Getting to know SL learners in the US?

Coming from a country where English is learned as a foreign language, it never went through my mind the complexity of language learning in countries like the US, where English is learned as a second language by millions of people. I found the categorizations provided by Ferris and Reid fascinating in the sense that they illustrated to me the demands placed upon the US education system and the challenge this represents to the TESOL community. Not only does the government have to find ways to provide quality education for all these communities, but also, professionals in the field need to be aware of the complexity of their work and the implications in the US society.

It is in this framework that the different categories presented by Reid and Ferris (though Reid’s definition of eye and ear learners seems very debatable) shed some light on the diverse type of learners of English as a second language throughout the educational system. This categorization is clearly helpful in identifying the needs and peculiarities of the student population. However, once presented with this taxonomy, I could not help but wondering how effective these categories might be when interacting with ESL students. This doubt emerges from the fact that, for example, although international students share certain characteristics, they may come from many and very different educational, cultural, cognitive and social backgrounds. In other words, standardizing students in a composition class regardless of their native language may be as bad as standardizing students by categorizing them as international, but at the same time ignoring their individuality.

Being as ignorant as I am of the US educational system, it is my belief that categorizations of this sort are very helpful mainly for policy design rather than for actual classroom interaction. That is, educational authorities must be able to acknowledge this diversity and make sure the conditions are provided so that schools and colleges can effectively cope with this challenge. Another important aspect is that TESOL and Composition Studies scholars understand the complexity of the task in hand and do not attempt to homogenize students within these categories. Individuals within each of these groups may differ greatly, just like one student from the other in any educational setting.    

In a more personal perspective, the presentation of the different writers’ characteristics by Leki et al. in relation with their writing skill is quite a thought-provoking piece of research. Though a bit confusing and contradictory at times, this account provides a thorough set of variables to take into account when addressing diverse educational settings. As a NNEST myself, these variables seem to come in handy.  Once familiar with the different learning styles of students, one could resort to some of these variables to facilitate improvement in SL writing. More simply put, depending on the students needs and skills one could go deep into some of these characteristics and design/adapt instructional materials in order to provide practice on each of them.

Finally, I need to say that these readings are a great source for self-awareness about the type of SL learner I am and how I am recognized by the educational system in the US. It is also a great opportunity for reflection on the (controllable) variables I need to go deep into in order to become a proficient English writer.

P.S. I would appreciate if those of you reading my entries would correct any major mistakes. I really want to improve my written English, besides, we can shed some light on the error correction debate . J

Some of the reasons why I am not a highly competent L2 witer.

In this assignment, it is expected from me that I explain the history of how I have achieved a reasonably high level of writing competence in English, my second language. Instead, I will use these words to explain why I believe I am not a proficient L2 writer.

I do not consider myself a good L2 writer, and probably a very good explanation for this is that the main reason I decided to learn English has nothing to do with writing. Actually, it was rather an unconscious decision. I did not really want to learn to speak English, I just wanted to understand it.  Back in the early nineties, I was only interested in understanding what the lyrics of my favorite songs were about. At that time, I was into rock bands such as Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Guns n’ Roses and some others. I was tired of not being able to sing along my head-banging so I got all the lyrics and started to imitate the singers. Besides, as young as I was, I had already become indisputably aware of my undeniable incapability to play any kind of musical instrument. Therefore, signing seemed like the only option I had to become the rock star I dreamed of being. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), it did not happen, but in the process of trying I discover two things: It was rather easy for me to imitate the singers’ language and, for some unknown reason, this language made sense to me.

Having achieved a more than basic level of proficiency in English, I decided I wanted to go beyond and I started studying in a more formal environment. I went to an English Language Institute where I had the opportunity to meet wonderful instructors and people who inspired me to become an English teacher. There, I witnessed probably the finest language teaching I believe I will ever see. Diana, my advanced class teacher is probably the person I admire the most in the field. She is nor a linguist, neither a researcher. All she does is teach English and she does as smoothly and easily as, I believe, no one else does. She provided me with all the inspiration I needed to become a teacher. Unfortunately for me, I did not take composition class with her. For this reason, during these months studying at the English Language Institute my spoken English improved tremendously as well as my vocabulary and listening skill. Unfortunately, that was not the case for my writing. Though I learned some things about the organizational procedure involved in non-informal writing, I think I could have learned much more than I did.

Some years later, during my university studies, though I did a BA in English Philology, for some reason I wrote my thesis in Spanish, which obviously prevented me from a very important writing experience. Besides, apart from my thesis, professors at my university were too generous when it came to grading written papers. This is clearly another reason why I have not been able to move forward in my writing skills over the last ten years.

Also, since I have always been an ‘ear’ learner, I have problems developing (and keeping) certain learning routines and habits (when it comes to language I tend to believe I learn just by picking things up). It is my belief that ‘ear’ learners’ learning processes are rather spontaneous than systematic. Since, from my opinion Second Language Writing requires a lot of discipline and the acquisition of very strict learning habits; being an spontaneous learner myself, writing is clearly the greatest challenge in my English learning process.

Probably the biggest problem I face when writing English is the use of run-on sentences. English is a much more straight-to-the-point language that Spanish. Spanish is a very elaborate language in therms of the amount of words used to express an idea..

For all these reasons, my writing ability is not as good as I wish it was. Actually, the challenge that I have just taken up by coming to the US to start this Master Degree is huge in terms of the amount of effort I will have to put in improving my English writing skills.