Dana Ferris is God or, at least, Extremely Helpful

Because L2* students, in addition to being developing writers, are still in the process of acquiring the L2 lexicon and morphological and syntactic systems, they need distinct and additional intervention from their writing teachers to make up these deficits and develop strategies for finding, correcting, and avoiding errors (Ferris 4).

Error correction should not be seen as the means to eradicate all student errors but as the means to encourage gradual but consistent improvement in accuracy over time, acquisition and application of linguistic knowledge, and development of effective self-editing strategies (Ferris 74).

Only when instructors consider the needs, knowledge, and prior experience of students; make careful decisions about the goals and mechanics of error correction; and embed error feedback in a larger context of developing knowledge and building strategies that will improve student writing will such feedback have the desired effects on our students (Ferris 76).

*L2 = stands for second language versus L1 or first language

I’m reading a number of books by Dana Ferris at the moment and I’m finding her both very thoughtful and practical in terms of her approach to L2 writing in general and to error feedback specifically.  The above quotes are some of my favorites from Dana Ferris’s 2002 book, Treatment of Error in Second Language Student Writing.  This book is an extremely accessible text aimed at teachers of multilingual writers—both those who work with them in L2 writing classrooms and those who work with them in more mixed settings.  Though her focus is teachers, I’m interested in thinking about how some of her insights might shape tutor development in the writing center.

Overview:

Ferris begins this book by talking about how for many years grammar instruction/error correction was the “dirty little secret” in L2 writing classrooms because teachers struggled to balance key L1 process approach principles with L2 writers linguistic accuracy issues—the end result being that accuracy issues were often not given much emphasis by teachers or teachers felt vaguely guilty when they spent class time dealing with them.  Ferris claims that her own classroom-based “need to understand what might help university ESL writers improve the linguistic accuracy of their texts” (xii) shaped her research agenda over the last 20 years and what she’s learned from this research underlies a lot of her practical suggestions in the book.

         
Ferris sets four (4) goals for teachers who read this text.  She hopes they gain a better understanding of how to:

1. Adequately prepare themselves to respond to grammar errors and provide instruction;
2. Accurately assess students’ needs for error correction and grammar instruction;
3. Provide written feedback on student papers that not only helps students to “fix” problems in current texts but will lead to long-term improvement in accuracy and writing style;
4. Teach mini-lessons that help writers grasp key terms and rules needed for writing and to develop effective strategies for editing their own work both out of class and under time pressure (2).

Ferris works toward these goals by first, exploring why error treatment is important for L2 writers and how L2 writers issues may differ from L1 writers.  She gives some background about the grammar instruction/error correction debate in second language writing but concludes that this book is based around the assumption that “most teachers—and certainly their students!—nonetheless believe in the potential for error correction, grammar instruction, and editing-strategy training to have positive effects on student writers’ overall development” (9).

With this assumption in mind, Ferris introduces scholarly perspectives on error correction in L2 writing in Chapter 2 and organizes her discussion around four main research questions that have a number of sub-questions.  For example, while exploring the question of “What are the effects of teacher error correction on student writing?” Ferris discusses research that focuses on everything from adequacy of teacher feedback to what degree student writers use this feedback to the different ways this feedback can be given.

            
In Chapter 3, Ferris discusses the important topic of how L2 writing teachers need to be prepared (or prepare themselves) for helping writers with their linguistic needs.  Ferris outlines four (4) principles that she thinks are key to this process:

• Principle 1.  Teachers of ESL writing need to study aspects of grammar that are particularly problematic for nonnative speakers of English (41).
• Principle 2. Teachers need practice in recognizing and identifying errors in student writing (43).
• Principle 3.  Teachers need practice in developing lessons and teaching grammar points to their ESL writing students (43).
• Principle 4.  Teachers need to understand the principles of second language acquisition and of composition theory (46).

Ferris discusses each of these principles in depth and provides examples of ways to put these principles into action from the MA-TESOL program she teaches in.

In Chapters 4 and 5, Ferris gets even more practical and discusses specific issues teachers need to consider about what, when, and how to give error feedback as well as other ways teachers can help student writers deal with error, beyond focusing on a specific paper.  For example, Ferris discusses approaches teachers can use to help writers understand the importance of editing, to give students instruction in and experience with self-editing strategies, as well as to provide other classroom opportunities for student writers to develop their knowledge and skills.

Finally, in the Appendices section, Ferris provides examples of materials and worksheets one can use both to help teachers and students develop their linguistic knowledge.

Quick Evaluation:

I think this book is a must-read for any teacher who works with multilingual writers.  Though it doesn’t provide any quick fixes, it provides some solid principles and ideas that I think most writing teachers could benefit from thinking about.  I will talk more about WHY I think this is an important book for you to read in my next post.  Stay tuned.