16.1217, Review: Applied Ling/Multilingualism: Zamel & Spack (2004)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-16-1217. Mon Apr 18 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.1217, Review: Applied Ling/Multilingualism: Zamel & Spack (2004)

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1)
Date: 18-Apr-2005
From: Silvia Rossi < slrossi at ucalgary.ca >
Subject: Crossing the Curriculum 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 04:19:35
From: Silvia Rossi < slrossi at ucalgary.ca >
Subject: Crossing the Curriculum 
 

EDITORS: Zamel, Vivian; Spack, Ruth
TITLE: Crossing the Curriculum
SUBTITLE: Multilingual Learners in College Classrooms
PUBLISHER: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
YEAR: 2004
Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/15/15-2961.html


Silvia Rossi, Department of French, Italian and Spanish, University of 
Calgary, Canada

OVERVIEW

This volume is a collection of thirteen essays exploring the issues 
surrounding English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) students' 
experiences in mainstream college classrooms.  Three perspectives -- the 
researcher's, the student's and the teacher's -- are represented and 
account for the division of the volume into three parts.  

SUMMARY

PART I -- Investigating Students' Experiences Across the Curriculum: 
Through the Eyes of Classroom Researchers

Co-editor Vivian Zamel begins Chapter 1 by contrasting two faculty 
responses to a survey she conducted about working with non-native speakers 
of English.  The underlying assumptions of each response are brought to 
light, and their implications discussed.  Sample responses from a separate 
survey of ESOL students follow, revealing the expectations these students 
have of the faculty members who teach them.  Next, Zamel summarizes the 
experiences of two individual ESOL students with whom she conducted 
longitudinal case studies.  (These same two students describe their 
individual experiences in greater detail in Part II of the volume.)  Some 
of the reasons why ESOL and other writing-based courses are often 
relegated to the margins of academic institutions are then identified, and 
to finish the chapter, Zamel comments on progress she has made in working 
with faculty at different institutions.  She states that "by looking for 
evidence of students' intelligence, by rereading their attempts as 
coherent efforts, by valuing, not just evaluating, their work, and by 
reflecting on the critical relationship between our work and theirs -- 
opportunities are created not only for students but for teachers to learn 
in new ways".

In Chapter 2, co-editor Ruth Spack reports on her three-year case study of 
one Japanese ESOL undergraduate student.  The student's progress through 
different undergraduate courses is traced through descriptions of her 
attitudes toward course reading, assignments and the marks she received.  
During her first year, the student attributed her inability to manage 
coursework, and particularly to keep up with readings, to a lack of 
background knowledge.  In the second year, however, she began to develop 
new strategies for reading, partly thanks to her first-year ESOL writing 
courses.  By the third year, she was feeling more confident, and for the 
first time recognized the advantages that came from having lived and 
studied in more than one country.  She also came to see the process of 
teaching and learning as one involving the construction of knowledge.  
After stating some of the implications of her research, Spack suggests 
that a new pedagogical model be developed -- one in which the "more 
contextualized and culture-based approach of constructive-developmental 
theorists" is favoured over the traditional monocultural perspective, "the 
cross-cultural implications of expecting students to produce a certain 
kind of discourse" are questioned, and assumptions about the nature of 
Western rhetoric are re-evaluated.

In Chapter 3, Marilyn Sternglass describes the experience of one 
participant in her 6-year longitudinal study.  Despite initially failing a 
standardized writing assessment test, this student from the Dominican 
Republic went on to succeed in her college studies and even to complete a 
Master's degree in psychology.  In each of the six years described, 
special attention is given to the role of writing in the student's 
academic development.  Over the six-year period, the student used writing 
in her learning in three main ways:  "to help her remember facts, to delve 
more deeply into ideas and theories from an analytical perspective so that 
she could apply these theories, and to develop new insights that led her 
to original research projects".  Sternglass' eventual conclusion is that 
both aspects of writing, focus on form and focus on content, need to be 
nurtured over time.  Instructors should praise content while 
simultaneously encouraging students to improve their form.

In Chapter 4, Trudy Smoke revisits a 4-year longitudinal case study of a 
Chinese student's progress in her college studies in order to focus on 
five assignments in particular.  Through the descriptions of these 
assignments, the reader understands how the student "turned the 
assignments, the feedback she received on them, and the problems she 
encountered with them into learning experiences".  An additional focus of 
the chapter is the contributions of graduate students in the City 
University of New York (CUNY) Writing Fellows program, who assist faculty 
in implementing writing-to-learn pedagogy initiatives.  Writing Fellows 
often play the role of intermediaries between faculty and ESOL students, 
helping faculty members to become aware of difficulties ESOL students are 
experiencing, and helping students to better understand what is expected 
of them on assignments. 

The final chapter in Part I features a description by Eleanor Kutz of a 
project she developed for her first-year composition course in which 
students investigate the discourse of one of their college courses.  The 
rationale for the project is the conviction that the problems of advanced 
ESOL learners are more related to discourse-learning than they are to 
language-learning.  Four ESOL students' assignments are discussed, 
revealing the importance of "seeing the big picture" for academic success, 
and demonstrating the process of moving from outsider to insider status 
within a discourse community.  The emphasis is not so much on the 
uniqueness of the ESOL student experience, but rather on the fact that all 
students, regardless of language background, need to learn to negotiate a 
role within each new discourse community they enter.

PART II -- Learning Across the Curriculum: Through Students' Eyes

Chapter 6 is a passionate and often poetic first-hand account of a 
Colombian student's experience negotiating a freshman seminar and courses 
in chemistry, literature and biology.  Martha Muñoz discusses the 
classroom practices which enhanced or inhibited her learning.  Professors 
who showed passion for their subject matter and a genuine commitment to 
creating a bridge for students to get through difficult material were an 
inspiration.  Successful techniques these professors used were weekly 
letters for in-class exchange among students, interactive journals and 
presentations in which students taught each other.  In contrast, 
professors who lectured without making a personal connection with students 
and who had unreasonable assumptions about students' background knowledge 
were a disappointment.  Particularly interesting in this chapter are the 
sections in which the student comments on how she took skills learned in 
her ESOL classes and applied them successfully to her other coursework.

Chapter 7 is another very personal student account, this time from 
Japanese sociology major Motoko Kainose.  Motoko first discusses the 
prevalent stereotype of ESOL students as "neither writing nor speaking as 
efficiently and effectively as other non ESL students" in the context of a 
painful experience she had in one of her classes.  Then, in a section 
entitled "The Sounds of Silence", she traces the progress of a philosophy 
class she took in which the level of student participation gradually 
decreased over time, discussing how this situation puzzled her and 
explaining why she found it so difficult to speak up in class.  What 
follows is a fascinating account of how Motoko eventually turned to some 
of the learning strategies and traditional forms of self-discipline she 
had used in her native Japan in order to succeed in a particularly 
challenging sociology course.  In the fourth section, Motoko shares her 
observations of Chinese students' behaviour in a Chinese literature 
course, helping to break down the common myth of the "mute" Chinese 
student in the process.  A final section highlights the importance of 
teacher commentary on student assignments for motivation.

PART III -- Engaging Students in Learning: Through the Eyes of Faculty 
Across the Curriculum

In Chapter 8, Tim Sieber emphasizes the "head start" ESOL students have 
over other students in meeting the goals of his cultural anthropology 
course.  Their bi- or multi-cultural backgrounds give them an advanced 
understanding of the subject matter.  The chapter contains a strong focus 
on the role of writing to promote critical thinking, and the author 
explains how he moved from viewing ESOL students' tendency to discuss 
their personal experiences in their writing as a weakness, to seeing this 
practice as valuable because it contributes to the development of critical 
thinking skills.  The three types of writing used in the course -- 
spontaneous in-class responses, a weekly ungraded critical reading 
journal, and more formal, longer essays -- are each justified.  Several 
examples of student writing are provided, illustrating both the nature of 
connections ESOL students make between their personal experience and class 
material, and the pressure they feel to conform to their largely 
monocultural post-secondary environment..  Sieber comments on his personal 
transformation from seeing his role as a "grammar policeman" in evaluating 
ESOL students' writing to understanding that "this type of response to 
student writing was not effectively recognizing and promoting students' 
intellectual development".  Some final remarks point to the danger of 
idealizing ESOL students as all being gifted in balanced critical 
thinking.  Sieber notes that at times ESOL students' contributions are 
ethnocentric and even racist.  Still, he concludes that in general, his 
experience with ESOL students has led him to raise his standards for all 
students. 

Chapter 9 details the struggle of Neha Shah, a student from India, in an 
introductory level philosophy course.  It is written by Stephen Fishman, 
the instructor of the course in question, and Lucille McCarthy, who had 
regular interviews with Neha over the course of the semester.  Fishman 
describes Neha's early writing assignments and his complex reactions to 
them, and the dilemma he saw himself faced with: "If Neha was unprepared 
for my course, I, as a teacher, was equally unprepared for her".  It took 
measures such as Neha's quitting one of her part-time jobs, and spending 
extra time in the writing lab for her written work to show signs of 
improvement.  A valuable section of this chapter is the conclusion that 
writing-to-learn assignments were not, by themselves, helpful to Neha, but 
that in combination with other pedagogical techniques such as student 
letter exchanges, student-generated questions for class discussion, and 
student-generated exam questions, the benefits of writing-to-learn did 
emerge.  In other words, writing helped learning when it was matched with 
activities allowing students to interact with one another.  Fishman also 
underlines the importance of focusing on the content of students' work 
rather than becoming distracted by surface errors in their writing.

Chapter 10 contains Kristine Alster's reflections on nursing students' 
writing and on her own attempts at helping them to improve this skill.  
She argues that although nursing students often believe writing to be 
unimportant for their field, writing is necessary for communicating, for 
learning, and for enhancing professional status.  Working against the 
positive development of nursing students' writing skills are poor models, 
the overuse of jargon, and an overemphasis on form over content.  These 
can lead to a loss of confidence and a tendency towards plagiarism, and 
Alster explains how these consequences can particularly affect ESOL 
students.  The author then provides some suggestions for techniques that 
can help nursing students to develop as writers including acknowledging 
the difficulty of the writing task, backing off when frustration levels 
run too high and working from the simple to the complex.  Alster notes 
some of the reasons instructors may feel uncomfortable addressing student 
writing problems: 1) they are often unsure of their own writing skills, 2) 
it is commonly assumed that writing is the domain and responsibility of 
the English department, 3) instructors are preoccupied with covering 
nursing content and believe that this must take precedence over teaching 
writing skills.  Alster's solution for this last challenge is that 
instructors must strive to "develop assignments in which writing promotes 
content learning".

Rajini Srikanth, an English professor, is the author of the next chapter, 
whose objective is to make the case for "placing the malleability of 
literature in the service of ESOL pedagogy".  Two of Srikanth's primary 
classroom goals are to make students feel comfortable expressing their 
ideas and to acknowledge multiple interpretations of texts.  In order to 
create a comfortable environment in which ESOL students feel free to 
participate, instructors must do several things: acknowledge these 
students' identities outside of their role as learners of English, avoid 
giving the impression that texts are authoritative and untouchable, and 
stimulate multiple forms of expression. Like the authors of previous 
chapters, Srikanth underlines the usefulness of ungraded written responses 
to texts, letter writing, and activities which ask students to teach one 
another.  She ends the chapter by emphasizing the need to see "the unique 
individuals behind ESOL students' written essays".

In Chapter 11, Estelle Disch outlines some of the techniques she uses in 
her internship in sociology course in order to make the classroom a place 
where all students feel comfortable participating.  The point is made that 
when an instructor strives to create a democratic classroom where all 
voices are heard, it is not only ESOL students, but all students who 
benefit.  Some of the strategies used to create this inclusivity are 
writing activities designed to stimulate critical thinking in preparation 
for class discussions, short ungraded quizzes after which students defend 
their answers in small groups, and collaborative projects.  In describing 
ESOL students specifically, Disch refers to them as both a gift and a 
challenge -- a gift because they "validate the importance of multicultural 
awareness in human services" and a challenge because of the linguistic and 
sometimes cultural gaps they often possess.  Linguistic gaps, however, 
must not be overemphasized.  According to Disch, instructors tend to 
attribute an ESOL student's silence or anxiety to linguistic shortcomings 
too hastily, when in fact the source of these problems may lie elsewhere.  

In this final chapter, Peter Nien-chu Kiang describes an assignment 
called "The Meaning of Names", which students complete in his Asian 
American Studies course.  The assignment asks students to reflect on the 
origins of their full name and their feelings towards it- in short, to 
tell their name stories.  Kiang outlines the interesting relationships 
which exist between name stories and family expectations and educational 
achievement for many ESOL learners.  He also shows how names are related 
to family legacies and to students' personal experiences of 
discrimination.  The overall framework for this discussion is the 
problematic of student persistence in higher education and the idea that 
persistence depends to a large degree on students' academic and social 
integration.  Kiang argues that assignments like "The Meaning of Names" 
provide opportunities for just such academic and social integration.

EVALUATION

This volume is a welcome addition to the literature on learning across the 
curriculum.  The fact that the perspectives of researchers, students and 
teachers are all represented make it a uniquely balanced view of the 
issues surrounding ESOL students and their experiences in college 
classrooms.  There are several key ideas which appear repeatedly in 
different chapters of the volume.  One is that informal response-type 
writing assignments can be a key to helping ESOL students find their voice 
and write authentically.  Another is that instructors' comments on 
students' work are of vital importance to motivation and success.  A third 
point is that more instructors are seeing ESOL students in their 
classrooms as a valuable resource rather than a problem to be solved.  A 
final common thread running through the book is that pedagogical practices 
which are good for ESOL learners are good for all learners.  In this 
collection, Zamel and Spack have brought together a highly readable and 
insightful series of viewpoints which guide the reader toward a fuller 
understanding of the complexity of ESOL students' situations and those of 
the professionals who guide them.  In fact, the value of this book extends 
far beyond an audience interested in the ESOL student experience; it 
contains important lessons for all those who research, learn and teach at 
the post-secondary level. 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Silvia Rossi is an ESOL instructor at the Languages Institute at Mount 
Royal College in Calgary, Canada and a graduate student in French and 
Spanish at the University of Calgary, Canada.  Her research interests lie 
primarily in the area of third language acquisition, and she is presently 
investigating lexical transfer in L3 Spanish production.





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