Page 40 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

26 CHAPTER 2
THE NEED FOR EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION IN L2 ACADEMIC TEXT
In an important study that surveyed 77 published research reports on the effectiveness of explicit grammar instruction, Norris and Ortega (2000) normed the results of investigations in an attempt to achieve consistency across various investigative and analytical methodologies. Their meta-analysis shows that in grammar learning focused instruction of any sort is far more effective than any type of teaching methodology based on focused exposure to L2 without explicit teaching. They further found that focused L2 instruction resulted in large language gains over the course of the instructional term and that the effects of the instruction seem to be du- rable over time. Furthermore, Norris and Ortega explained that explicit instruction based on inductive or deductive approaches leads to greater L2 gains than implicit instruction of any sort. Thus, given that academi- cally bound L2 learners need to make substantial L2 gains to begin their studies, it seems clear that L2 grammar and vocabulary should be taught thoroughly and intensively.
When students matriculate from ESL/EAP programs, the quality of their writing and text is evaluated by non-ESL specialists who are faculty in the dis- ciplines. Furthermore, when students' academic studies are completed, the accuracy of their text production is continually appraised by subsequent non- specialists in on-the-job writing whenever college-educated NNSs write e-mail, notes, reports, and old-fashioned memos. Considerate, understand- ing, and compassionate ESL teachers who seek to benefit their students have to teach the skills and language features that students must have to achieve their desired professional and career goals. In fact, this is what ESL teachers are hired to do. If instruction in the essential language skills is not provided, students are largely left to their own devices when attempting to attain L2 proficiency needed for their academic and professional endeavors.
Much recent research has shown that exposure to daily and classroom in- teractions, as well as fluency-oriented instruction, does not represent an ef- fective pedagogical approach to developing syntactic and lexical accuracy (Chang &Swales, 1999; Dudley-Evans &St.John, 1998; Ellis, 2001 Jordan, 1997; Richards, 2002). Although teachers in academic preparatory and writing programs often believe that they set out to develop learners' aca- demicreading and writingproficiencies,inactualityfeware closelyfamiliar with the types of writing assignments and tasks that NNS students need to perform once they complete their language training. For example, a list in chapter 5 includes the most frequently encountered nouns in course mate- rials across all disciplines in college-level general education courses and contains suchwordsasambiguity, anomaly, apparatus, appeal, and aristocrat. In all likelihood, few practicing ESL teachers in EAP programs have under- taken to teach the meanings of these words unless they are fortuitously used in student reading texts. Fluency development activities in writing that re-
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