Rodney E. Tyson
Paper/Workshop presented at Fukuoka JALT, May 17, 1998.
Fukuoka JALT's KOTESOL-Vetted Speaker Award
Review
by Bill Pellowe, President, Fukuoka Chapter, JALT
(The
English Connection, July 1998, p. 18)
Abstract
During the past two decades or so, the process approach has become accepted
as the most effective approach to teaching academic writing in many Western
universities, both to native English-speakers and to ESL students (e.g.,
Caudery, 1995). In addition, some recent research suggests that many of
the techniques and activities associated with the process approach, including
group writing assignments, peer-editing, and multiple revisions, "serve
to demystify the task of writing in a foreign language" as well as provide
students with "valuable opportunities to learn from each other" (White
& Caminero, 1995, p. 323). Still, the literature on teaching writing
in Asian settings, including at the university level in Korea and Japan,
indicates that both students and instructors often strongly resist using
the process approach in favor of a more traditional approach that emphasizes
grammar and explicit error correction (e.g., Brock, 1994; Jones, 1995;
Kong, 1996; Pennington, Brock, & Yue, 1995).
The speaker will begin by presenting some relevant findings from his ongoing
research into student attitudes toward a number of "process-oriented" techniques
used in academic writing classes at two Korean universities over the past
three years. (Parts of this research have been presented at two Asian TESOL
conferences. See references.) Data will be presented from questionnaires,
student reflective writing, and ethnographic description suggesting that
some of these techniques, including use of multiple drafts, peer-editing,
an emphasis on the "publication" of students' work, and instructor comments
on early drafts that focus more on content and organization than grammatical
correctness, helped students to produce better compositions as well as
increase their motivation and self-confidence. In addition, it will be
shown how use of the process approach can mean less work overall for the
instructor as it transfers the main responsibility for learning to the
students. The speaker will conclude this initial presentation with a list
of general suggestions for implementing aspects of the process approach
at all levels of university academic writing classes in a way that it is
culturally-appropriate for Asian students. (This part of the presentation,
excluding follow-up comments and questions, should take about 30-40 minutes.)
For most of the remainder of the afternoon, the audience will be divided
into groups for discussion and completion of tasks provided by the speaker.
Discussion questions will be designed to encourage participants to express
their opinions, both positive and negative, about the use of the process
approach in their individual teaching situations. Task materials will be
provided, in the form of handouts and overhead transparencies, mainly from
actual examples of writing produced by students in the speaker's classes
(e.g., prewriting, first drafts, peer-editing, self-editing, final drafts).
Participants will be encouraged to suggest ways for dealing with typical
problems encountered in teaching academic writing at the university level
(e.g., motivating students to write, responding to student writing, teaching
various stages of the writing process). At a few points, groups will be
asked to summarize their discussions for the entire audience in order to
facilitate the sharing of ideas and to foster even more discussion. The
main themes for the group discussions will be the following:
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