Myth Busters – Second Language Writing Edition

Read this!!!

Reid, Joy, Ed.  Writing Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching.  Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2008.  Print.

Overview

            In this collection of articles edited by Joy Reid, each author tackles a myth related to teaching writing, especially teaching writing to multilingual (or L2) students. The myths deconstructed in this book are the following:

• Myth 1 - Teaching vocabulary is not the writing teacher’s job.
• Myth 2 – Teaching citation is someone else’s job
• Myth 3 – Where grammar is concerned, one size fits all.
• Myth 4 – Make your academic writing assertive and certain.
• Myth 5 – Students must learn to correct all their writing errors.
• Myth 6 – Corpus-based research is too complicated to be useful for writing teachers.
• Myth 7 – Academic writing courses should focus on paragraph and essay development.
• Myth 8 – International and US resident ESL writers cannot be taught in the same class.
• Myth 9 – Students’ myths about academic writing and teaching

Each chapter, except the last, is organized into three parts.  The first section, entitled “In the Real World,” is where the authors introduce the myth and explain or illustrate the problems with it.  Then, in “What the Research Says and Shows,” the authors discuss empirical research that supports why the myth is a myth.  Finally, in the last section, “What We Can Do,” the authors give concrete, practical advice about how to work with the issue in the classroom.

            Here’s one example of how a chapter plays out. In Chapter One, Keith Folse addresses the myth that writing teachers shouldn’t have to teach vocabulary.  He begins with describing his own students’ struggles with researched writing and suggests that this often is more related to vocabulary than to issues of plagiarism (intended or unintended).  He then brings in research to show how vocabulary “plays a critical role in successful writing” (4) including both studies that look at what qualities of an essay influence how a rater assesses it as well as what qualities are emphasized on grading rubrics.  He then offers eight suggestions for teachers to consider as they attempt to integrate vocabulary teaching into their classroom.

Brief response

            There are so many things I found helpful about this anthology.  The first was that each article was so clearly organized. Though I don’t think a lockstep approach like this works for every scholarly anthology, it makes sense here.  We’re introduced to the myth and the problems with it, we’re presented with an overview of the research, and then the author or authors gives us a list of suggestions and/or things to think about. 

            The second thing that stood out to me was how concrete yet flexible the suggestions in each chapter were.   Though the main audience for this text is teachers in L2 writing classrooms, many of the ideas apply to any teacher who teaches writing to a diverse student population.  I found myself writing notes about how the ideas presented might apply to my classroom, my writing center, and/or my institution.

            Personally, I found every chapter helpful but if my colleagues in the English department could only read a couple chapters, I would point them to these:

• Pat Byrd and John Bunting’s argument against a one size fits all approach to grammar (Myth #3);
• Dana Ferris’s take down of the idea that students should write error-free prose (Myth #5); and
• Joy Reid’s discussion of the myths that students have about academic writing (and how teachers contribute to them) (Myth #9)

As soon as I picked these three, I thought, “But what about the chapter on vocabulary or the one about citation or the one on using hedges in academic writing?”  So, really, I think anyone who teaches writing could benefit from reading this whole darn book.  And, when you’re done, I want to talk with you about it.