When I read Susan and Marian's excellent article, I was struck again by how much we're asking of our ESL students. Not only are these students struggling with content, organization, and mechanics--we're also inviting them to address a seemingly imaginary audience.
A couple of points really hit home for me:
1. How much a sense of audience can focus a student's (ESL or native speakers) choices concerning subject, content, style, and word choice. In this way, what seems at first like an added complication may offer clarity to student writers.
2. The challenge of moving into reader-based writing. For native speakers, it's often a matter of developing more intellectual sophistication, but it becomes more complicated when reader-based writing is not part of one's cultural background.
3. The importance of Writing Center tutors. Not only are we supportive readers, we also represent that vague audience. By revising text so we can more readily access it, ESL (and other) students are making their work more accessible to all their readers.
We've all been students. What do you remember about moving from writer-based to reader-based writing?
-- Frances
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
As a speaker of a second language myself, (I like to think that I can speak a bit of French)I can sympathize with the ESL student. When I attempt to "think" in French, I find that I continue to internalize the process, whether I am trying to speak it or write it out on paper.
ReplyDeleteOne way I can suggest to help an ESL student find their "audience" is to have that student write the paper as if it were being told/explained/discussed to, or with a friend or family member. A friend or family member is someone we can all relate to and is more accessible in understanding than the vague term, "audience". It is also important to remind the student to pretend that their friend or family member does not know anything about the subject they are writing about and that each element needs to be explained in detail. Essentially, their chosen audience is clueless!