Shih Article Summary

May Shih in A Course in Grammar Editing for ESL Writers talks about how a grammar editing course offered along side of a composition course benefits our diverse population of student writers.  This article is an overview of a grammar for writing course for Generation 1.5 and ESL students.  Dr. Shih discusses how San Francisco State University offers just such a course where ESL students can focus on common grammar errors they make in their writing.  The author goes on to explain how a good majority of the students in the course are Asian long-term residents of the United States (Gen 1.5 students) who need to focus on their grammar errors due to forgetting rules or gaps in their knowledge.  However, she mentions that the grammar for writing course at SFSU can have both generation 1.5 students as well as ESL students. 

Dr. Shih explains when teaching the course she only corrects the students serious errors and gives selective feedback by placing X’s in the margins of students papers so they can notice and self correct their own errors. The author talks about how students in the class have what she calls knowledge that backslides and that they need to be taught grammar rules over and over again.  She provides the students with grammar checklists to help them address their grammar problems.  Dr. Shih then goes on to talk about the role of the teacher in supporting the students as a reader, resource person, coach and counselor.  The author then focuses on describing how to aid students in editing their grammar by having a process approach to teaching writing where she gets the students focusing on the writing first and then editing for errors later.  This shows how students will then be more conscious of their writing audience and also focus on common grammatical errors before turning in their finale drafts.  The article then describes the syllabus for the class and how it is structured.  

Key Takeaways:

△  Only correct serious errors and give corrective feedback so students begin self correcting their own errors.

△  It is good to repeat grammar rules that students may need to become familiar with again and provide students with grammar checklists to help them during their editing process.

△  Take a process approach by focusing on ideas and structure rather than errors at the beginning of the writing stage.

△  Teach students to have editing strategies such as giving oneself enough time for the editing process, taking breaks between readings and looking for common grammar errors.

△  Writing Clearly: an Editing Guide (Lane & Lange 1999) is the text used in the course so that there will be consistency for teachers that teach the course.

△  Sequence of grammar topics: count and non-count nouns, number and determiner agreement; subject-verb agreement; verb forms and tenses; sentence structure/ clause types, fragments, and run-together sentences; conjunctions, logical connectors, and punctuation of clauses; parallel structure; gerund and infinitive complements; relative clauses and participle phrases; word forms; pronoun reference and agreement.

△  An important part of the grammar for writers course is presentation, modeling and practice of specific editing strategies.

△  When students lose motivation and get frustrated it is good to give them positive feedback on what they are doing well and inform them that improving grammar and writing errors takes time and perseverance.

△  Due to the student needs of generation 1.5 and ESL students the grammar for writers course at SFSU has gone from being a 1 unit course to a 3 unit course.

          

 

 

 

Eye Learners vs. Ear Learners

Eye Learners/Newcomers

Student D

Student E

Student G

Student H

Student I

 

Ear Learners/Long-term US residents

Student A

Student B

Student C

Student F

The Importance of Dance

Pot Legal

Weird Friday

Spelling

How would your tutoring approach need to be different for the two groups of students?

I think the first step is to take an investigative approach and try to identify whether your tutee is an international ESL or generation 1.5 student.  An intake interview with student background questions could help determine which of the two groups your tutee falls under. As the tutor I have to be mindful that international ESL students have a good grasp of English grammar and the terminology that goes with it (e.g. parts of speech, articles, subject verb agreement), but these same students may have difficulty communicating in the language due to little practice speaking in English. I would try my best to help my international ESL tutee feel comfortable in speaking with me and exchanging ideas. I believe positive reinforcement is really important with these novice composition writers. It will also be important to help international students with the clarity of their ideas by having them read sentences aloud to make sure they are comprehensible to their reader. With an international ESL student I could draw their attention to grammar points using metalanguage and have them self correct their errors. I will also have to help these types of students become familiar with collocations and possible word choice issues do to their first language interference. I think one of the most important things when working with international ESL students is to remember that the way we write an academic essay in English is not always the same in other countries. Things like thesis, topic sentences and structure of an essay may be very confusing and need to be explained to international ESL tutees.

Generation 1.5 students on the other hand have learned English primarily through hearing the language as well as through trial and error.  It will be important to remember that these types of students may have had gaps in their education.  It would not be beneficial to use grammar terms with my generation 1.5 tutee and if they are confused about English grammar terms I will need to explain them. It may be helpful to provide my generation 1.5 tutee with a parts of speech chart. It will be important to show my generation 1.5 tutee the differences between everyday spoken English and written discourse. It will also be helpful for me to look for the students use of idiomatic expressions and phrases that are used in spoken English, but not in academic writing. I will also have to consider the ethnicity of my generation 1.5 tutee and look for possible errors in their writing that may be similar to their international ESL counterparts due to possible language transfer.     

Student Backgrounds

You'll meet your tutees soon. What questions will you ask your tutee to get at his/her linguistic and educational background and find out factors that have affected his/her language and literacy development? You won't be able "Are you Generation 1.5?" or "Are you an ear learner?" So you'll need some other strategies for getting at students' language/literacy backgrounds.

In my experience tutoring at my undergraduate tutoring center and at the Learning Assistance Center here at SF State I have found it is best to establish rapport with my tutees right from the start. I like to begin by asking simple questions like what is your major or what do you do for fun?  I find that once a student feels comfortable with me they will reveal more information about themselves. I also like to ask my tutees for writing samples. I try to get them to bring an extra copy of what they are working on that I can keep. This enables me to take a closer look at what writing issues the student may be having and also may help me identify their language/literacy background.  Here are some possible questions I might ask my tutee to figure out his/her linguistic and educational background:

• Did you go to high school here in the bay area? Are you a transfer student?

• Do you like to read? What types of things do you like to read outside of school?

• Did you have to take any placement tests like the CMSPT or TOEFL?

• What writing classes have you taken so far?

• Do you speak any foreign languages? What languages do you speak now at work, school, home?

• What are your tutoring and writing goals?

• What are your learning styles? How do you like to study?   

 

 

Grammar Rants

The I’s Have It http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/opinion/24oconner.html?_r=0

I found an interesting reverse grammar rant in The New York Times.  The article pokes fun at how president Obama one of the most high profile public speakers has been criticized for his hypercorrection of using “I” rather than “me” in the object position of his sentences. O’Conner and Kellerman state, “Since his election, the president has been roundly criticized by bloggers for using “I” instead of “me” in phrases like “a very personal decision for Michelle and I” or “the main disagreement with John and I” or “graciously invited Michelle and I.”  The authors allude to the fact that the president should be punished by having to stand in a corner of the Oval Office. The article goes on to defend the president by quoting Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice with the use of “I” in the object position and saying both the 42^nd and 43^rd presidents were also guilty of the same grammar error. The authors believe this error comes from people being corrected as children when using the word “me” and that makes them think that “I” sounds more appropriate.  I personally have issues with this grammar point.  I use “I” rather than “me” in the subject position of my sentences and find it difficult to change even though people say it is not grammatically correct. The authors think people who they call grammar junkies take proper grammar a little too seriously and that even the most high profile people make these types of errors. The authors jokingly go on to make a suggestion of how Mr. Obama can keep his grammar critics off his back by stating, “If you’re tempted to say “for Michelle and I” in tonight’s speech, just mentally omit Michelle (sorry, Mrs. Obama), and you’ll get it right.”

This was not the only reverse grammar rant I read in The New York Times.  There was also an article by John McWhorter called Good Applicants with Bad Grammar arguing that job applicants who are not being hired for their writing abilities should not be passed by because they use “it’s” rather than “its.” There seems to be a movement happening in opposition to the grammar rant.  I think it would be beneficial to have my students read both types of articles.

 

 

 

 

Summarized in 10 Bullet Points

Myers, A. S. (2003). ReMembering the Sentence. College Composition and Communication 54 (4)   610-628.

• Both ESL and native speakers of English have difficulties with writing sentences.

• Students have not been exposed enough to written English which would help them be better writers. The majority of language teachers would concur that the more students see and use formal written English the better they will learn and remember it.

• Language is learned in chunks and sentence combining/imitation activities are helpful for student writers.

• Novice writers are not familiar with common phrases that are used in academic writing.

• Sentence combining can help students learn formal vocabulary and collocations (words that co-occur).

• Sentence combining can also help students put academic vocabulary in their long term memory so they can retrieve it later for future writing.

• Grammar is not just rule based, but also entails familiarity with vocabulary in certain contexts.

• Second language teaching has turned away from the grammar translation method and leaned towards communicative language learning.  In other words, learning language is not just based on rules, but also acquiring the lexicon.

• Some suggestions for sentence and word teaching in the composition classroom would be templates, collocations and concordance.

• Composition scholars should remain open to other fields of study to glean understanding of how to best teach writing.

 

 

My Thoughts on Grammar

Grammar has always been a scary term for me.  As a returning student at thirty five years of age I remember one of my writing professors at City College saying, “If you have problems with grammar you better seek help elsewhere.”  Well, I did and now I am going for a master’s of arts in English: concentration in teaching English to speakers of other languages.  I guess you could say I am not quite so scared of grammar anymore, but I don’t think facing my fear was as difficult as it is for our current student population.  If students are not taught grammar in high school and remedial classes they will end up in college level English classes with grammar errors in their papers that will make their writing incomprehensible. There has to be a way that grade and high school teachers can scaffold grammar instruction for students so that when they get to college level courses they are prepared to write academically. And first year composition instructors should also be prepared to address their students’ grammar issues that have been missed.  Being a native born speaker of English I received a foundation in English grammar during my elementary school education. When I began taking writing classes again I was already familiar with parts of speech, verb tenses and subject verb agreement. This is not the case for nonnative and generation 1.5 student writers in our composition classes and it is evident in the papers they produce.

I wonder why grammar does not seem to be a concern for composition instructors. I understand we want our students to focus on the process and writing freely, but with our current student population I do not think writing students can continue to be sent elsewhere. This puts the burden of teaching underprepared students grammar they have missed or never been taught on tutors in university writing centers.  I do believe reading, writing and study skills tutors can help students with their grammar, but this responsibility should not be theirs alone. I think there is a place for English grammar in our composition classrooms. However, I do believe composition instructors should begin by focusing on global rather than local errors in students writing. That being said composition teachers can analyze their students’ common grammar errors and address them in their lectures as well as teach students the grammar they will need to write effectively throughout the course. I think if we as educators do not teach grammar to students at all stages of their writing development we do them a disservice.      

  

 

Top 10 Tutoring Tips

Top 10 takeaways from the tutoring websites:

1.  Struggling writers tend to focus on the mechanics of writing rather than the ideas they are trying to express. As the tutor, you need to initially focus on reading the student’s writing versus evaluating it. Later when the student is more fluent will be a better time to focus on writing conventions such as spelling and punctuation.

2.  Did a teacher or advisor suggest that the student visits the Writing Center? Why? What specifically do you need to know to help the student efficiently? Get answers to these questions before you begin.

3.  Teach your student to examine the story before he jumps in to read. Have him take note of any pictures, charts or graphs. Read the title, boldfaced words, underlined words and headlines. Review any new or unfamiliar words. Have your student infer, based on this information, what the story is about.

4.  Encourage your student to become an active reader. Show him how to take notes while he is reading. Have him write questions about things he doesn't understand and underline words he doesn't know.

5.  Encourage students to pay attention to groups of words that often occur together (“lexical chunks” or “collocations”). If you find vocabulary errors, ask students for alternatives and give them time to think of a few before you make suggestions.

6. Take one or two pages and underline every error you notice without correcting it, then ask the student to try making the corrections. Concentrate on what the students can’t correct independently, then look for subsequent uses (correct and incorrect) of that structure to teach proofreading strategies and reinforce the language lesson.

7. Tutees are famous for keeping silent until their tutor answers all of their questions or does all their work. In too many of the tutoring sessions, the tutor does too much talking and the tutee doesn’t do enough. The silent treatment should be employed by you, and not your tutee. You should give your tutee ample time to think about a problem or question and respond with an answer. Remember that your tutee may require more time than you would to come up with an answer. So, be patient!

8.   It’s okay not to know every answer to every problem. Just be honest. Inform the tutee that you don’t have an answer.   When this happens I like to tell the tutee that I will do research and have an answer for them the next time we meet.  Then I try to find the answer.

9.  A tutor teaches study skills. For some students, the problem is not the course. These students need help with study skills and managing their study time. The tutor can help the student learn how to learn better and faster by organizing how they study.
  
10.  The values we have as regards writing, arguments, structure, and intellectual property are not universal. On the contrary: they differ from culture to culture, making the process of writing a paper for an American academic audience extremely confusing for the ESL writer. 

Useful Tutoring Websites

Here are some useful tutoring websites I found:

 http://www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/tutor/problems/esl.shtml

This is a good website for tutors who have little experience working with ESL students because it shows the differences between them and native born English writers.  It explains how writing is different in other parts of the world.  It also lists common errors ESL students make as well as suggestions of how to tutor them.

http://www.tutornation.com/tips/tutors/index.htm

At first glance this website seems like it offers very general tips to tutors, but I feel it addresses some things beginning tutors may not think about. (e.g. Keeping silent and allowing the tutee to speak, admitting to the student that you don't always have the answer and introducing note taking). The site also asks tutors to reflect on what they are doing in their sessions so they can improve.

http://www.ehow.com/way_6167710_tutoring-tips-reading.html

This is a page dedicated to tutoring reading. It addresses pre-reading strategies, vocabulary and active reading. It also has a few hyperlinks on the right of the page to links with other tips for tutoring reading.

http://writingcenter.unc.edu/esl/teaching-resources/tips-for-writing-tutors/

I think this site is useful because it gives ten tips for tutors that resemble the tutoring cycle. The page gives important suggestions for focusing on global rather than surface errors and encouraging students to pay attention to possible vocabulary collocations.  There is also a link to another page that helps tutors deal with the dreaded question "Can you just check my grammar?"

http://www.eastsideliteracy.org/tutorsupport/RW/RWTips.htm

I like this site because it gives tips for tutoring both reading and writing.  There is a section on the right for accessing students reading skills.

Tutoring Experience

Employment and Extracurricular Activities

San Francisco State University, Learning Assistance Center (LAC) 

Reading, Writing and Study Skills tutor. Fall 2012-Present.

City College of San Francisco; San Francisco, CA.  Adult literacy tutor and library volunteer.  Spring 2012 - Present.
  
City College of San Francisco; San Francisco, CA.  Project Shine ESL coach and library volunteer.  Fall 2011.

University of California Santa Barbara, Campus Learning Assistance Services (CLAS)

Weekly and Drop-in tutor for ESL and Linguistics students. Fall 2010, Winter and Spring 2011.

I have always had a patience about me and a desire to share my knowledge.  I started tutoring as a novice, but now I am starting to gain quite a bit of experience in tutoring both adult literacy learners of English and undergraduate college students.  I started tutoring during my undergrad at University of California Santa Barbara.  At the time I didn't have any real experience at being a tutor, but I knew I wanted to teach English in the future so I applied for the job.  In the beginning I was just using my experience as a writing student and my maturity to guide me.  It was a little challenging at first because the writing center that I worked for didn't give its tutors extensive training. I worked directly with ESL students on a weekly appointment basis and took weekly drop-in students.  At the time I decided to take a couple of courses (Intro to TESOL and  grammar for teachers) to begin understanding how I could assist the students that were coming to see me.

I realized that I had a real passion for one-on-one tutoring when I started volunteer at City College of San Francisco.  I started out as a Project Shine volunteer, but began to make connections with the teachers and students so I have continued to volunteer every semester since I started. My tutoring consists of just offering office hours in the campus make shift library and students come to me for tutoring.  I have developed quite a following of diverse students that come to see me each week.  The teachers tease me and call my students "Michael's Fan Club."  I can't really express the joy I get working with the students, but it is an amazing feeling when I see the smiles on their faces.  

I would have to say that I have really been honing my skills as a tutor since I started tutoring again here at SFSU.  Last semester I got excellent training while working at the LAC.  In your first semester of employment you have to taking a training course along with working at the center. My fellow tutors and I had an incredible mentor teacher who prepared us for the many diverse students that come into the center.  It was like a tutoring workshop where you could discuss your challenges and successes with your fellow students.  I have also been able to hone my skills of working one-on-one through courses I am taking in the MA TESOL department, not to mention also being in the composition certificate program.  I did a literature review on the needs of generation 1.5 students transition into academic writing in my English 730 class.  I have also taken phonology/morphology, structure of English and pedagogical grammar for TESOL.  I think all of these experiences and courses have helped me develop into a much better reading, writing and study skills tutor. And to be honest tutoring students one-on-one has become my passion and really has helped me get through tough times as a graduate student.  I remember my mentor teacher asking me once if I wanted to take a day off and recharge my batteries and I said, "No, I don't want to.  I wouldn't miss this for the world!"  Of course I do miss a day here and there because I am human, but I really meant what I said. 

Introduction

I have always been inspired by strong women.  When I was a teenager after my parents got divorced my mother raised my younger sister and me.  My mother never went to college and has spent most of her life as a factory worker.  She has always been a hard worker and I know I get my work ethic from her.  Then as a young adult I dated a Japanese woman who could speak English fluently without ever living in an English speaking country. I was so impressed with her ability that it inspired me to teach.  I thought wouldn't it be cool to be like her teacher and help students accomplish great things.  Over my years as a returning student in college I have had several female teachers that have become my mentors. All of them are patient, compassionate and hard working.  I think connections are very important so this past summer I wrote thank you cards to these teachers who have made a difference in my life.  They continue to advise me and be my role models. I imagine myself teaching others the way they have taught me.  When I look back and reflect on my life it has always been a strong woman who has inspired me to work hard and make a difference.