The Chiu/Savignon article advocates the question-form of commenting on students' texts rather than comments that focus on form and point out that "The question-form comment fosters this process of meaning making with the essential attention to form that this implies" (110). What I take from this is that comments that question the writer about the content of their writing both helps them making their writing clearer and more "meaningful" when they revise, but it can also help direct them towards form as well. I would generally agree with this point of view based on my experience with responding to students' writing (both in an ESL context and with L1 writers). Asking a question that pushes the student to expand, explore and refine in general seems more powerful to me that "merely" pointing out surface problems with morphology or syntax (with the understanding that these obviously contribute to our ability to understand content).
The Gaskell/Cobb article suggests that concordances for grammar and not only vocabulary can help students explore language on their own and discover the language. Specifically, they say that using concordances can help them edit and revise their own writing by discovering patterns and rules within concordances. I have never used concordances in the classroom and can't speak to it effectiveness from experience but it seems like potentially a good tool to help learners take control of their own learning and research their own answers to questions that the teacher may pose or when the teacher highlights grammar errors without giving them explicit directions of how to fix them. The only thing that "troubles" me about this approach is getting students motivated to use them. I can see students potentially seeing it as a chore and an extra step between them and revising their essay. I wonder if any of you has any thoughts on this? Would you (as a language student) be willing and able to use condordances to help discover grammar and revise your own writing without explicit direction from a teacher or would you feel frustrated by that process? Or is my read of this totally off?
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1 year ago
I don't think your read of this is totally off at all. I agree that many students would feel frustrated with the process, but I do think the process is conducive to language acquisition. I think one way to cut down on their frustration would be to not use concordances for the entire essay. Maybe they could be used for a section or possibly just a first draft. That way the students could revise a lot of it themselves, but wouldn't have all the responsibility in the later drafts.
ReplyDeleteI think that I would be willing to use concordances if it were meant as another way (in addition to) of learning and reinforcing what is learned. However, I would not be willing to give up having a teacher. Sometimes, things just can't be figured out or learned with out the help of a person. At least in my personal experience I know that sometimes, I understand or learn better when I can go talk to someone.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you guys, I think that concordances can help in certain aspects but students will still need their teacher's guidance and feedback.
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