Bridging the Gap

I would like my final unit plan to focus on the needs of ESL students in their successful transition into academic writing.  The theme of the course would evolve around this particular student population and what skills they require to be successful in academia.  International students come to America with many skills they have acquired in their home countries.  Many of them have used the grammar translation method to learn English so they bring a great knowledge of how the language works, but have little training in the structure of an essay and writing thesis statements.  Even with a good foundation in English grammar ESL learners still have difficulty applying it to the academic writing that is required in our schools.  I believe this student population does not just magically become ready for freshmen composition.  I think these students need to become familiar with the academic writing process both in regards to grammar and style. 

This would be a beginning-of-the-semester unit catered for ESL writers making the transition into academic writing.  I would want this course to introduce ESL students to an academic discourse community and give them a sense of belonging as well as confidence that they can become academic writers.  The orientation of the course would be a mix of expressivist and critical academic discourse.  The goal of the course being to foster ESL students in expressing themselves with their writing and also enabling them to write for an academic audience. 

I would probably want to start the unit with pre-writing heuristics and an autobiography writing assignment leading to a short presentation of the students writing.  I believe this would help build community because many international students want to express who they are and a little bit about their culture.  The readings for this unit would not only focus on the difficulties that ESL students have making the transition into academic writing, but also articles and readings about all novice writers.  I would want the ESL students to feel a part of the academic writing community and see that all new writers have difficulties.  Again my goal would be to give these new writers a sense of confidence and nudge them towards becoming successful academic writers.  These are just a few of my ideas.  I am excited about creating a unit to enable international students to bridge the gap in their transition into academic writing because I truly believe this is a need for ESL students.