Please cite as:

Ortega, L. (2007). Locating Purposes and Needs for Writing in a Foreign Language. Plenary delivered at the 6th Symposium on Second Language Writing, Nagoya Gakuin University, September 15-17, 2007.

Copyright © Lourdes Ortega, 2007

Locating Purposes and Needs for Writing in a

Foreign Language

Lourdes OrtegaUniversity of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

6th Symposium on Second Language WritingNagoya Gakuin University, September 15-17,

2007

Locating myself and my interest in foreign (as opposed to second) language writing

Writing in a foreign language...

... formidable challenges for FL educators and FL

researchers

Challenges facing FL writing

Material

Cultural

Sociopolitical

Purposes & Needs...

... FL writing is often felt to be less purposeful and less

needs-driven than SL writing

FL students have little reason to write in the L2 -- writing in the L2 plays no immediately apparent role in their lives

SL students often have pressing reasons to want to become better L2 writers -- material, academic, and social incentives

Locating...

Locating...

... Bhabha’s (1994)The location of culture

Location of culture through...

Right to difference-in-equalityLiminalityBorders, thresholds, bridges

in-betweenness (interstices)

interstitial perspective, double vision

Post-colonial experience affords interstitial perspective, double vision

“I do want to make graphic what it means to survive, to produce, to labor and to create, within a world-system whose major economic impulses and cultural investments are pointed in a direction away from you, your country or your people. Such neglect can be a deeply negating experience, oppressive and exclusionary, and it spurs you to resist the polarities of power and prejudice, to reach beyond and behind invidious narratives of center and periphery”

(Bhabha, 1994/2004, p. xi)

Post-colonial experience affords interstitial perspective, double vision

“I do want to make graphic what it means to survive, to produce, to labor and to create, within a world-system whose major economic impulses and cultural investments are pointed in a direction away from you, your country or your people. Such neglect can be a deeply negating experience, oppressive and exclusionary, and it spurs you to resist the polarities of power and prejudice, to reach beyond and behind invidious narratives of center and periphery”

(Bhabha, 1994/2004, p. xi)

Post-colonial experience affords interstitial perspective, double vision

“I do want to make graphic what it means to survive, to produce, to labor and to create, within a world-system whose major economic impulses and cultural investments are pointed in a direction away from you, your country or your people. Such neglect can be a deeply negating experience, oppressive and exclusionary, and it spurs you to resist the polarities of power and prejudice, to reach beyond and behind invidious narratives of center and periphery”

(Bhabha, 1994/2004, p. xi) ... reach beyond binaries

“What is theoretical innovative, and politically crucial, is the need to think beyond narratives of originary and initial subjectivities and to focus on those moments or processes that are produced in the articulation of cultural differences... ‘In-between’ spaces [... nourish... ] new signs of identity, and innovative sites of collaboration, and contestation...”

(Bhabha, 1994/2004, p. 2)

think beyond narratives of originary and initial

subjectivities

Focus on those moments or processes that are produced in

the articulation of cultural differences

The experience of non-nativeness can also foster a double vision, a desire (indeed, a need!) to reach beyond binaries, and to look at the in-betweenness in things

Fundamental role of the

imagination

Locations we don’t know about,our imagination cannot see

Purposes/needs for FL writing...

Some challenges for FL writing

Material challenges

Large-size classroomsOverloaded teacher schedules

... both particularly serious obstacles for “process” L2 writing pedagogies

e.g., Casanave (2004), Leki (2001), You (2004)

Sociopolitical challengesfor FL writing

The paralyzing burden of high-stakes testing on FL writing pedagogies

Teaching writing (or not),when tests ignore it

Writing-free national EFL mandates(e.g., Taiwan

Cheng, 2005)

Job-hunting test credentials(e.g., pre-2006 TOEIC in Japan)

For tests that include writing...

... Teaching writing to the test

tests that demand writing

School-leavingtests

University-entranceexams

University-exitingexams

China’s NMET (Qi Luxia, 2005, 2007); guided writing 6.5%

Hong Kong’s HKCEE (Liying Cheng, 1997); Grade 11 writing = 20% 1.5 hrs

Germany, Poland (Reichelt, 1997, 2005)

University home-made exams in Japan (Brown & Yamashita, 1995; Watanabe, 1996, 2000)

CET-Band 4 in China (Gan et al., 2004; You, 2004)

Tests impose a straight jacket on pedagogies:

“Three teachers said they required multiple drafts from their students on a regular basis [...] But as the writing tasks they gave to the students were almost all simulations of the writing section of the CET, which in most cases was a form of guided composition (i.e., students develop essays on topic sentences provided), the students’ revisions and the teacher’s feedback were predominantly concerned about grammatical and lexical errors rather than exploring and discovering meaning.”

(You, 2004, p. 102)

Testing burdens FL pedagogies directly by affecting teacher decisions but also indirectly via student expectations and textbooks

(Gorsuch, 2001)

Consequences are long-ranging

Tests can contribute to “students’ narrow definition of writing”

(Luce-Kapler & Kingler, 2005)

Consequences are deep

Yet, we shouldn’t imagine these constraints as homogeneous or deterministic

Differences between urban & rural geographies in China (e.g., Hu, 2005)

Differences between academic and vocational schools in Japan (e.g., Gorsuch, 2001)

We need to imagine: beyond originary, inherited space and time

differences in life experiencesdifferences in negotiating constraints

(e.g., MacPherson, 2005)

Societal-structuraltexture

Individual agency

Cultural challengesFor FL writing

Globalization & Local context:tension-ridden interpenetration of values and practices from centers to peripheries

and (only rarely)back from peripheries to

centers

Cumming (2003) reports that “writing process” and “genre” were well known concepts for 17 experienced writing instructors across a variety of FL contexts he investigated (Hong Kong, Japan, and Thailand, as well as French Canada)

Well documented:

Spread of center pedagogies...

... and tension between professional knowledge and local needs...

“Most of the teachers I interviewed told me that they had read about the process approach, genre-based approach, and writing for academic purposes approach. But they could hardly use them in their classes because ‘‘We teach the students examination writing,’’ as one of the teachers remarked.”

(You, 2004, p. 102)

Yet, we need to see in-between

Attested local adaptationsLeki (2001) : Ambivalence in them (p.

205):

“the right to resist center imposed materials and methods” (p. 197)

‘failures’ to properly understand and implement best methodologies

conscious or unconscious solutions to resist the impositions from the center

InterludeWhat we know and can

imagine:

EFL writing scholarshipIn the last 16 years

Table 1. EFL studies in JSLW 1992-to date (36% of 148 primary studies)

Countries Schools (K-12)

Higher education

Other Total

China 6 6

Hong Kong 4 9 13

India 1 1

Japan 12 12

Korea 1 1

Singapore 3 3

Taiwan 3 3

Other FL countries

5 6 4 15

Total 10 40 4 54

Table 2. EFL studies in TQ 1992-to date (33% of 48 primary writing studies)

Countries Schools (K-12) Higher education

Other Studies

China (3) 2 1 Li (2007), Shi et al. (2005),

Shi (2001)

Hong Kong (4) 3 1 Braine (2005),L. Flowerdew

(2003), J. Flowerdew

(2000), Pennycook

(1996)

Japan (1) 1 Kobayashi (1992)

Singapore (1) 1 Stroud & Lee (2007)

Other EFL countries (7)

1 5 1 Liebowitz (2005), Curry &

Lillis (2004), Turner &

Upshur (2002), Angelil-Carter (1997), Thesen

(1997), Culk (1994),

Albertini (1993)

Total 2 11 3 16

Table 3. Some themes in EFL scholarship (JSLW & TQ 1992-to date; N=70)

Theme Illustrations

Cognitive processes of composing Pennington & So (1993), Roca de Larios et al. (1999), Sasaki (2000), Wang & Wen (2002)

(Critical) contrastive rhetoric & instruction

Kubota (1998), Gosden (1998), Sengupta (1999), Lee (2002), Kang (2005)

Feedback/response and revision Brock (1993), Jacobs et al. (1998), Ashwell (2000), Min (2006), Miao et al. (2006)

Writing for publication in English Gosden (1996), Casanave (1998), J. Flowerdew (1999a, 1999b), Curry & Lillis (2004), Shi et al. (2005), Li (2007)

Plagiarism, voice, and their (trans)cultural dimensions

Deckert (1993), Pennycook (1996), Matsuda (2001)

L1/L2 composing pedagogical & curricular landscapes

Kobayashi & Rinnert (2002); Reichelt (1999, 2005); Ramanathan (2003); You (2004)

Contributions of FL Writing scholarship to L2 writing theory

Two Japan-basedresearch programs

Two Europe-basedResearch programs

Miyuki Sasaki

Keiko Hirose

Hiroe Kobayashi

Carol Rinnert

Rosa Manchón

Liz Murphy

Julio Roca de Larios

Rob Schoonen

Amos van Gelderen

Kees de Glopper

L2 proficiency

L2 composing ability

Overall (L1) composing ability

Experience(=practice)

L1 & L2 training(=meta-knowledge)

Problem-solving(L1 use, restructuring,

backtracking)

L2 fluency vs.L2 knowledge

Context (SA)

In a nutshell:

But What of Purposes and Needs for FL

writing?In-between what we should know, and what we should be trying to

imagine

TENAR, TENOP, TENOR?Courtesy of Akiko Katayama to Sandy McKay, to me

TENAR = Teaching English for No Apparent Reason (one of several facetious expressions used to describe a learning situation where the purpose is, at best, vague; this includes language courses that apparently exist merely to allow students to meet university graduation requirements; common in Japan)

(ELT Acronyms, in ELT News, http://www.eltnews.com/guides/acronyms_3.shtml)

Purposes for FL writing

UtilitarianWriting toLearn FL

Humanistic

Exams

Trade

Tourism

Science

Technology

Practicing FL

Motivational boost

Creativity & self-expression

Critical thinking

Identity construction

Personal

CMC

Pop culture

Writing to learn an FL

Practicing L2(grammar, voc)?

Motivational boostthrough writing?

After all these years: Grammar, lexis, & ‘control of language’ still important in S/FL writing

(Hinkel, 2006)

Writing --- metalinguistic reflection (Cumming, 1990; Swain & Lapkin, 1995)

Writing -- collaboration and interaction (Swain, Brooks, & Tocalli-Beller, 2002)... (in FL contexts this may happen in the L1; Pennington et al., 1996)

Text reconstruction studies (Izumi & Bigelow, 2000; Izumi, 2002)

Reformulation studies (Adams, 2003; Tocalli-Beller & Swain, 2005; Qi & Lapkin, 2001)

Writing -- attention & practice (Manchón & Roca de Larios, 2007)

Writing Language Development

Yet, not so much is known about writing as a site for L2 development

(emphasis on linguistic profiling and rhetorical analysis, not development)

Q: Pushed output applied to L2 writing?

Q: Ways to motivate writers to write (more and better) in the FL?

Powerful effect of changing contexts for writing: 8-to-11 month study abroad experiences (Sasaki,

2004, in press)Rethink tasks: Uncorrected journal assignments (Casanave, 1994) Guided vs. unguided picture stories (Ishikawa,

1994) Create writing tasks that connect with student

interests and backgrounds (Lo & F. Hyland, in press)

Q: How is teacher agency exercised to motivate students creatively, even in the most difficult of contexts?

“The writing tasks in the CETB-4 ask students to write short argumentative or expository essays. [Mrs Meng] explained that writing for daily applications and writing for examinations serve different purposes. In her own teaching, she encouraged students to translate Chinese notices and graffiti into English, or to keep an English diary, all of which interested her students enormously”

(You, 2004, p. 107)

“The writing tasks in the CETB-4 ask students to write short argumentative or expository essays. [Mrs Meng] explained that writing for daily applications and writing for examinations serve different purposes. In her own teaching, she encouraged students to translate Chinese notices and graffiti into English, or to keep an English diary, all of which interested her students enormously”

(You, 2004, p. 107)

Reichelt (2005, p. 230) FL writing in Poland: Tenth-graders’ Advertisements for a New Teacher

WANTED!!! An excellent upper-intermediate class is searching for a new English teacher. If you think (optional) you can handle a group of loud, unorganized, annoying students who never do their homework, you are welcome. We offer you a headache, stomach diseases, concussion, neurosis, and lots of ulcers. If you are a real man, prove it, and take your chance.

Q: Accuracy & motivation, how do they affect each other?

“... giving students real topics where they had real information and feelings to communicate taxed their second language resources to the maximum and thus resulted in less accurate language”

e.g., more direct and inappropriate translations from Chinese to English

e.g., more occasions when students asked for direct translation of a phrase or sentence from Chinese to English while writing

(Lo & Hyland, in press, p. 13)

MotivationAccuracy

as engagement

ConcernMotivation/

for accuracyengagement

Utilitarian/InstrumentalPurposes & Needs

Exams

ScienceAcademia

TradeTourism

Technology

Globalization

Q: What antagonistic and affiliative engagements (Bhabha, 1994) does globalization afford various FL writers?

Antagonistic and affiliative engagements:

Former student, quoted with permission

My weakness is grammar and academic voice:I did not think I was weak in my grammar but when I got

comments from a lot of professors about my grammar, I still feel I’m not legitimate academic writer. Their comment make me to think I’m not academically appropriate, but still need to go to ESL English classes to fix my grammar. I feel often I’m a long-term patient in a hospital to get a 10 year long surgery. [...]

[My other weakness is] Academic voice. I’m getting into post-modernism. But I don’t have post-modernist’s academic voice in my writing. So, I really wish I can get their voice in my writing. So that I can be part of their community.

Q: And how much English does globalization really make available for FL writers?

(Chen et al., 2005, p. 610)

“Across the Greater China region, residents can read Harry Potter books or Scientific American, watch the Discovery or Disney channels, and follow NBA stars or Hollywood idols—all in Chinese. Outside of school, young people may participate in global culture without English”

Humanistic

Creativity,self-expression

Critical/analyticalthinking

Identity construction

In Germany, many teachers think that “writing in one or more foreign languages, especially at the advanced level, trains students’ overall linguistic sensitivity and often helps them with writing in German”

(Reichelt, 2005, p. 93) “writing may be the perfect vehicle for accomplishing the eventual construction of an appropriate and comfortable identity in the FL”

(Leki, 2001, p. 205)

Writing may be one of the most powerful sites for

escaping the native/non-native speaker dichotomy

and inventing a new space in which nativeness

eventually may not matter (finally!)

Joseph Conrad Franz Kafka

Nobody remembers them for being non-native writers,but for being seminal writers

Q: How do humanistic purposes and center-periphery dialectics collide and change each other?

Ramanathan & Atkinson (1999) ideology of individualism

Matsuda (2001) identity unavoidable, discursive and social repertoires context-specific

Kubota (2002, 2004) liberal humanism that supports essential, imagined “us” and “other”

More personalpurposes & needs

Q: Less conventional, less school-oriented genres: Email, pop culture... How much FL ‘writing’ is there in them?

Locating Purposes and Needs for

Writing in a Foreign Language

How can FL researchers & FL teachers imagine and craft richer and generative purposes and needs for FL writing?

With what lenses may we want to look at in-between spaces for purposeful FL writing?

Second ForeignNative Non-

nativeL1 L2C self C other

We need to go beyond binaries:

in-betweenness (interstices)

A pedagogy of shuttling between languages/contexts:

Focus on multilingual writers and her/his mutiplicity of contexts, not only texts

Focus on versatility as much as consistency

Canagarajah’s (2006) suggestion:

...Will we be able to imagine more purpose-ful, and needs-informed FL writing

... at the interstices?

Writing in a foreign language...

Thank Youlortega@hawaii.edu

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