THE PRACTICE: Teachers demonstrate how writing and reading are tools for thinking and learning.
Content Presented By:
The Education Alliance at Brown University

Research Supporting the Practice
General Research on ELL Writing Instruction

Research Supporting the Practice

Writers learn to write by writing, (National Center on Education and the Economy, 1999; Edwards et al., 1995; Pappas, 1993). Student writers need to follow the routines of practicing writers as if they were apprentices: writing regularly, rethinking how they convey their message, and becoming wordsmiths. As they continue to write, students learn that writing can actually change their perceptions of situations (Angelillo, 2003).

Murray (1990) describes the process and experience of writing. Writers, for example, frequently start to write about one topic but as they continue to write, their words take a different direction than originally anticipated. Writers sometimes better understand topics and situations as a result of their writing. Finally, people who write learn to be more perceptive and express themselves in unique ways.

References

Angelillo, J. (2003). Writing about reading. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Edwards, L., Walsh, R., Marckert, J., & Hancock, S. (1995). Improving student writing skills and attitudes through the increase of writing experiences. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. 386 750)

Murray, D. (1990). Write to learn. (3rd ed.) Fort Worth, TX: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc.

National Center on Education and the Economy. (1999). Reading and writing grade by grade: Primary literacy standards for kindergarten through third grade. PA: University of Pittsburgh.

Pappas, C. (1993). Is narrative "primary"? Some insights from kindergarteners' readings of stories and information books. Journal of Reading Behavior, 25, 97-129.

General Research on ELL Writing Instruction

Writing has been characterized as the most challenging of the literacy domains (Juel, 1994). Nelson and Nelson (1978) underscore the difficulty of writing by describing it as "a complex of interconnected systems" (p. 278). Writing requires simultaneous use of phonological, graphic, orthographic, semantic, syntactic, and discourse rule systems (Dyson & Freedman, 1991, p. 762). Most students learn to understand speech first, and then learn to read and write; English language learners (ELLs) have to do all this simultaneously. August and Hakuta (1997) acknowledge that there is little research that sheds light upon the enormous cognitive challenge faced by ELLs who must acquire oral and literacy skills.

Yedlin (2003) identifies the prerequisite skills and knowledge that English writing demands of ELLs in the primary grades:

In order to even begin writing English, the child must be able to discriminate aurally among various phonemes (sounds) and visually among graphemes (letters), and understand the relationships between sounds of speech and letters of the alphabet. Children must also recognize and remember high-frequency words that do not conform to orthographic regularities. Children must master the motor skills necessary to form and arrange the letters and to space words evenly. They must decide what to write about and be able to generate topics suitable for school writing. Furthermore, they must access and produce vocabulary and construct discourse patterns appropriate to their topics (pp. 111-12).

ELLs who have already learned to write in another language have knowledge and literacy skills that can help them write in English, but they still face many difficulties (Kroll, 1990). To become effective and fluent writers, ELLs must overcome their unfamiliarity with English syntax (Ammon, 1985) and develop their vocabulary. ELLs typically need to develop larger repertoires of words and to learn more about the multiple meanings, connotations, and usages of the words that they already recognize and use (August & Hakuta, 1997). In order to sound out and spell English words accurately, ELLs must surmount their unfamiliarity with the English sound system (Verhoeven, 1999; Yopp, 1992) and learn to perceive "speech chunks" as strings of individual words (Ellis, 1994). Finally, writers from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds may already be accustomed to different styles of writing and argumentation (Connor, 1987). Montaņo-Harmon's (1991) research showed that Mexican students' English writing reflected the same discourse patterns that they had learned to use in Spanish. Kaplan (1967) found that many ELL compositions rated as vague, disorganized, or off-topic by U.S. teachers, actually conformed to organizational styles favored by students' home cultures.

The consensus of researchers and practitioners is that reading and listening to read-alouds has positive effects on developing ELLs' vocabulary and other facets of their second language development, including writing (Krashen, 2004; Elley, 1991). However, there is little research yet to directly link listening and reading with writing performance (Lightbown et al., 2002).

Studies by Kreeft-Peyton (1990), Hudelson (1986, 1989), Franklin (1986), Ammon (1985), and Urzua (1987) demonstrate that when in supportive contexts, ELL students in the primary grades can write productively. Kreeft-Peyton defines supportive contexts as those characterized by:

1. "frequent opportunities to write,
2. rich language input from the teacher, and
3. teacher feedback focused primarily on content" (p. 195).

Research [Yedlin, 2003; Kucer & Silva (in press)] and Carasquillo et al.'s (2004) review of literature on writing all point to the benefits of intensive teacher modeling of writing accompanied by the teacher's explicit moment-to-moment account of thinking processes. Teachers model their composing processes by verbalizing their own thoughts about purpose, audience, genre, vocabulary choice, and spelling as they write demonstrations in class. Teachers model their revising and editing processes by rereading and evaluating out loud what they have written. Students may simply observe and listen or the teacher may engage students as participants by asking for help or opinions (Yedlin, 2003).

Another way to assist ELLs with composing, rereading, and revising is for teachers to reference and graphically display structural features (e.g., beginning, middle, and end; setting and character; or cause and effect) and use rubrics. In such contexts, teachers use and explicitly explain discourse markers that signal what follows (e.g., Once upon a time, but, since, because, for example). Gradually, teachers involve students in interactive and shared writing activities where students gain increasing independence and teachers respond by "relinquishing control" (Carasquillo et al., 2004, p. 46).

Teachers also support students' writing by simplifying complex tasks into steps and stages that ELLs can manage (Yedlin, 2003, 2004). When well scaffolded, assignments to write reports, essays, and other genres (e.g., letters or journal entries by a historical figure) can encourage academic writing (Peregoy & Boyle, 1997). Authentic writing assignments such as invitations, letters, recipes, and simple books for younger children are highly motivating for ELLs. Maculaitis and Scheraga (1988) suggested that ELL students write easy-to-understand student handbooks for new arrivals. ELLs can be highly motivated by opportunities to write on culturally relevant topics in formats such as oral histories, country reports, and biographies of their heroes and celebrities (Peregoy & Boyle, 1997). Writing may well be the most challenging of the literacy domains (Juel, 1994), but a rich and responsive environment and well-scaffolded writing tasks can help ELLs flourish as writers.

References

Ammon, P. (1985). Helping children learn to write in English as a second language: Some observations and some hypotheses. In S. W. Freedman (Ed.), The acquisition of written language. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

August, D., & Hakuta, K. (Eds.). (1997). Improving schooling for language minority children: A research agenda. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

Carasquillo, A., Kucer, B., & Abrams. R. (2004). Beyond the beginnings: Literacy interventions for upper elementary English language learners. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.

Connor, U. (1987). Argumentative patterns in student essays: Cross cultural differences. In U. Connor & R. B. Kaplan (Eds.), Writing across languages: Analysis of L2 text, (pp. 57-71). Reading MA: Addison-Wesley.

Dolly, M. R. (1990, February). Integrating ESL reading and writing through authentic discourse. The Journal of Reading, 33, 360-366.

Dyson, A. H., & Freedman, S. W. (1991). Writing. In J. Flood et al., (Eds.), Handbook of research on teaching the English language arts. New York: Macmillan.

Elley, W. B. (1991). Acquiring literacy in a second language: The effect of book-based programs. Language Learning, 41, 375-411.

Ellis, R. (1994). The study of second language acquisition. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Franklin, E. A. (1986). Literacy instruction for ESL children. Language Arts, 63(1), 51-60.

Hudelson, S. (1986). ESL children's writing: What we've learned, what we're learning. In P. Rigg & D. S. Enright (Eds.), Children and ESL: Integrating perspectives. Washington D.C.: TESOL.

Hudelson, S. (1989). A tale of two children: Individual differences in ESL children's writing. In D. Johnson & D. Roen (Eds.), Richness in writing: Empowering ESL students. New York: Longman.

Juel, C. (1994). Learning to read and write in one elementary school. New York: Springer-Verlag.

Kaplan, R. B. (1967). Contrastive Rhetoric and the Teaching of Composition. TESOL Quarterly 1(3), 10-16.

Krashen, S. (2004). The power of reading. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

Kreeft-Peyton, J. (1990). Beginning at the beginning: First-grade ESL students learn to write. In A. Padilla, H. Fairchild, & C. Valadez (Eds.), Bilingual education: Issues and strategies. Newbury, CA: Sage.

Kreeft-Peyton, J., & Reed, L. (1990). Dialogue journal writing with nonnative English speakers: A handbook for teachers. Alexandria, VA: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.

Kroll, B., (Ed.) (1990). Second language writing: Research insights for the classroom. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Kucer, S. B., & Silva, C. (In press). Teaching the dimensions of literacy. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Lightbown, P. M., Halter, R. H., White, J. L., & Horst, R. H. (2002). Comprehension-based learning: The limits of 'Do It Yourself.' Canadian Modern Language Review, 58(3), 427-464.

Maculaitis, J., & Scheraga, M. (1988). The complete ESL/EFL resource book: Strategies, activities, and units for the classroom. Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Company.

Montaņo-Harmon, M. (1991). Discourse features of written Mexican Spanish: Current research in contrastive rhetoric and its implications. Hispania, 74(2), 417-25.

Nelson, K., & Nelson, K. E. (1978). Cognitive pendulums and their linguistic realization. In K. E. Nelson (Ed.), Children's language. New York: Gardener.

Peregoy, S. F., & Boyle, O. F. (1997). Reading, writing, and learning in ESL. New York: Longman.

Urzua, C. (1987). You stopped too soon: Second language children composing and revising. TESOL Quarterly, 21, 279-304.

Verhoeven, L. (1999). Second language reading. In D. Wagner, R. L. Venezky, & B. Street (Eds.), Literacy: An international handbook. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Yedlin, J. (2003). Teacher talk and writing development in an urban, English-as-a-second-language, first-grade classroom. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Yedlin, J. (2004, January/February). Teacher talk: Enabling ELLs to "grab on" and climb high. Perspectives. Available: http://www.mec.edu/mascd/docs/yedlin.htm

Yopp, H. K. (1992). Developing phonemic awareness in young children. The Reading Teacher, 45, 696-703.

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