Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab, is perhaps already familiar to many ESL writing teachers. It offers detailed pointers on both the writing process itself and academic writing, as well as links to refreshers aimed at correcting the kinds of grammar errors to which many writers—ELLs and native speakers of English alike—are prone.

In addition, I have recently discovered several less well-known sites that are worth the attention of advanced students as well as their instructors. Like many writing websites, Hyper Grammar includes helpful suggestions for writing a paragraph, a topic sentence, and a thesis statement. However, in my opinion, its most useful features are its step-by-step guidelines on building essays from the ground up, with clear and helpful explanations on how to build phrases, clauses, and sentences. Its explanation of why different sentence structures matter is particularly cogent.

Dartmouth’s Institute of Writing and Rhetoric has a special section geared to multilingual writers. It includes an excellent cross-cultural explanation of how writing in American universities differs from that in other cultures as well as outstanding and clear pointers on such challenging topics as writing strong thesis statements. This site’s list of resources for multilingual writers is also worth exploring.

Capital Community College’s Guide to Grammar and Writing allows students to practice some of the advanced grammar and writing skills in a controlled way with a series of writing quizzes on topics such as combining simple sentences and achieving essay coherence. These are challenging activities that will really make students (and their instructors!) think hard about their writing.

Finally, a new textbook that integrates grammar and academic writing for ELLs crossed my desk recently. It is Grammar & Beyond (4A & 4B) by John D. Bunting, Luciana Diniz, and Randi Reppen (Cambridge 2013). The textbook’s sample essays address thought-provoking topics—corporate, environmental and consumer social responsibility; immigration; privacy in the digital age; and cultural perspectives on business etiquette and the role of women in society—that are designed to stimulate both pre–writing class discussions and additional writing activities.

Grammar relevant to each different category of essay (narrative, cause and effect, compare/contrast, persuasive, and problem-solution) is not relegated to separate chapters but incorporated into the essay chapters themselves, giving students the grammar tools needed to write different kinds of essay effectively. And for students who need to acquire college-level vocabulary, each chapter’s essays are studded with words from the academic word list (AWL). Indeed, the AWL is reprinted as an appendix, with cross-references to the chapters where those words are used in sample essays.

These aspects, combined with the text’s corpus-based “Data from the Real World” and “Avoid Common Mistakes” features, make this an intriguing new entrant into the world of English for academic purposes textbooks.

What resources do you turn to in your academic writing classes for ELL’s?

Given that the nonnative participants of the study were enrolled in an advanced course of English for international business, I would assume that their limited linguistic capacities (which are oftentimes an issue for less proficient language learners) were not a hindrance to their ability to adequately express the message appropriate for the context described in the writing task. What I think was the issue is the lack of the knowledge of cultural appropriateness that made the participants produce less formal and quite direct letters.

That made me reflect on the experiences with my students in a first-year composition course that I taught this past academic year. In those classes, I had both language users and language learners (predominantly from China). In the first class (also my first time teaching a freshman writing class), I did not emphasize the conventions of formal e-mails and, quite expectedly, for the entire semester, the students were sending e-mails that were missing either a subject line, an appropriate greeting, or a signature. The language of the e-mails was oftentimes informal as well. Once again, I did not see any particular distinction between L1 and L2 speakers. The problem seemed to be rooted in the students’ unawareness of the e-mail conventions in an academic discourse.

Needless to say, I fixed this mistake in my second semester. I spent a few class periods elaborating on the structure and the language of formal e-mails. I was delighted to see a difference between the e-mails of this second group of students and the one from the previous semester.

We all know that it is not sufficient to teach our ESL learners, or writers for that matter, just the language. I am convinced that exposing students to what we call a culturally appropriate use of language needs to be part and parcel of ESL programs. Sadly, however, culture frequently seems to be placed nearly on the bottom of the ESL curricula, especially in writing courses. But even on a chance there is enough time in a syllabus allotted to the integration of a cultural component, I believe that a mere introduction of certain conventions or norms of communication (oral or written) in a particular social environment, including the rules of politeness, is clearly not enough. A teacher would need to patiently walk students through the examples of writing samples and explain what makes them appropriate or inappropriate. As a case in point, during my second semester of teaching the composition class, I had my students analyze a number of e-mails and identify certain features that made those pieces of writing effective or ineffective. By doing this, the students were able to develop proper strategies of composing professional e-mails of their own.

Going off of this example, I am curious what you are doing in your classes to implement cultural norms of written communication. It would be great to see examples from various teaching contexts, and I encourage you to share your experiences with our community.

There are, of course, dozens of websites that ELLs can use to hone their grammar. Many are free. Others aren’t. There is no need for students to pay to practice English grammar. Here are a few of my favorite sites—all free and available to any student with access to a smart phone, a tablet, a laptop or a PC.

Learn American English Online
One of my highly motivated students introduced our class to this website this semester. It includes seven color-coded levels of instruction. Each lesson is introduced by a short, explanatory video. These homespun videos are followed by examples and quizzes that students can use to practice the grammar point. The short videos are a big draw: By hitting “replay,” students can listen to an experienced ESL teacher explain a troublesome grammar point over and over again. The site contains additional links for learning American expressions and slang.

Perfect English Grammar
This charming British website offers very lively and clear grammar explanations, and is especially helpful for understanding the usage of the different verb tenses. The explanatory text for each verb tense is divided helpfully into separate sections for “form” and for “use.” These are followed by grammar exercises that students can select for self-study. I especially like the fact the site focuses on the negative, the yes/no question, and the information question forms of all verb tenses, and provides ample opportunities for students to practice these nettlesome facets of our grammar. I routinely assign this site’s grammar exercises for homework to supplement the classroom textbook and  for in-class controlled practice.

Anglo Link
The most valuable feature of the Anglo-Link website, in my opinion, are the videos that help students understand when to choose one verb tense as opposed to another. Confused about when to use the present perfect vs. the simple past? Minoo (the narrator of the Anglo-Link videos) makes things much clearer. The final section of each video entitled “Common Mistakes” is also very helpful.

English With Jennifer
Another great source of instructional videos are the ones posted by Jennifer on YouTube. If you go to her website, you will be directed to a playlist of her YouTube videos that offer in-depth explanations and examples of almost every conceivable grammar point. There are 65 video lessons for beginners and an almost equal number of videos with detailed grammar explanations and practice for intermediate and advanced students. Jennifer is careful to include many real-life usage examples in her videos, which tend to be longer and more detailed than the other videos mentioned on the above sites—a plus for students who are aficionados of formal grammar instruction.

Grammar-Quizzes.com
Useful mainly for high-intermediate and advanced students, this site offers detailed written explanations of the finer points of English grammar that go well beyond many ESL textbooks. For students who like clear charts and are good at noticing and appreciating subtle differences in usage, this site provides a plethora of self-study opportunities. Its quizzes are excellent and often involve intriguing, real-life factual situations drawn from the news. The “feedback” feature of the quizzes offers not only corrections but, in some cases, explanations of why an incorrect answer is wrong.

ESL Games World
Sometimes, even adult students like to play games, and the section of this website entitled Grammar Games and Exercises offers links to dozens of online games. Their Verb Tense Jeopardy and Snakes & Ladders are perennial favorites. I often use them at the end of the semester as part of a general review and I encourage my students to play them at home with their English-speaking children.

Which grammar websites do you and your students enjoy using?

Running Dictations is fairly easy to prepare, explain, and setup, plus it is very adaptable. For Running Dictations in its simplest form, the teacher has to prepare just two short paragraphs, each taped to a wall, divide students into pairs with one student being Student A and one student being Student B, explain the directions, and begin.

For this version, tell students that Student A is the writer and Student B is the runner. The runner must run to the board where the first paragraph is displayed, read the text, run back to his or her partner, and repeat what he or she read. The writer’s job is to listen to Student B and write down what is said. Usually it takes many trips to and from the board for the runner to relay the entire paragraph to the writer. When most groups are done, the writer can check the passage against what is displayed, and then roles are reversed and paragraph two is used. Students practice reading, speaking, listening, and writing; have to work together; and are even responsible for checking their own work.

In my classes, I simply print out the paragraphs and tape one copy to the board. (I made the mistake of using too large a font the first time and then the writers in pairs closest to the board were able to just read the paragraph from their seats, so don’t make the same mistake I did!) If you are concerned about having students running in your classroom, you can place a number of copies of each paragraph around the room so that they are more accessible to students and require less movement. You can develop the activity into a focus on vocabulary, a specific theme, a grammar point, or even use it as a model to scaffold a later speaking activity.

Running Dictations can be adapted in a number of ways. Here are some of the ways I have successfully adapted this activity:

• Write two or three questions per paragraph on the board so that the runners have to read and search for the answers to the questions and just relay those answers to the writers rather than the entire passage.
• Cut up a paragraph into sentences posted randomly around the room so that once students have all the sentences written down, both the writer and runner have to decide what the order of the sentences should be.
• Prepare three paragraphs and assign the roles of “runner,” “writer,” and “checker,” where the checker not only looks for mistakes at the end but also while the writer is writing, serving as an assistant.

I’m sure there are even more ways to adapt this, so leave a comment if you think of any or if you know this activity by another name. I hope you and your students enjoy Running Dictations. If something is unclear, ask me!

After a brief introduction to the purpose of our meeting and introductions, school-based teachers and district administrators were given the floor. In 14 years of teaching, I can’t remember a time when that had ever been done at any of the countless professional meetings I have attended. I appreciated the centralizing of the practitioners’ voices in the conversation because we have the names and the faces of our students and their families embedded in our experiences. The key to our success with meeting the challenge of bringing the Common Core to the people in our lives is raising teacher efficacy and building collaborative relationships within our professional communities. The brevity of this sentence belies the complexities involved.

The move to the Common Core is requiring many significant shifts in how we do our work, what we expect of ourselves and our colleagues, and what horizons we hope to build with our students. We have to actively prepare to be in the conversation and be ready to make a difference. Please take a moment to read the TESOL Issue Brief, “Overview of the Common Core State Standards for Initiatives for ELLs,” (March 2013) and the report on the convening. I hope you will read these documents as an invitation to the conversation because the uncommon experience of being part of it all CAN and should become common.

A key piece of advice that one of my students garnered from an uncle in Brazil was:

Run away from people who speak your language. Be in contact with as many English speakers as possible. Ask them to correct you.

In her own blog, Caitlin Hamstra of Central Michigan University wondered whether it was realistic to encourage students to “run away” from people who speak their language if those people are their loved ones: children, spouses and other family members. “Learners who have children,” wrote Caitlin, “want to pass along their language and culture to their children, especially when they’re so far from home; and many spouses don’t speak English. How can they reconcile their family/emotional needs versus their language needs?”

Good point! It’s worth clarifying that this advice was certainly not intended to discourage students from  speaking their L1 at home with their family. Rather, it is designed to encourage adult ESL students in the United States to resolve to speak English whenever they have an opportunity to interact with the English-speaking world around them.

This semester, my students took this advice to heart in a variety of courageous ways. Here, in a nutshell, are some of the steps they took to expand their opportunities to speak English:

• In what was a major advance for several of my students from Central and South America, they began to stop asking to speak to a Spanish-speaking customer service representative when they needed help with a cell phone or a utility bill, choosing to transact their business in English rather than Spanish.
• Students have reported declining the use of a translator at parent-teacher conferences at their children’s school.
• A Brazilian student rejected repeated offers from a hotel reservation clerk to confirm her reservation in Portuguese rather than English.
• An Iranian stay-at-home mom who rarely spoke English outside of class began to invite her son’s classmates to her home for play dates. The mother of one of these playmates lingered to chat one afternoon and then became a regular conversation partner, providing 2 hours of weekly conversation practice for my student.
• Students who reported being too frightened to answer the telephone in their own homes began to pick up the phone when it rang, rather than waiting for their English-speaking children or spouse to answer it.
• A Peruvian student who had previously deferred to her husband to help her children with their homework began to take a more active role in her children’s schoolwork.
• A Panamanian student alerted the class to the availability of ESL “meet-ups” in New York City, where speakers of many different languages get together informally to practice their English.  See, for example, The “We Enjoy English” Meetup group, or the “Speak English! American History and Culture Discussion” group.   Similar groups in other cities can be found by Googling “ESL Meetups” plus the name of your city.

Additional strategies that other students have used to boost the amount of English they speak outside of class are summarized in my December 2012 TESOL Connections article, “Self-Directed Learning: Personal Speaking Plans for Adult ELLs.”

Interestingly, the issue of speaking English at home with family members was one that my students discussed at length among themselves in class this semester. Some students, whose school-age children are bilingual in English and the family’s L1, actually found it helpful to engage their children, for a couple of hours each week, as informal conversation partners, usually by reading school books or library books in English out loud together. They reported that this was an important way for them to stay connected to their children’s American school life and that they enjoyed having their children help them with pronunciation and vocabulary.

Other students, whose spouses’ English language skills were more advanced than their own, planned to enlist them as informal “conversation partners” for a few hours each week.

What novel ways are your students finding to practice speaking English outside of class?

I had a similar adventure reading the following publication featuring the articles of IATEFL ESP SIG members: Krzanowski, M. (Ed.) (2008). Current developments in English for academic, specific, and occupational purposes. Reading, UK: Garnett.

As a bit of background, when I was chair of the ESP IS, I was able to work with Mark Krzanowski, who was Coordinator of the ESP SIG at the time, to launch a speaker exchange between the two ESP groups that was sponsored by the British Council. The speaker exchange has continued, thanks to the ongoing financial support of the British Council, and in 2013, Prithvi Shrestha, who is co-coordinator of the ESP SIG, came to Dallas, and Kristin Ekkens, who is chair-elect of the ESP IS, went to Liverpool.

Among the locations of the authors of the articles are Austria, Bangladesh, Cuba, Croatia, Italy, Kenya, Malaysia, Montenegro, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States. As Mark writes, the publication “is a collection of papers which reflect the diversity and multiplicity of strands that international EAP and ESP practitioners of the 21st century are engaged in across all continents” (p. 2).

In the publication, EAP (English for academic purposes) refers to university settings but not academic subdisciplines. ESP (English for specific purposes) includes training in the academic subdisciplines, such as medicine, and in business contexts, such as English for aviation. EOP (English for occupational purposes) falls under ESP or stands alone.

The articles consist of academic research followed by an activity that is relevant to the context of the author. The book does not follow the format of TESOL’s English for specific purposes (2002) edited by Thomas Orr, which looks at programs in educational and workplace contexts. Therefore, one has the sense that the authors of the articles are not only teachers/trainers but also researchers and that the activities presented are grounded in research.

From a principled ESP perspective, which holds that ESP programs should be designed to meet the immediate needs of adult learners for English as a communication tool in academic or occupational settings, the book does not provide sufficient guidance in acquiring stakeholder agreement in creating and implementing programs. However, for ESPers who are interested in how ESP is perceived and taught around the world, this is an important text because it is provides authentic activities supported by research.

If you want to get a sense of how ESP is conceptualized around the world, check out the book! It could also help you better understand the contexts and academic professionalism of IATEFLers and to brainstorm activities for your own students.

All the best,

Kevin

Several months ago, an Egyptian colleague of mine who works as a marketing manager for a renowned publisher, sent me an e-mail asking me for the following, and I quote: “I would appreciate your help suggesting us names of native teacher trainers based in Cairo to work in and outside Egypt on free lance basis.” I was really upset by this e-mail and I responded thanking him for the request and telling him that we do not have any native teacher trainers and that we only have wonderful, high quality, trained, and certified Egyptian teacher trainers including myself.

I went on to add the following: “In fact, although I am not a native teacher trainer myself, I am considered a professional educator at the international level and in spite of the fact that I am not a native speaker, I have been elected as president of TESOL.” Needless to say, he was extremely apologetic and both e-mailed and called me to convey this and to emphasize that it was not him or his organization but in fact it was their clients in the Arab Gulf region that stipulate and insist on “nativeness” as a requirement when recruiting English language teachers or teacher trainers. My response was that it is his responsibility and that of his organization to educate people they are dealing with and not to condone and uphold such discriminatory practices.

We must spread this message and communicate to people within our communities to make them understand that such thinking is a legacy of British colonialism, and we must move on and away from this. I also made the point that we all learn English as a means of communication with the world and our purpose cannot and should not be to aspire to become native speakers of English since we are already native speakers of our own L1. It does not make sense to want to be imitation native speakers; we should aim for becoming bilinguals—fully competent in English. At the end of my long and passionate lecture, he was totally convinced and promised me he will do his best to spread the message.

Personally, I continue to fight this battle in my context, convincing colleagues, students and all those I meet in my daily life that NNESTs should not be discriminated against and that we should aspire to be competent, and not native, speakers of English. I believe if we all contribute to the discussion to change the way people think and convey the same or similar messages wherever we are, one day we will overcome. After all, the number of NNESTs in the world outnumber NESTs by far, and we will prevail.

Why should you attend? Participants who have attended in the past were asked that very question. Although there’s a new name for the program, the reasons remain the same. Here are their Top 10 Reasons to Participate in TESOL Advocacy & Policy Summit:

1. You will gain in-depth knowledge about federal policy issues affecting English language learners, their teachers, and schools. In addition to detailed policy briefs and other background reading provided before the event, the Summit will feature Congressional staff, federal officials, and other experts discussing the latest on key policy issues for the field. The new summit format will also allow for a broader discussion of policy issues, rather than the more narrow focus of legislation. You will learn a tremendous amount of information in a short period of time – and how it impacts the field.

2. You will learn detailed information about the inner workings of Congress and the legislative process. Staff from Congressional offices and other speakers will also provide information on how Congress really works and how you can make an impact. More importantly, you will learn about what is going on right now and participate directly in democracy.

3. You will empower yourself with valuable information you can bring back to your community on how to be a better advocate for teachers and schools locally. What is happening in Washington, DC, does have a local impact on your school and your students. Learning about federal policy and current developments, as well as having the experience of meeting with federal officials, will empower you to be a more effective advocate for your community. This year’s program will also include activities to help develop your skills and capacity to advocate back home.

4. You will discover that sharing your voice with policy makers is not as difficult as it seems. The thought of meeting with an elected official can be intimidating, especially if you have never done this before. By participating in the TESOL Advocacy & Policy Summit you will receive step-by-step instructions on how to contact your elected officials, make your appointments, and conduct your meeting. This information makes the whole process much easier and  prepares you for an effective meeting with your legislators.

5. You will make a difference and give your students a voice by communicating concerns and needs directly with policy makers and elected officials in Washington. Although policy makers and elected officials receive information from constituents all the time, nothing is more powerful or effective than a face-to-face meeting where you can relay needs and concerns directly.

6. You will also provide a face for the field of TESOL to elected officials and representatives. More and more information is available about the needs of English learners in education, and research continues to grow. However, the voice of the teacher is one that is often missing in policy circles. You can fill that gap and provide key information on what it’s like in the classroom. You are the face of TESOL.

7. You will have the opportunity to be heard and respected as a professional and expert in the field. No one is a better expert on what is happening in your classroom than you. Elected officials and policy makers rarely have the opportunity to talk directly to ESL experts and classroom teachers, so many officials and their staff will be eager to hear what you have to say.

8. You will get to walk the halls of power in Washington, DC. Operate like a Washington insider and walk the halls of Congress. You’ll be on Capitol Hill for a full day for meetings, so you’ll have time to see and explore the place where our legislators do the people’s business.

9. You will gain solidarity with a network of other like-minded TESOL professionals from across the United States. The TESOL Advocacy & Policy Summit is a collective experience for all involved, so a great camaraderie develops among all the participants. Learn from others who have been here before, and hear about similar situations in different areas of the country. You will create a network of support that you can count on throughout the year.

10. You will benefit from an unparalleled leadership development experience. Ask anyone who has participated before – you will leave the Summit a changed person, and an empowered leader.

Bonus!
You will have a terrific addition to your CV/resume. (No explanation necessary.)

Extra Bonus!
You may be able to participate for free!

Every affiliate of TESOL International Association is eligible for one complimentary registration for the TESOL Advocacy & Policy Summit. If your affiliate hasn’t yet identified a delegate for this year, contact your local affiliate to see if they will support your attendance.

Affiliates should contact Valerie Borchelt or John Segota with the name of their delegate to register.

Register before 17 May for only $99 USD. Full details and registration information available are available on the TESOL Advocacy and Policy Summit webpage.

Special thanks to Margo Hernandez, Julia Maffei, Jennifer Morrison, Paula Schlusberg, Anne Shoemaker, and Debbie Vaughn for their contributions.

Have you participated in TESOL Advocacy Day or similar events in the past? Do you have other reasons you would add?

In these entries, I hope to address a variety of topics on the teaching of second language writing, and share my own writing experiences as well as those of my students. I will also share my teaching ideas and activities for classroom implementation as well as online resources that may be helpful for those of us who teach L2 writing. I hope that we will have interesting and stimulating discussions, and I am looking forward to your insights, questions, and ideas.

Being in the TESOL field for several years both as a student and a teacher, I am amazed how diverse this professional field is and how rapid the changes occur both in methodology and in the different areas of interest. I especially appreciate the opportunity to be involved in this community of TESOL professionals, exchange research and teaching ideas, stay in tune with the emerging trends in the field, and enjoy networking experiences. For the past several years, I enjoyed the privilege of participating in the annual TESOL conventions both as an attendee and as a presenter. I largely owe my professional growth to the expertise of the members of this academic community.

This blog is yet another venue for us, language educators, to participate in a more informal interaction with each other. I am glad to become a TESOL blogger, and I hope that my academic background and professional experiences can contribute to this blog and help it meet its purposes.