Page 70 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

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CHAPTER 3
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Explicit teaching and analyses of L2 grammar structures, com- bined with extensive writing practice, lead to marked improve- ments in NNS students' productive skills. One of the most practical approaches to teaching formal features of L2 grammar entails the learning of lexicalized sentence stems with an itinerary of appro- priate replacements for substitutable parts.
Raising learners' awareness and noticing of grammar and vocabu- lary in academic writing is essential in reducing the number of NNS writers' lexical errors that have been found to be among the most egregious in L2writing.
A vast majority of NNS academic writers who begin to study L2vo- cabulary as adults have such a limited vocabulary range that it consists of only a small fraction of that of NS university-level writ- ers. An intensive and concerted effort in learning the core L2 aca- demic vocabulary is key to successful NNS writing in regular academic courses.
Incidental vocabulary and grammar learning can supplement, but does not replace intensive and focused vocabulary learning by means of vocabulary and sentence-stem memorization and practice. Independent self-editing skills require much training and practice (and practice, and practice) for L2 learners. Several experimental studies have shown that peer editing/response represents a cultur- ally biased and ineffective language learning practice.
In addition to determining what should be taught in L2writing,re- search has also identified a number of lexical and syntactic features that play a reduced role in evaluations. Instruction in these features represents a low return on investment of teachers' and students' ef- fort and time.
A course curriculum that is rooted in L2 proficiency goals can in- crease motivationwhen the goals are explicitlyarticulated in terms of learners' own language learning needs for success in their aca- demic studies.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. In your opinion, why do some methodologies for teaching ESL em- phasize and others deemphasize the importance of explicit gram- mar and vocabulary teaching?
2. If you were to design L2 writing courses for intermediate or ad- vanced learners, what features of English-language discourse and text features would you consider to be most important? Why?
3. What are the primary differences between the needs of academic and other types of learners in English-speaking countries?
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