Keywords
Tutoring, Language, Writing instruction, Writing revision, Journal writing, Writing assignments, asynchronous, multilingual/international/ESL students, grammar, research study
Abstract
Motivated by increasing international student writing center use to learn more about second language writing development and its assessment, we conducted a case study of an undergraduate writer who submitted drafts to online tutoring over two years. Synthesizing the perspectives and methods of Applied Linguistics with those of First-Language Composition, we assessed the writer’s short- and long-term progress in the rhetorical, linguistic, and writing process components of her writing development. We found linguistic improvement in accuracy, especially short-term between drafts and revisions more so than over time, but only modest long-term improvement in both rhetorical and other linguistic components. We attributed these results to the writer’s expedient writing process and her narrow conceptions of writing development and of her tutors’ role in it. These expedient processes and narrow conceptions were exacerbated by the online tutors’ continued responses to her feedback requests for grammar help mostly by directly correcting her grammar. In asynchronous online tutoring, we recommend alternative methods to correction, such as color coding, for writers who submit to online tutoring mainly for grammar help, as well as a policy of sending back drafts that students have not yet proofread. We also recommend that both online and face-to-face tutors initiate discussions with students about the non-linear nature of second language writing development and the tutors’ larger role in it, as well as the need to make full use of a complete writing process in order to improve long-term from project to project as well as short-term from draft to revision.
Citation Information
Type of Source: Journal Article
Authors: Carol Severino, Shih-Ni Prim
Year of Publication: 2016
Publication: Writing Center Journal, Volume 35, Issue 3)
Page Range: 143-186