[Teaching_Composition] NEW MODULE

[Suzanne Blum Malley]

Thanks Emmanuel. I agree that the goal of a linguistically diverse writing
classroom should have the same goal as a not so diverse writing classroom -
and I appreciate the sensitivity language issues that your language
background allows you to provide for your students. I do similar things in
my classrooms -- I have the same expectations and goals for students across
the board, but often work one-on-one or in small groups to address NNES
needs. In fact, many of the suggestions that I give to faculty in our first
year writing program and across the college about working with NNES students
in their classrooms really boil down to good teaching strategies. It's not
teaching different stuff, it's teaching in a way that provides support and
access for all students.

One of the things that prompted me to write on this issue for Teaching
Composition is that I am asked so often by non-ESL writing teachers what
they should do "about" their NNES writers. At the same time, many of the
TESOL / Applied Linguistics MA students that I work with have never taken a
second language writing course, much less an intro comp/rhet pedagogy class.
I am interested in how and where we can make connections and provide
ideas/strategies for writing teachers across the board.

I'm interested in hearing other stories and other ideas.
Suzanne 


On 10/10/06 4:26 PM, "Emmanuel Sigauke" <esigauke@ccsf.edu> wrote:

> This is an interesting topic for me because, although I teach "regular"
> composition classes, I fall ( or used to fall) within the category of NNES
> since I learned English at the age of seven. I went on to major in English in
> an African country (former British colony) that used English as it official
> language, but I continued to use a primary language for daily communication at
> home. The English major element, I have noticed, has made me attain a
> comfortable pedagogical angle from which I can teach English to NES as well as
> NNES. This has made me attain a better (perhaps well-informed) understanding
> of the different approaches to composition that native speaker students have
> in relation to ESL. Often, I am able to pierce into the deep-rooted linguistic
> hesitancies of an ESL rhetoric, borne out of the suspicion of defiency that
> such students have picked on their way up the ESL learner ladder. I am able to
> detect the hidden cry for help which demands of me a certain understandi!
>  ng of the ESL experience, and my answer to the cry is that of teaching the
> same standards to NNES as those taught to NES. Is this fair, especially coming
> from someone "who should know"? It's not a question of fairness, I have
> reassured myself, but that of teaching according to the standards of the
> course being taught; just as there is not ESL way of teaching Anatomy as
> opposed to a NES one, I have followed the axiom that in a class like English
> 1A, or IC, I will use the same standards in setting essay prompts, exam
> questions, grading ( lack of parallelism is lack of parallelism, whether one
> is NNES or NES), but I have catered to linguistic diversity by fascilitating
> discussions that hinge on personal experience, and during on-on-one
> conferences and office hours, I have encouraged utilization of allowing the L1
> experience to help in things like brainstorming, but have emphasized the need
> for a full translation of the concepts to their English equivalence. The NNES
> state, acc!
>  epted as a strength, can lead to confident writing.
>        I have also found that an honest approach to these issues does help;
> for instance, if I detect an error that is L1-inspired, I will let the NNES
> student know that I understand the ideas being expressed, and I will then
> offer alternative ways to express the same ideas in a more standard style.
> While there are problems that are exlusively NNES in nature, there are some
> non-standard versions of English (writing) that are of an NES-nature; I treat
> these as part of linguistic diversity in my composition classroom and work
> with the students to appreciate use of a standard writing style.
>     In short, linguistic diversity in a composition class could range from
> dialect-based to NNES varieties of English, yet the goal remains that of
> helping all the students improve on or attain a level of writing that yields
> results in communication, and helps the students best express themselves in
> writing. 
> 
> Emmanuel Sigauke
> English Department
> City College of San Francisco
> 50 Phelan Avenue
> San Francisco, CA  94112
> Phone:(415) 452-7059
>>>> chris_anson@ncsu.edu 10/10/06 6:21 AM >>>
> If you've ever formed small focus groups in your class and then, to
> get through your agenda, had to break into what you know are highly
> productive, energetic discussions, then you'll have a sense of what
> I'm experiencing moving us to a new module. (In such a situation you
> might let the discussions go on longer than you'd planned*and we've
> done the same, by about ten days worth.) In any case, many thanks to
> Bill Thelin for leading us in an especially engaging discussion of
> the "academic bill of rights," ideology in the classroom, and related
> topics.
> 
> Another kind of ideology is at work in our teaching and is relevant
> to our next module, "The Linguistically Diverse Composition
> Classroom," led by Suzanne Blum Malley. I'm thinking of instructional
> ideology*beliefs about the goals and methods of the educational
> enterprise that are predictive of how we might conduct a class
> session, what we might write on a student's paper, how we interact
> with members of our classes (publicly or in tutorials and office
> hours), and how we feel about students themselves*their preparation,
> their lifestyles, their appearance, their ethnicity, and the
> varieties of language they bring to our classes. In spite of the
> growth of world English(es) and attempts in the U.S. to erase or
> marginalize other languages through English-only legislation, many of
> our campuses continue to be linguistically diverse, enrolling
> students with a spectrum of language characteristics and influences
> that variously affect their oral communication, the rhetorical and
> pragmatic/discursive features of their writing, and their control of
> surface features as well. Teachers often bring quite different
> beliefs about the role, needs, "place for," and performance of
> students outside the linguistic mainstream. In her module, Suzannne
> asks us to consider such issues in the context of a crucial area of
> language preparation and growth: the composition classroom. As
> always, please visit the TeachingComp Web site to read Suzanne's
> module, which includes links to some useful resources and ends with a
> set of discussion questions for the list: http://www.mhhe.com/
> socscience/english/tc/
> 
> Suzanne Blum Malley is the Director of ESL and interim Director of
> the Writing Center at Columbia College Chicago, where she teaches in
> the ESL Program, the Writing and Rhetoric Program, and in Columbiašs
> First Year Seminar. She serves as a master teacher for the University
> of Illinois at Chicago Master's in Applied Linguistics Program, with
> MA students interning in her classes for a semester prior to
> completing their degrees. Suzanne's areas of interest and research
> include digital rhetoric and alternative pedagogies for college-level
> second language reading and writing. She has recently co-authored a
> composition textbook with Amy Hawkins titled Translating Culture: A
> Rhetoric for Ethnographic Writing in the Composition Classroom
> (forthcoming from Houghton Mifflin).
> 
> Hablemos.
> 

-- Suzanne Blum Malley
Columbia College Chicago
English Department
Director of ESL
Director of the Writing Center (interim)
312-344-8111
sbmalley@colum.edu