Understanding ESOL Students Better and Effectively Handling Their Writing Errors

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Understanding ESOL Students Better and Effectively Handling Their Writing Errors

Qin Riley, PhD

Handout A Who Are the ESOL Students We Serve?

Based on your experience, circle YES, NO, or NOT SURE about the general characteristics of the ESOL students we serve.

1 / YES / NO / NOT SURE / Some of the adult ESOL students do not have high school education.
2 / YES / NO / NOT SURE / None of them have college degrees.
3 / YES / NO / NOT SURE / Some of them were unable to go to school due to being women, poor, or war refugees.
4 / YES / NO / NOT SURE / All ESOL students are international students.
5 / YES / NO / NOT SURE / Many of them work part-time or full-time and go to school at the same time.
6 / YES / NO / NOT SURE / All language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) develop at the same pace.
7 / YES / NO / NOT SURE / ESOL students get all negative influence from their L1.
8 / YES / NO / NOT SURE / Even when L2 writers achieve high proficiency in English, they will still make the type of errors influenced by their L1.
9 / YES / NO / NOT SURE / Many issues in their L2 writing stem from cultural and rhetorical differences from their L1.
10 / YES / NO / NOT SURE / Most L2 learners are nervous about their L2 writing.
11 / YES / NO / NOT SURE / All of our ESOL students have similar goals in their academic and career achievement.

Handout B

How Should We Provide Corrective Feedback (CF) to Their Writing?

☐Agree ☐Disagree 1. We should give no feedback.

☐Agree ☐Disagree 2. It is more beneficial for students to receive explicitor direct CF (pointing out errors and providingthe correct form).

☐Agree ☐Disagree 3. It is more beneficial for students to receive implicit or indirect CF (underlying or highlighting errors, indicating where the error occurs without correcting the error).

☐Agree ☐Disagree 4. We should give metalinguistic CF (providing explanations or grammatical description)

☐Agree ☐Disagree 5. We should give unfocused CF(correcting all errors)

☐Agree ☐Disagree 6. We should give focused CF (correcting errors selectively, e.g., verb tense or preposition errors at a time)

☐Agree ☐Disagree 7. Giving praise and encouragement to ESOL students’ writing is more important than anything else.

☐Agree ☐Disagree 8. I spend a significant amount of time marking students’ writing but feel that my efforts do not pay off.

☐Agree ☐Disagree 9. Providing CF sometimes makes students frustrated and confused.

☐Agree ☐Disagree 10. When students revise the writing with corrective feedback, some errors are incorrectly revised or no change is made.

☐Agree ☐Disagree 11. Some students receive CF that they do not understand, and later they tend to make the same errors.

☐Agree ☐Disagree 12. Some errors are untreatable and cannot be addressed productively, so we should leave them uncommented or uncorrected.