Page 73 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

TEACHING LANGUAGE FEA TURES OF ACADEMIC WRITING 59
• information synthesis from several or long readings (assigned daily as homework for 2 to 3 weeks, 15 to 20 total)
• writing assignments marked and returned daily
Writing Skills and Discourse-Level Work (Ongoing)
• information synthesis/analysis—from multiple readings on the same topic/issue for each written assignment
• readings assigned as independent work with a follow-up in-class discussion as needed; ideally readings including book length (2-3 weeks per book) on a single and specific topic continue throughout the course
• organizing information in a thesis-driven coherent academic dis- course structure—ongoing
Reading Strategies and Tactics
Remedial and as needed (2-6 hours per course). In many cases, reading as- signments in three regular universitycourses combined (afull-time student load) consist of 150 to 300 pages of academic reading per week.
Major Writing Assignments
Seven to 12 (depending on the course length) major writing assignments are based on two drafts (one per week) at the outset and single/final drafts only in the second half of the course. Thus, the first two to three writing as- signments require two drafts (one per week), and five to seven subsequent assignments require students to submit a single draft. Within this structure, the teacher has the flexibility to encourage additional and preliminary drafts that are not graded if students choose to submit them. However, pre- liminary drafts require the teacher to give preliminary drafts a quick turn around to allow students to take advantage of the teacher's comments.
The length of major assignments should range from 750 to 1,500 words each (three to six typed double-spaced pages). Lexical and grammatical ac- curacy, issues of academic register and audience, and self-editing skills are dealt with in each writing task.
In addition to developing students' language base, the curriculum em- phasizes the ability to extract and arrange information from sources to ad- dress a particular writing topic, assignment purpose, and audience.
Course Materials
After the course begins, topics for readings can be determined by the inter- ests of the student majority. Traditional favorites include (introductory uni-
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