Cultures in an ESL Writing Class

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the cultures in the teaching and learning of ESL writing in an intermediate ESL undergraduate writing class through a qualitative study. Three primary research questions motivate this study of cultures in an ESL writing class: (a) Was the writing instruction to prepare students to become active cultural producers, reproducers, or products? (b) Was the writing instructor aware of the close connection between language, culture, and thought? (c) Did the writing instruction highlight transmission, acquisition or both? The data of this study included field notes based on classroom observations and two student participants' written drafts for course assignments were collected throughout a whole quarter. In addition, I conducted two semi-structured interviews with the instructor to understand his specific goals for this class and four semi-structured interviews, including retrospective accounts and cued questions, with two Taiwanese sophomore students to understand their interpretations of the writing tasks and perceptions of the writing instruction. The results show that given this instructor's strong awareness of the connection between language, culture, and thought, he tried to foster a literacy community through pursuing collaborative course projects, guiding students not only to be knowledge consumers, but knowledge producers through critically interacting with texts. Hence, this writing instruction highlighted the importance of knowledge transmission and transformation in learning English writing.