Understanding ESL Writers: A Guide for Teachers

How do non-ESL writing teachers handle the writing of their ESL students when there is a language barrier to hurdle? How do teacher trainees prepare for the growing numbers of ESL students in U.S. schools?

Understanding ESL Writers: A Guide for Teachers provides the answers, responding to the overwhelming concern non-ESL faculty have expressed with the influx of ESL students into their classes. Ilona Leki has spent years training ESL teachers and teaching writing to both ESL and first language students in language institutes and at the university level. Here, she introduces writing teachers to some of the information ESL professionals have on ESL writing. Teacher trainees, as well, who are just beginning their work with ESL students will find a wealth of information orienting them to their new profession. Leki examines the ESL writer from every angle, discussing:

• the educational and linguistic contexts from which they emerge
• the forms ESL writing instruction has taken in the U.S. and abroad
• the principles of second language acquisition
• the writing behaviors of ESL students
• types of writing assignments which may put ESL students at a disadvantage
• errors typical of ESL learners
• ways teachers may most effectively respond to the writing of ESL students at both the syntactic and rhetorical levels, in writing or during conferences.

Full of practical advice and applications, intended for both practicing teachers and teacher trainees, Understanding ESL Writers is a must-read for any educator seeking to establish a mutually communicative relationship with an ESL student.

Ilona Leki (Ph.D. University of Illinois) is associate professor of English and director of ESL at the University of Tennessee. Co-editor of the Journal of Second Language Writing and Reading in the Composition Classroom: Second Language Perspectives, she is the author of Academic Writing: Techniques and Tasks. She has served on the Editorial Advisory Board of the TESOL Quarterly and as president of Tennessee TESOL. Her work abroad includes teaching English and conducting teacher-training programs in France, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Colombia, Brazil, and Egypt.