Getting Ideas from My Roommate
After I read this blog post, I decided that I really needed to narrow down my choices of possible bibliographic essay options. As I began looking through some of the past discussions we have read, I miraculously opened our textbooks to an author, who we haven’t read, but who was talking about exactly what I wanted to research!
This discussion was focused on ESL students, but specifically, how students who come from different cultures deal with and react to the American standards of essay writing and whether or not it is “fair” to make them conform to our ideals when it comes to academic papers. This piqued my interest when we watched the film clips in class, interviewing ESL students who were comparing their methods of writing with our way. I had always thought that the biggest challenge to ESL students would be learning the language and using it correctly in papers. I was completely astounded when I realized that sometimes, the actual organization or the type of the essay can be an even larger problem that is not simply fixed by language proficiency.
I became even more intrigued by this topic after speaking with my roommate, who has recently come to Weber on a music scholarship from Taiwan. She is in English 2010 and is always telling me about her different papers she has to write and how she does on them (she often is the top of her class when it comes to her essays). In a moment of free time (which is rare for her), I asked her what she thought of the American method of writing essays, just to see what her reaction would be. Surprisingly, she launched into a full explanation about the differences between Taiwanese schools and American curriculum. She actually said a lot of the same things that the students in the interview stated, namely that the method of writing in her country was much less direct and more poetic than the typical five paragraph, thesis based essay. She explained that in Taiwan, there are several methods of writing that students are all expected to learn. Each method is unique and requires a different way of organization and word use. Perhaps because of the fact that she has been taught from her youth that there are different types of papers within her own culture, it has not been as hard for her to adapt to the American method because it is simply, “just another way” of writing. However, it would be interesting to find out if this is the case for other countries and what leading authority figures in the educational world have to say about this subject. I also wonder if this is as large a problem for ESL students as simple language proficiency is. Perhaps if a student has a relatively good grasp on the language, he/she will still struggle in their English classes because they cannot wrap their heads around the blatant statements of intention that must be made in their American essays (or in other words, the elusive goal of a thesis). I also find fascinating the debate on whether or not it is “right” or “just” or “fair” to tell these students they are wrong if they don’t do it the American way. Overall…I think that I like this topic.
This discussion was focused on ESL students, but specifically, how students who come from different cultures deal with and react to the American standards of essay writing and whether or not it is “fair” to make them conform to our ideals when it comes to academic papers. This piqued my interest when we watched the film clips in class, interviewing ESL students who were comparing their methods of writing with our way. I had always thought that the biggest challenge to ESL students would be learning the language and using it correctly in papers. I was completely astounded when I realized that sometimes, the actual organization or the type of the essay can be an even larger problem that is not simply fixed by language proficiency.
I became even more intrigued by this topic after speaking with my roommate, who has recently come to Weber on a music scholarship from Taiwan. She is in English 2010 and is always telling me about her different papers she has to write and how she does on them (she often is the top of her class when it comes to her essays). In a moment of free time (which is rare for her), I asked her what she thought of the American method of writing essays, just to see what her reaction would be. Surprisingly, she launched into a full explanation about the differences between Taiwanese schools and American curriculum. She actually said a lot of the same things that the students in the interview stated, namely that the method of writing in her country was much less direct and more poetic than the typical five paragraph, thesis based essay. She explained that in Taiwan, there are several methods of writing that students are all expected to learn. Each method is unique and requires a different way of organization and word use. Perhaps because of the fact that she has been taught from her youth that there are different types of papers within her own culture, it has not been as hard for her to adapt to the American method because it is simply, “just another way” of writing. However, it would be interesting to find out if this is the case for other countries and what leading authority figures in the educational world have to say about this subject. I also wonder if this is as large a problem for ESL students as simple language proficiency is. Perhaps if a student has a relatively good grasp on the language, he/she will still struggle in their English classes because they cannot wrap their heads around the blatant statements of intention that must be made in their American essays (or in other words, the elusive goal of a thesis). I also find fascinating the debate on whether or not it is “right” or “just” or “fair” to tell these students they are wrong if they don’t do it the American way. Overall…I think that I like this topic.
posted by Alex at 12:52 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home