Ruth Spack

Literature, Reading, Writing, and ESL: Bridging the Gaps

For a long time, literature, which once played a prominent role in language study, has been excluded from both ESL programs and first language composition programs whose central aim is the achievement of linguistic proficiency. In recent years, however, many educators in both fields have again acknowledged the academic, intellectual, cultural, and linguistic benefits of the study of literature. An examination of research on the activities of reading, composing, and responding to literature reveals that these three areas of study, usually taught separately, can be viewed as similar processes. After discussing these findings, this article describes a literature and composition course which demonstrates how ESL students can profit from instruction which focuses on the interrelationship of reading and writing. The course also shows that ESL students have much to gain when literature is the reading content of their composition course and the subject matter for their compositions.

Invention Strategies and the ESL College Composition Student

The recent finding by composition researchers and teachers that the composing process can be taught as an intellectual and cognitive activity has led to a renewed interest in the ancient art of invention and the view that invention can be practiced as systematic procedures of discovery, the primary purpose of which is to generate ideas about a subject. This article reviews composition and invention research, discusses a variety of discovery techniques, and provides a rationale for teaching invention in an academic writing course. One students notes are then presented to illustrate how invention can be successfully employed to narrow down a topic, generate content, discover a form, and create a thesis for an assigned essay. The article concludes by suggesting that although ESL students may experience invention differently from their native English-speaking counterparts, they can benefit from instruction in invention which is adapted to meet their needs.

Student-Teacher Working Journals in ESL Freshman Composition

Recently, first language composition researchers have shown that by using a traditional composition teaching method which focuses on the form and correctness of a finished product, teachers ask students to produce writing which does not reflect the actual writing process. Findings indicate that most school-sponsored writing does not involve the self-motivation, contemplation, exploration, and commitment which characterize real life writing. These researchers recommend that in addition to being taught expository writing, students should have more opportunity for expressive writing in their writing courses to allow them to become better academic writers. According to some second language composition researchers and teachers, these recommendations are applicable to ESL college students because their composing strategies are similar to those of native English-speaking college students. Ungraded, uncorrected journals can provide a non-threatening way for students to express themselves in written English. However, the student-teacher working journals which we describe in this article are unlike student personal journals in two important ways: first, the topic of working journals is not personal, but is rather an outgrowth of the writing class; and second, the teacher regularly writes journals to the class on the same subject and includes, in those journals, selected student journal entries. The advantages of this approach are that a group awareness develops around issues relevant to ESL composition, that students come to see writing as a way to generate ideas and to share them, and that teachers become participants in the writing process.