This article examines writing conference discourse in one English as a Second Language (ESL) basic composition course. The study is based on a 25,000-word corpus of 10 writing conference interactions between the instructor and seven students. Through a microlevel analysis, the authors demonstrate how and to what degree the writing conference can serve as a locus of “emergent agency,” with a particular focus on the second-language writer. The data exhibit patterns in the students’ discourse such that earlier segments in the interactions tend to reflect uncertainty, confusion, negative self-evaluation, and negative other-evaluation. As the sessions progress, the authors note shifts in stance whereby students begin to propose candidate solutions to actual or perceived problems and evince more authorial direction. The authors demonstrate that the practice can serve as an effective pedagogical activity in which novice writers learn to navigate through challenges and obstacles associated with university-level reading and writing tasks.
Atkinson, D. (1997). A critical approach to critical thinking in TESOL. TESOL Quarterly, 31, 71-94.
2.
Atkinson, D., & Ramanathan, V. (1995). Cultures of writing: An ethnographic comparison of L1 and L2 university writing/language programs. TESOL Quarterly, 29, 539-568.
3.
Atkinson, M., & Heritage, J. (Eds.). (1984). Structures of social action: Studies in conversation analysis. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
4.
Bakhtin, M. (1981). The dialogic imagination. Austin: University of Texas Press.
5.
Bakhtin, M. (1986). Speech genres and other late essays. Austin: University of Texas Press.
6.
Behrens, L., & Rosen, L. J. (1996). Writing across the curriculum (5th ed.). New York: HarperCollins.
7.
Bereiter, C. (1994). Implications of postmodernism for science, or, science as progressive discourse. Educational Psychologist, 29(2), 3-12.
8.
Bizzell, P. (1987). Academic discourse and critical consciousness. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
9.
Carson, J. (2001). Writing and SLA in the post-process era. Unpublished manuscript of the paper delivered at the Annual Meeting of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, St. Louis, MO.
10.
Cumming, A. H. (1994). Writing expertise and second-language proficiency. In A. H. Cumming (Ed.), Bilingual performance in reading and writing (pp. 173-221). Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
11.
Dozier, C., Johnston, P., & Rogers, R. (2006). Critical literacy, critical thinking: Tools for preparing responsive teachers. New York, London: Columbia University, Teachers College Press.
12.
Duranti, A. (2004). Agency in language. In A. Duranti (Ed.), A companion to linguistic anthropology (pp. 451-473). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
13.
English for freshmen. (2006). Yale University Web site. Retrieved May 15, 2006, from www.yale.edu/yalecollege/2010/academics/programs/english.html
14.
Flavell, J. H. (1979). Metacognition and cognitive monitoring: A new area of cognitive-developmental inquiry. American Psychologist, 34, 906-911.
15.
Grabe, W., & Kaplan, R. (1995). Theory & practice of writing. New York: Longman.
16.
Hayes, J. R., & Flower, L. S. (1980). Identifying the organization of the writing process. In L. W. Gregg & E. R. Steinberg (Eds.), Cognitive processes in writing (pp. 3-30). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
17.
John-Steiner, V. (1997). Notebooks of the mind: Exploration of thinking. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
18.
Kramsch, C. (2000). Social discursive constructions of self in L2 learning. In J. Lantolf (Ed.), Sociocultural theory and second language learning (pp. 133-153). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
19.
Lindemann, E. (1995). Three views of English 101. College English, 57(3), 287-302.
20.
Patthey-Chavez, G. G., & Ferris, D. (1997). Writing conferences and the weaving of multi-voiced texts in college composition. Research in the Teaching of English, 31(1), 51-90.
21.
Pennsylvania State University, Department of English Web site. (2005). Penn State The Department of English Freshman Writing ESL 004 and Freshman Writing English 015. Retrieved December 28, 2005, from http://English.la.psu.edu/undergraduate/compjump.htm
22.
Ramanathan, V., & Atkinson, D. (1999). Individualism, academic writing, and ESL writers. Journal of Second Language Writing, 8(1), 45-75.
23.
Ramanthan, V., & Kaplan, R. (1996). Some problematic “channels” in the teaching of critical thinking in current L1 composition textbooks: Implications for L2 student-writers. Issues in Applied Linguistics, 7, 225-249.
24.
Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (1983). Child as coinvestigator: Helping children gain insight into their own mental processes. In S. Paris, G. Olson, & H. Stevenson (Eds.), Learning and motivation in the classroom (pp. 62-82). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
25.
Schleppegrell, M. J. (2004). The language of schooling: A functional linguistics perspective. Mahwah, MJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
26.
Silva, T. (1993). Toward an understanding of the distinct nature of L2 writing: The ESL research and its implications. TESOL Quarterly, 27, 657-677.
27.
Spack, R. (1998). Initiating ESL students into the academic discourse community: How far should we go? In V. Zamel & R. Spack (Eds.), Negotiating academic literacies: Teaching and learning across languages and cultures (pp. 85-104). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
28.
Strauss, S. (2006). Creating a community of second language writers: An advanced level curriculum design for freshman composition in second language contexts. Manuscript in preparation.
29.
Strauss, S., Feiz, P., Ivanova, D., & Xiang, X. (2004, May). Multi-faceted dialogue in ESL writing instruction: An experimental approach. Paper presented at American Association of Applied Linguistics, Portland, OR.
30.
Strauss, S., Feiz, P., Xiang, X., & Ivanova, D. (in press). The dialogic construction of meaning in advanced l2 writing: Bakhtinian perspectives. In H. Byrnes (Ed.), Advanced language learning: The contribution of Halliday and Vygotsky. London: Continuum.
31.
Student academic services analytical writing placement examination. (2005). UCLA Web site. Retrieved December 28, 2005, from www.ucop.edu/sas/awpe/rquirement.html
32.
Swain, M. (2000). The output hypothesis and beyond: Mediating acquisition through collaborative dialogue. In J. Lantolf (Ed.), Sociocultural theory and second language learning (pp. 97-114). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
33.
Swain, M. (in press). Languaging, agency, and collaboration in advanced second language proficiency. In H. Byrnes (Ed.), Advanced language learning: The contribution of Halliday and Vygotsky. London: Continuum.
34.
Vygotsky, L. (1986). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
35.
Wells, G. (1999). Dialogic inquiry: Toward a sociocultural practice and theory of education. New York: Cambridge University Press.
36.
Wertsch, J. (1985). Vygotsky and the social formation of mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
37.
Wertsch, J. (1991). A sociocultural approach to socially shared cognition. In L. B. Resnick, J. M. Levine, & S. D. Teasley (Eds.), Perspectives on socially shared cognition (pp. 85-100). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
38.
Xiang, X. (2001). Breakthrough moments: Bridging the gap between perceptions and potentials. Unpublished master’s thesis, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park.
39.
Zimmerman, R. (1997). Formulating in L2 writing—Towards an empirical model. In A. Archibald & G. Jeffrey (Eds.), Second language acquisition and writing: A multidisciplinary approach (pp. 53-67). Southampton, UK: University of Southampton Press.
