Page 68 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

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CHAPTER 3
2. 3.
problems in student writing can be broadly similar, but not neces- sarily identical
if the writing of most (or even several) students exhibits a specific problem (e.g., sentence fragments, countable/uncountable nouns, or repetitive vocabulary), it should be addressed in teaching even when one or two students' writing does not seem to have this type of problem
4. a flexible course plan can be amended when the teacher concludes that (further) instruction in a particular aspect of language use is not needed
Diagnosticessaysaresimilartootherproduct-oriented piecesofin-class writing that students are expected to generate in their mainstream classes (see chap. 2). Thus, to an extent, what the teacher sees in the diagnostic piece of writing is what the mainstream teacher gets.
In general terms, most teachers can anticipate the following aspects of L2 academic writing to be in need of at least some degree of polishing and additional work for practically all academic L2 learners:
• academic vocabulary and, specifically, nouns and verbs
• sentence boundaries and phrase construction
• verb tenses in academic discourse
• the functions of the passive voice in academic prose
• noun clauses
• hedges
• textual cohesion devices
A FINAL NOTE
One of the crucial issues with learning a second language is that most of it cannot take place in the classroom because learning a second language well enough to be able to write academic papers in it requires a great deal more work than can be done in class. Hence, if learners are seriously intent on im- proving their L2 writing skills, the greatest portion of the work that, in fact, represents language learning has to take the form of homework. The learn- ing of many L2 academic skills, such as writing, reading, vocabulary, and/or essay editing, is largely a solitary activity.
On the other hand, if students approach L2 learning as being engaged in interactive and social classroom activities, their conversational listening and speaking skills may improve dramatically, but attaining L2 proficiency suffi- cient to write papers in sociology or political science may appear to be a remote objective. Unfortunately,to date a method of learning an L2 well as an adult
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