Page 52 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

38 CHAPTER 3
Other researchers also identified the critical role of grammatical accu- racy in L2 academic writing and stressed that instruction in grammatical features of formal written genres is paramount. Without teaching and ex- tensive practice, many learners are unable to develop a full range of L2 ad- vanced grammatical features essential in formal and written discourse (Celce-Murcia & Hilles, 1988; R. Ellis, 1994; Hammerly, 1991; Schmidt,
1994; Shaw & Liu, 1998). R. Ellis (1990) explained that "formal classroom teaching with its emphasis on linguistic accuracy will engage the learner in planned [spoken or written] discourse and develop the corresponding type of competence" (p. 121).
It is important to keep in mind, however, that the teaching of grammar essential for the production of L2 writing is not intended to develop NNS students' overall native-like proficiency (Pica, 1994). For instance, in her overview of L2 learning research, Larsen-Free- man (1991) concluded explicitly that "for most adult learners, com- plete mastery of the L2 may be impossible," and that the purpose of L2 teaching and learning is to enable "learners to go as far as they are capable of going in the L2, but [ESL] teachers should be realistic in their expectations" (p. 337).
PREFABRICATED SENTENCES AND LEXICALIZED CHUNKS
Grammar instruction that has the goal of preparing students for academic studies in English-speaking countries needs to be designed to develop learners' practical and useful skills that are directly relevant to producing academic text. Teaching grammar for writing cannot take place in isolation from the lexical and discourse features of text (e.g., the verb tenses in aca- demic prose are determined by the type of context in which they are used: The present tense is useful in citations of sources, but not descriptions of case studies; Swales & Feak, 1994).
Most important, grammar instruction has to take place in tandem with instruction on vocabulary and academic collocations. A great deal of re- search carried out on the effectiveness of learning grammar in contextual lexicalized chunks and sentence stems (i.e., whole sentences and phrases, and recurrent patterned expressions) has shown that these are fundamental to both L1 and L2 learning and use (N. Ellis, 1997; R. Ellis, 1994; Lewis,
1993, 1997; Nattinger & DeCarrico, 1992). Stock grammatical and lexical chunks can become an efficient means to expand L2 writers' arsenals partic- ularly when learners are also taught how to substitute discrete elements ap- propriately and in practical ways. For example, the fact that the function of noun clauses is similar to that of simple nouns can be addressed by means of substitutions in patterned expressions common in academic prose:
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