speaking Students. , 1988 .

[3]  Ron Cowan,et al.  Four Questions for Error Diagnosis and Correction in CALL. , 2003 .

[4]  John Milton.  Exploiting L1 and interlanguage corpora in the design of an electronic language learning and production environment , 2014 .

[5]  Ken Hyland,et al.  Teaching and Researching Writing , 2001 .

[6]  Sylviane Granger,et al.  Learner corpus data in the foreign language classroom: form-focused instruction and data-driven learning , 1998 .

[7]  Chien Chou,et al.  Interactivity and interactive functions in web-based learning systems: a technical framework for designers , 2003, Br. J. Educ. Technol..

[8]  Susan M. Gass,et al.  Input, interaction, and the second language learner , 1994 .

[9]  Eli Hinkel,et al.  Simplicity Without Elegance: Features of Sentences in L1 and L2 Academic Texts , 2003 .

[10]  Sylviane Granger,et al.  The Learner Corpus: a revolution in applied linguistics , 1994, English Today.

[11]  Michael H. Long.  Focus on Form: A Design Feature in Language Teaching Methodology , 1991 .

[12]  Gus M. Lorenz,et al.  Overstatement in advanced learners''writing: Stylistic aspects of adjective intensification , 2014 .

[13]  Daniel C. A. Hillman,et al.  Learner-Interface Interaction in Distance Education: An Extension of Contemporary Models and Strategies for Practitioners , 1994 .

[14]  C. Maddux.  The Web in Education , 2002 .

[15]  Chin-Hwa Kuo,et al.  A Web-based EFL writing environment: integrating information for learners, teachers, and researchers , 2001, Comput. Educ..

[16]  Carol A. Chapelle,et al.  Multimedia CALL: Lessons to be Learned from Research on Instructed SLA , 1998 .

[17]  Meng Chang Chen,et al.  The Design of an Intelligent Web-Based Interactive Language Learning System , 2002 .

[18]  S. Granger,et al.  Connector usage in the English essay writing of native and non‐native EFL speakers of English , 1996 .

[19]  Maxine Hairston,et al.  The Winds of Change: Thomas Kuhn and the Revolution in the Teaching of Writing. , 1982 .

[20]  Fanny Meunier,et al.  The pedagogical value of native and learner corpora in EFL grammar teaching , 2002 .

[21]  Tuija Virtanen,et al.  Exploiting the international corpus of learner English (ICLE) , 1996 .

[22]  R. Schmidt.  The role of consciousness in second language learning , 1990 .

[23]  Phillip Rowles.  Teaching and Learning Vocabulary , 2003 .

[24]  Sylviane Granger.  Overstatement in advanced learners' writing: stylistic aspects of adjective intensification , 2014 .

[25]  Kerry Shephard,et al.  Assisting the uptake of on-line resources: why good learning resources are not enough , 2003, Comput. Educ..

[26]  Sylviane Granger,et al.  The International Corpus of Learner English , 1993 .

[27]  Nelleke Oostdijk,et al.  English Language Corpora , 1993 .

[28]  Sandra Fotos,et al.  Teaching Grammar in Writing Classes: Tenses and Cohesion , 2001 .

[29]  Sylviane Granger,et al.  Automatic Profiling of Learner Texts , 1998 .

[30]  Roberta J. Vann,et al.  Error Gravity: A Study of Faculty Opinion of ESL Errors , 1984 .

[31]  Eli Hinkel,et al.  Teaching Academic ESL Writing : Practical Techniques in Vocabulary and Grammar , 2005 .

[32]  Carl James,et al.  Errors in Language Learning and Use: Exploring Error Analysis , 1998 .

[33]  T. Pica.  The language learner's environment as a resource for linguistic input? A review of theory and research , 1994 .

[34]  Michael H. Long.  The Role of the Linguistic Environment in Second Language Acquisition , 1996 .

[35]  Erik Smitterberg,et al.  International Corpus of Learner English , 2004 .

[36]  Sylviane Granger,et al.  Lexis in Contrast. Corpus-based Approaches , 2002 .

[37]  Volker Hegelheimer,et al.  Helping ESL Writers through a Multimodal, Corpus-Based, Online Grammar Resource , 2013 .