Being in a Linguistics class this semester has really left me with language on the brain, folks.
Today, it just so happened to come up in my readings. Paul Kei Matsuda and Matthew J. Hammill’s essay “Second Language Writing Pedagogy” discusses the way second language learners can struggle in English classrooms in terms of writing. In particular, I took note of the way that we can’t assume that all English learners are on the same level when it comes to their reading, writing, and speaking skills. To pull a block quote:
“Some students who cannot communicate well face-to-face may be able to produce texts that seem much more advanced; the discrepancy between students’ spoken and written performance, therefore, is not necessarily an indication that the student has plagarized.”
They also state that the opposite would be true for students who speak like a native English speaker, but struggle with the grammar and conventions involved in writing.
The piece also continues on to state the way that speakers of different dialects of English like African American English or Appalachian English may also struggle with similar surface issues in writing because of the way their dialect dictates their speech.
It was here that I paused my reading and thought, “Oh my gosh I actually recognize those dialects and what they mean! So THAT’S why I have to take this class that I thought I’d never use again in my life.”
So anyway, what am I getting at?
Oh right. Basically, I got to thinking about the way that we have all of these students with different dialects and who are at different levels of proficiency when it comes to English, but so often we choose to evaluate them all the same way. I’m not saying all teachers do this, but I have witnessed classrooms that are less understanding of the way that students are always learning how to navigate the English language. That’s why they’re in our classes.
So what can we do to help this?
Well, for starters, and this goes for all high school writing classes in my opinion, we should be grading students on how they improve and not necessarily just how they are writing at a certain time. Did that make sense? Okay, to explain, I feel that, as educators, our goal is to see students improve at the skills they are working on. Instead of simply failing students because they do not write the way we think they should be able to at one point in time, we should be looking at how they write when they first enter the classroom, and push them to improve and grow as writers. This means have them turn in drafts so that we can help them get to where they need to be. We should allow resubmissions so that students are not discuouraged by a bad grade and give up.
This is so important for language learners because they’ve got a task that’s even harder. They could think about a paper or topic in one language and be writing it in another. We need to be generous and patient with these students because the writing process becomes so much longer for them.
My next assertion comes from the block quote I mentioned earlier. Students should be able to do projects in different forms of media because one form may not highlight their actual capabilities. If a student excels more at speaking than writing, it could be incredibly beneficial for them to write a draft, but then do the final project as a podcast when they can hear themselves and correct their grammar.
I’ve been in a couple schools now in my college experience where I’ve worked with English Language Learners. I feel like when we limit their options for assignments or grades, we’re limiting their ability to succeed. I never really understood why I could never resubmit a paper or make a film instead of an essay.
Sorry for the rant. I guess I’d just like to see that change because it would benefit more than just the language learners.
Please Don't Call Me "Miss Shorter" 