Chapter 1 : The Importance of Text in Written
Academic Discourse : Ongoing Goals in Teaching ESL
Skills
The rapid increase in numbers of college- and university-level courses, textbooks, and all
manner of learning aids for second language (L2) academic writers, couldn't be left out
without a notice, especially in the past several decades. However, this fact should not be very
surprising if we take the college/university enrollment statistics into consideration. During the
2000-2001 school year, approcimately 4 % of all student population ( which is nearly 550.000
international students ) were enrolled in degree programs in U.S. colleges and universities.
( Institute of International Education, 2001). Furthermore, researchers have found many
reasons, all of which are equally important, which are why the academic writing of even higly
advanced and trained students continues to provoke numerous problems and difficulties. This
effectiveness of ESL and EAP writing courses in preparing NNS students for actual academic
writing in universities was discussed by Leki and Carson (1997) . Their finding was indeed
very straight forward and simple : “What is valued in writing for writing classes is different
from what is valued in writing for other academic courses“ ( Leki and Carson, p.64. ) . They
further emphasized that the teaching of writing in ESL and EAP programs needs to provide
students with linguistic and writing skills that can enable the learners to ‘encounter, manage,
and come to terms with new information’ and also expand their knowledge base. After few
years, another very important fact was acknowledged, which stated that “mere exposure to L2
vocabulary, grammar, discourse, and formal written text is the most effective means of
attaining academic L2 proficiency. “ ( Ellis, 1990; Hinkel, 2002a; Nation, 2001; Norris and
Ortega, 2000; Schmitt, 2000). However, outside ESL and English department writing
programs, the faculty in the disciplines are not particularly concerned about the writing
process that affects the quality of the writing product. Teaching techniques and approaches to
teaching L2 writing are based on four key assumptions about learning to write in an L2:
1) Learning to write in an L2 is fundamentally different from learning to write in an L1.
Native speakers(NS) already have highly developed language proficiency in English, but on
the other hand most non native speakers(NNS) must dedicate years to learning it as a second
language-in most cases as adults.
2)Research has established that applying the writing and composition pedagogy for NSs to
teaching L2 writing to NNSs- even over the course of several years-does not lead to sufficient
improvement in L2 writing to enable students to produce academic-level texts.
3)The knowledge-telling and knowledge-transforming model of the writing process shows
that exposure to conversational language experience and access to written text apply to
practically all language users.
4)Extensive and focused instruction in L2 academic vocabulary, grammar, and discourse is
essential for developing the L2 written proficiency expected in general education courses and
studies in the disciplines.
According to many studies of L1 and L2 written discourse and text, the difference between
the two is best seen in their discourse and rhetorical organization, ideas and content of
writing, rhetorical modes(e.g narration and argumentation), reliance on external knowledge
and information, references to sources of knowledge and information, the role of audience in
discourse and text production, discourse and text cohesion, and the use of linguistic and
rhetorical features of formal written text.
Student Writing Tasks
and Written Academic Genres
There are various domains of language skills needed for NNS to become proficient L2
writers. But, college-level writing programs do not always have a clear picture of what
students expect to be an outcome after the course is finished. Undergraduate students do not
only take Academic Writing course,but also they take general education in various
disciplines. In order to check how well the students are coping with the material,they are
being tested and examined. What's important to add, is that all writing assignments consist of
more than one writing task. Most common student written academic assignments and tasks
are those Major Writing Assignments with a specifical length of 5 to 10 pages, Medium-
Length Essays and Short Written tasks ( approcimately between 1 and 5 pages ) , and English
Composition Writing tasks which provide the model for teaching writing in EAPs. Research
of English discourse and text showed that they differ in construction. Leki and Carson
concluded that what is valued more in writing classes that emphasizes personal growth is
different from that necessary in academicwriting in the disciplines. Most of these Writing
Assignments use various types of rhetorical tasks, such as :
1) Exposition ( introduction and explanation of materials to follow )
2) Cause-effect interpretation (the most common writing task, found in over half of all writing
assignments )
3) Classification ( events, facts, developments )
4) Comparison ( entities, theories, methods, etc. )
5) Analysis of information, facts
6) Argumentation ( based on facts and information )
