Writing Similarities and Differences in L1 and L2
L1 and L2 Writing: Similarities,
Differences, and Suggestions
James B. Wilson, Cosumnes River
College, Sacramento, CA
PSU ORTESOL 10/12/13
CRC
•
Home Sweet Home!
Background
2011 CASSL Mini-Grant
•
Writing Project Day 1 - Your teacher is doing a project to give other
college teachers ideas about ESL student writing and the challenges
that face ESL student writers in college classes. Your participation is
appreciated.
•
Name
_____________________________________________________
•
Country of origin
____________________________________________
•
First language
_______________________________________________
•
* Read the sample sentence.
•
* Translate this sentence into your first language.
•
* Translate that sentence back into English, but use the sentence
structure of your first language. This may be very different from the
sample sentence.
Student Writing Samples
Thought Process of Early Childhood
While browsing through the web I came across a
website that talked about the important and crucial a child’s
thought process, their functions and how they adapts to their
surroundings at an early elementary stage is. Young children’s
natural energy, their imagination and their curiosity is the
made reason behinds their action and interaction within their
surround environment. Their natural curiosity allows them to
focus and narrow down on a specific stimulus in their
environment. In more simple words, a child’s life interest can
be determined at a very young. The route of interest they
choose to take, the books they choose to read (if they
ultimately decides to take interest in reading), the people that
surround them, the activities they decide to participate in,
whether it be good or bad, are all determined in the younger
stage of early childhood. Hence, the quality of the
environment that one’s child is exposed to during the early
ages of childhood will take part in determining his or her
future outcome. Therefore, such topic of should be the
attention of all parents with children in elementary school.
Will nutrition succeed to feed my greed?
How well will a career in nutrition feed a wallet?
Part 1
I am a dreamer, and as such, I like to visualize myself in
different circumstances and places. I’ve imagined myself
as a mechanic, as an engineer, as a doctor and even as
an actor; but I was not able fit myself completely in
those characters. As I was looking for something where
my passion and talent were needed, I came across
nutrition.
Nutrition seemed like my perfect career fit. A nutritionist
has the chance to help people, something I really enjoy
doing, and has to keep himself healthy to give a good
impression, and keeping myself healthy is a priority to
me as well. Nutrition, as I have learned, is the science
designed to help us make better decisions when it
comes to eating. It teaches people how to avoid diseases
just by eating according to their necessities. The people
that follow the career of nutrition are called nutritionist
or…
Symbolism in "The Necklace"
Maupassant is one of the most influential
writers in short fictions. He believes that "The
writer's goal is to reproduce this illusion of life
faithfully, using all the literary techniques at his
disposal". In "The Necklace" Maupassant uses
primarily symbolism to reveal his moral
scheme that a person's preoccupation with
appearance, materialistic existence, or idle
pleasure is worthless and vain. By using the
symbol of a Necklace, Maupassant is able to
represent the vanity of Mathilde Loise, the
main character, in a more visible way. Mme.
Loisel's desire for an unaffordable piece of
jewelry, the necklace which is her vanity, is
clearly shown to suggest the main theme of
the story that Mme. Loisel's vanity is worthless
and futile, Maupassant simply reduces the
actual worth of the necklace from how much
Mme. Loisel values it. This indirect way of
suggesting an idea through a symbol makes
Maupassant's idea about vanity very
convincing that vanity can ruin a person's life.
Before the symbol of the necklace is used,
Maupassant only shows the vanity of Mme.
Loisel through abstract ideas, Maupasant's
description of Mme. Loisel's mind and desire.
For instance, the story begins with the
description of Mme. Loisel's misery that "she
suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born for all
the delicacies and all the luxuries". In the
previous lines, Mme. Loisel's vanity is only
shown abstractly through her desire for
expensive goods to make her beauty more
noticeable. Maupassant indirectly exposes the
idea that Mme. Loisel's excessive desire for
goods and preoccupation with appearance is
vain.
Because Mme. Loisel's vanity is only shown in
her abstract desire, the cost of her vanity can
only be shown in an invisible way. For instance,
her desire, here vanity, makes her unhappy
and never satisfied with the life that her
husband provides her. The vanity costs her all
the happiness in her life and in her marriage.
She's never enjoyed her husband's love for her.
Even when her husband tries to please her
showing her the invitation to the part of the
Minister of Public Instruction, she complains,
"...I have no dress and therefore I can't go to
this ball. Give your card to some colleague
whose wife is better equipped than I".
Abstractly, we see the cost of vanity is Mme.
Loisel's happing in her marriage. The cost is
shown in a very invisible way.
By using the symbol of the necklace,
Maupassant is able to directly exemplifies
Mme. Loisel"s vanity through her behavior
with the borrow necklace. Falling all over
herself to show off how pretty both she and
the necklace are, she loses herself in the
fleeting moment at the minister's party. Only
after losing the necklace, she comes back
down to earth. Facing the cost of buying
another similar necklace, she realize the cost
of her preoccupation with appearance, her
vanity.
Through the necklace, Maupasasnt
successfully reveals the cost of Mme. Loisel"s
vanity and convincing proposels his idea that
vanity is worthless. The cost of the vanity is
obviously. Mme. Loisel and her husband's ten
years slavery life and Loisel's beauty. However,
ironically, Mme. Loisel finds out the necklace
that she borrows ten years ago is actually
paste, which is worthless comparing to the ten
years of slavery life. This cruel irony effectively
earn readers sympathy to Loisel. Therefore,
readers would agree that Mme. Loisel should
have not slaved herself for ten years, and she
should not have lost the necklace and she
should not ever borrowed the necklace, and
she should never wanted the necklace at the
first place. Finally, readers have to agress that
it is Mme. Loisel's vanity cost all the troubles
and the cruel irony. Certainly, readers will
agree that vanity of mankind can ruin one's
life, and people should never base their life
existance on vanity.
In "The Necklace," Maupassant effectively
practices symbolism to its maximum. He
exemplifies vanity of mankind through the
behavior of Mme. Loisel with the borrow
necklace. He also convinces reader that vanity
is worthless through the irony he creats about
the symbol of the necklace.
It’s All Fun and Serious Business
Part 1
Voice-acting: It’s something that I’ve
always wanted to do ever since I was a little
kid. That and being a meteorologist, but that’s
another I-search paper in the future. I have
experience of doing a bit of voice-acting in my
radio classes and performing in theatre at
Cosumnes River College. In the business of
voice acting, there different mediums that
voice actors could do performances for. Anime
(Japanese Animation), Video Games, Cartoons,
Narration, Commercials/Promo, Radio plays,
and Instructional books are the main mediums
for voice actors. The main medium I will be
focus on in this I-Search essay is Anime. As a
student studying in theatre, I’ve found out that
I’m reaching closer to achieving my goal.
Part I.
I spend hours taking photos and I started
to wonder whether I could turn a hobby into
a lifelong career. I think it would be exciting
to travel the world and take pictures of all
the beautiful surroundings I encounter. I love
taking pictures of anything from people, to
landscapes or even just abstract images.
People often make fun of me because my
Facebook is filled with pictures, so many that
it would take hours to view them all!
I don’t know much about a career in
photography. I do know that there are many
different types of photographers. Some do
ads or layouts for magazines, some specialize
in weddings or landscape photography, or
there’s even the photographer who works at
Wal-Mart doing portraits in a studio. To be
able to travel and enjoy the time while taking
pictures to share those experiences with
others seems like the greatest job ever.
Student View
•
“I know how to say it in English as well, but I
know a better way to say it in [my native
language]. It’s more like a childish way if you
see what I mean. I know how to say it in
English in very basic way … sometimes I feel
like I am five years backwards when I am
writing in English … to me when I read it, it is
like someone with less education than I have
or would have written.”
Student Issues
•
•Research skills which mean they are able to identify
and read authoritative sources of evidence.
•
•Note-making skills which ensure they take the
meaning from a source rather than simply copying the
text.
•
•Self-management to pace the writing, allowing time
for drafting and correction. This might include help
from study skills tutors and/or English support services.
•
•Drafting and revision, including editing language.
Instructor Challenges
•
•empathy and knowledge about students’
transitions to US academic writing conventions
•
•patience while students develop their language
capability
•
•assessment strategies which include models,
formative feedback, and practice
•
•organization to ensure students know what is
expected and deadlines for completion that are
mindful that many will take significantly longer
than home students.
Cultural or Rhetorical Difference?
•
a. "Answer the question directly. Assume I am already
familiar with this historical background."
•
b. "This paragraph contains three main ideas. Develop
them one at a time in separate paragraphs."
•
c. "You won't convince me of this assertion until you
cite research findings that support it."
•
d. "What is your purpose? Tell me in the introduction
so that I know where you're going."
What to do for corrections
•
a. Rewrite a few awkward phrases, idioms, or word
choices, offering alternatives.
•
b. Edit one paragraph or a half page completely to
indicate the extent of the language problems.
•
c. If you can identify a pattern of error, such as run-on
sentences or subject-verb agreement problems,
mention it in a marginal note. Instead of marking
further instances of the problem, encourage the
student to hunt for them and to edit for them in the
future.
Contrasting Views
“I think; therefore, I am.”
So, what should we do?
•
The big picture
: Native and non-native
English speakers may have little
experience with the kind of writing that
is required in college courses.
ESL Writers
•
Vocabulary
: Students may know words, but
they may not use them in the right way or
correct combination. Teaching
collocations
can help.
Editing
•
Use editing symbols and have students do
corrections for final revisions.
Mistakes
•
Focus on errors that interfere with reader
comprehension or distract the reader.
Peers
•
Group work and peer editing are beneficial to
students although they may be hesitant at
first.
One-on-One
•
Students benefit from ESL tutoring and one-
on-one conferencing with the instructor.
Modeling
•
Since students may be unfamiliar with the
standards of college writing, they may
benefit by seeing models of acceptable work.
Logging
•
Students may record new words, collocations,
and idioms in a vocabulary log format:
Handout
•
Please take a look at the workshop handout for
similarities, differences, and suggestions and feel
free to contact me at
wilsonj@crc.losrios.edu
if you
have questions or comments.
Thank you, Portland!
Explore the similarities and differences between writing in first and second languages with suggestions from James B. Wilson. Understand the challenges ESL student writers face in college classes.
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L1 and L2 Writing: Similarities, Differences, and Suggestions James B. Wilson, Cosumnes River College, Sacramento, CA PSU ORTESOL 10/12/13
CRC Home Sweet Home!
2011 CASSL Mini-Grant Writing Project Day 1 - Your teacher is doing a project to give other college teachers ideas about ESL student writing and the challenges that face ESL student writers in college classes. Your participation is appreciated. Name _____________________________________________________ Country of origin ____________________________________________ First language _______________________________________________ * Read the sample sentence. * Translate this sentence into your first language. * Translate that sentence back into English, but use the sentence structure of your first language. This may be very different from the sample sentence.
Thought Process of Early Childhood While browsing through the web I came across a website that talked about the important and crucial a child s thought process, their functions and how they adapts to their surroundings at an early elementary stage is. Young children s natural energy, their imagination and their curiosity is the made reason behinds their action and interaction within their surround environment. Their natural curiosity allows them to focus and narrow down on a specific stimulus in their environment. In more simple words, a child s life interest can be determined at a very young. The route of interest they choose to take, the books they choose to read (if they ultimately decides to take interest in reading), the people that surround them, the activities they decide to participate in, whether it be good or bad, are all determined in the younger stage of early childhood. Hence, the quality of the environment that one s child is exposed to during the early ages of childhood will take part in determining his or her future outcome. Therefore, such topic of should be the attention of all parents with children in elementary school.
Will nutrition succeed to feed my greed? How well will a career in nutrition feed a wallet? Part 1 I am a dreamer, and as such, I like to visualize myself in different circumstances and places. I ve imagined myself as a mechanic, as an engineer, as a doctor and even as an actor; but I was not able fit myself completely in those characters. As I was looking for something where my passion and talent were needed, I came across nutrition. Nutrition seemed like my perfect career fit. A nutritionist has the chance to help people, something I really enjoy doing, and has to keep himself healthy to give a good impression, and keeping myself healthy is a priority to me as well. Nutrition, as I have learned, is the science designed to help us make better decisions when it comes to eating. It teaches people how to avoid diseases just by eating according to their necessities. The people that follow the career of nutrition are called nutritionist or
vain. Because Mme. Loisel's vanity is only shown in her abstract desire, the cost of her vanity can only be shown in an invisible way. For instance, her desire, here vanity, makes her unhappy and never satisfied with the life that her husband provides her. The vanity costs her all the happiness in her life and in her marriage. She's never enjoyed her husband's love for her. Even when her husband tries to please her showing her the invitation to the part of the Minister of Public Instruction, she complains, "...I have no dress and therefore I can't go to this ball. Give your card to some colleague whose wife is better equipped than I". Abstractly, we see the cost of vanity is Mme. Loisel's happing in her marriage. The cost is shown in a very invisible way. By using the symbol of the necklace, Maupassant is able to directly exemplifies Mme. Loisel"s vanity through her behavior with the borrow necklace. Falling all over herself to show off how pretty both she and the necklace are, she loses herself in the
Its All Fun and Serious Business Part 1 Voice-acting: It s something that I ve always wanted to do ever since I was a little kid. That and being a meteorologist, but that s another I-search paper in the future. I have experience of doing a bit of voice-acting in my radio classes and performing in theatre at Cosumnes River College. In the business of voice acting, there different mediums that voice actors could do performances for. Anime (Japanese Animation), Video Games, Cartoons, Narration, Commercials/Promo, Radio plays, and Instructional books are the main mediums for voice actors. The main medium I will be focus on in this I-Search essay is Anime. As a student studying in theatre, I ve found out that I m reaching closer to achieving my goal.
Part I. I spend hours taking photos and I started to wonder whether I could turn a hobby into a lifelong career. I think it would be exciting to travel the world and take pictures of all the beautiful surroundings I encounter. I love taking pictures of anything from people, to landscapes or even just abstract images. People often make fun of me because my Facebook is filled with pictures, so many that it would take hours to view them all! I don t know much about a career in photography. I do know that there are many different types of photographers. Some do ads or layouts for magazines, some specialize in weddings or landscape photography, or there s even the photographer who works at Wal-Mart doing portraits in a studio. To be able to travel and enjoy the time while taking pictures to share those experiences with others seems like the greatest job ever.
Student View I know how to say it in English as well, but I know a better way to say it in [my native language]. It s more like a childish way if you see what I mean. I know how to say it in English in very basic way sometimes I feel like I am five years backwards when I am writing in English to me when I read it, it is like someone with less education than I have or would have written.
Student Issues Research skills which mean they are able to identify and read authoritative sources of evidence. Note-making skills which ensure they take the meaning from a source rather than simply copying the text. Self-management to pace the writing, allowing time for drafting and correction. This might include help from study skills tutors and/or English support services. Drafting and revision, including editing language.
Instructor Challenges empathy and knowledge about students transitions to US academic writing conventions patience while students develop their language capability assessment strategies which include models, formative feedback, and practice organization to ensure students know what is expected and deadlines for completion that are mindful that many will take significantly longer than home students.
Cultural or Rhetorical Difference? a. "Answer the question directly. Assume I am already familiar with this historical background." b. "This paragraph contains three main ideas. Develop them one at a time in separate paragraphs." c. "You won't convince me of this assertion until you cite research findings that support it." d. "What is your purpose? Tell me in the introduction so that I know where you're going."
What to do for corrections a. Rewrite a few awkward phrases, idioms, or word choices, offering alternatives. b. Edit one paragraph or a half page completely to indicate the extent of the language problems. c. If you can identify a pattern of error, such as run-on sentences or subject-verb agreement problems, mention it in a marginal note. Instead of marking further instances of the problem, encourage the student to hunt for them and to edit for them in the future.
Contrasting Views Characteristics of Effective Writing in Academic English Contrasting Characteristics Writing is viewed as a tool to accomplish a task (for example, to express a point or present an argument) Writing is viewed as a way of engaging the emotions through the use of beautiful language
Writing contains a direct, explicit statement of main idea(s) There may be no direct statement of the main idea(s) with the expectation that readers infer the writer s main point
Focus on clarity, directness, and getting to the point Focus on the richness of the language or the ability to repeat ideas in a variety of ways
The writer is responsible for including explicit signals, such as transitions, to show logical links between ideas Explicit signals are unnecessary; the writer shows respect for the reader s intelligence to make inferences
Information is expected to be highly specific Information is expected to be highly philosophical
Specific evidence (facts, statistics, examples) are used to support the writer s argument Traditional wisdom and authority are used to support arguments
Heavy use of deductive reasoning (movement from the general to the specific) Heavy use of inductive reasoning (movement from the specific to the general) I think; therefore, I am.
Emphasis on the individuality and originality of the writer s ideas Emphasis on traditional wisdom and shared cultural knowledge
So, what should we do? The big picture: Native and non-native English speakers may have little experience with the kind of writing that is required in college courses.
ESL Writers Vocabulary: Students may know words, but they may not use them in the right way or correct combination. Teaching collocations can help.
Editing Use editing symbols and have students do corrections for final revisions.
Mistakes Focus on errors that interfere with reader comprehension or distract the reader.
Peers Group work and peer editing are beneficial to students although they may be hesitant at first.
One-on-One Students benefit from ESL tutoring and one- on-one conferencing with the instructor.
Modeling Since students may be unfamiliar with the standards of college writing, they may benefit by seeing models of acceptable work.
Logging Students may record new words, collocations, and idioms in a vocabulary log format: Entry Type of Entry Part of Speech Meaning Use Attenuate Vocabulary Verb weaken Attenuate the power/ Attenuated voice
Handout Please take a look at the workshop handout for similarities, differences, and suggestions and feel free to contact me at wilsonj@crc.losrios.edu if you have questions or comments.
