Page 33 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

STUDENT WRITING TASKS AND WRITTEN ACADEMIC GENRES 19
TABLE 2.1
Undergraduate Faculty Assessmentsof Some WritingTasks
Mean Importance
Task Statement
Organize writing to convey major and supporting ideas. 4.19
Use relevant reasons and examples to support 4.09 a position.
Demonstrate a command of standard written English, 3.70 including grammar, phrasing, effective sentence
structure, spelling, and punctuation.
Demonstrate facility with a range of vocabulary 3.62 appropriate to the topic.
Show awareness of audience needs and write 3.33 to a particular audience or reader.
Note. Mean Importance Rating on a scale of 0 to 5.
major and supporting ideas and using relevant examples to support them 1
occupytoppriorityinthequalityofacademicdiscourse (ranks4.19-4.09, respectively, out of 5).
In addition, demonstrating command of standard written English, "in- cluding grammar, phrasing, effective sentence structure, spelling, and punctuation," is another high-priority requirement (rank 3.70), as well as demonstrating "facility with a range of vocabulary appropriate for the topic" (rank 3.62). On the other hand, showing awareness of audience needs and writing to a particular audience/reader was not found to be as im- portant (rank 3.33). In addition to the faculty, undergraduate students ranked written discourse organization skills at 4.18; grammar, phrasing, and sentence structure at 4.15; and appropriate vocabulary at 3.69.
'The teaching of academic discourse organization is crucially important in L2 writing in- struction, and a large number of textbooks are available that focus on discourse. It would be no exaggeration to say that the teaching of L2 academic writing focuses predominantly on the fea- tures of discourse organization. However, markedly few course books on L2 writing for either students or teacher training address the importance of text features in L2 instruction. As men- tioned earlier, however organized the information flow can be in student writing, it may be im- possible to understand without an essential clarity and accuracy of text.
Rating
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