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AL/TESOL Times 19 OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER Issue AL/TESOL PROGRAM TEACHERS COLLEGE AL/TESOL Times 19 OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER June 2019 APPLE Lecture 2019: Exploring Identity and Challenging Beliefs in Our Field By Jorge L. Beltrán Zúñiga Our annual signature event, importance of understanding how these the Applied Linguistics and Language choices affect their audience. In the Education (aka APPLE) Lecture, was evening lecture, he problematized the held at Teachers College on February 22, use of punitive assessment practices and once again bringing together students invited us to reflect on the role of and professionals in TESOL and applied corrective feedback. linguistics. This year’s topics appealed In the colloquium Identity in to many current students and alumni Written Discourse, Dr. Matsuda given their practical relevance. Our addressed one of the most popular yet guest speaker, Dr. Paul Kei Matsuda, least understood concepts in writing professor of English and director of pedagogy: “voice.” He problematized Second Language Writing at Arizona the notion of voice in the teaching of State University, shared his insights on writing with a quote which highlighted issues that affect us all: identity in the elusiveness of the concept and written discourse and the role of alluded to the difficulty of teaching corrective feedback in second language students to “write in their own voice.” In teaching. Dr. Matsuda is best known for order to unify our frames of reference, his work in second language writing, but Dr. Matsuda defined voice as “the the versatility of his research interests amalgamative effect of the use of made the selection of the topics for the discursive and non-discursive features lectures particularly challenging. Given that language users choose, deliberately the high turnout, it would seem the or otherwise, from socially available yet choices were the right call. In the ever-changing repertoires” (Matsuda, afternoon colloquium, Dr. Matsuda 2001, p. 40). From this definition, it discussed how linguistic choices should be noted that the effect on the translate into writers’ identities and the audience comes from choices that may 1 or may not be deliberate, a key issue to consider journal manuscript reviewers. In their reports and with language learners and novice writers. For a follow up interview, both positioned the author example, writers will be perceived in different as a relative novice. Some of the features that ways if they decide to use the ‘idealized dominant helped construct his voice as a novice writer were language practice’ (i.e. the “standard”), or if they the choice of journal, rhetorical moves, (mis)use of employ a deviational ‘actual language practice.’ terms, formatting, and his gender/race lens. These findings imply that voice does play a role in However, the study and teaching of voice academic writing, even in the blind review process. has faced resistance from both teachers and While the author attempted to control his voice, he researchers for various reasons (e.g. for its was not successful and was still perceived as a idiosyncratic nature, for being considered novice. unteachable, or for its alleged association with Western culture). Therefore, Dr. Matsuda Finally, in a follow-up study, Tardy and continued by discussing the findings of three Matsuda (2007) surveyed 70 editorial board studies that shed a positive light onto the members of six journals in applied linguistics, exploration of voice and identity. composition studies, and TESOL. An interesting finding was that a large proportion of reviewers The first study provided evidence against had attempted to guess on certain aspects of the the notion that individual voice is non-existent in authors’ identities, such as experience in the field so-called ‘collective’ cultures. In his 2001 study, (61.4%), disciplinary background (48.6%), and Dr. Matsuda set out to investigate how individual linguistic background (42.9%). Some of the voice might be constructed in Japanese and to features that gave away the identity of the authors identify a language-specific repertoire for doing so. to the reviewers were display of breadth of He analyzed a database from a popular web diary knowledge, topic, representation of the field, and in Japan. The analysis showed that individual signs of the authors’ L1. voice was achieved through the deviational use of 1) self-referential pronouns, 2) Katakana, and 3) In this way, Dr. Matsuda provided some sentence final particles. For instance, by using self- food for thought by challenging misconceptions of reference pronouns and sentence final particles voice and discussing implications of identity for that are usually employed by men, the author of the language learning. He discussed how voice is an popular web diary series, a married woman, ubiquitous concept in written discourse and constructed a unique writer identity. Her deliberate reminded us it should not be ignored just because choice of deviational linguistic forms was key in it is a complex phenomenon. Understanding that constructing her individual voice in Japanese. This, our discursive (and nondiscursive) choices have an however, also suggests that L2 writers might find effect on our audience is essential for language difficulties in constructing their identity given learners and novice writers. Raising their their limited L2 language-specific repertoire awareness of the effects of their choices can help (Matsuda, 2001). them monitor their own discourse moves in order to help achieve their intended effects on readers. The second study investigated the notion that voice is not relevant in academic writing. The evening lecture continued to question Matsuda and Tardy (2007) aimed at examining paradigms, now in the context of corrective whether voice might play a role in a high-stakes feedback. The lecture was entitled: Beyond academic situation. A manuscript by a novice Corrective Feedback: Rethinking Feedback and scholar was independently reviewed by two Assessment in the Writing Classroom. Dr. Matsuda 2 began by addressing the gap in the literature on the corrective feedback, is the learner to blame? If not, effectiveness of corrective feedback. While there Dr. Matsuda asks, “Why don’t we stop grading is research in support of corrective feedback and students for grammar development?” This does its impact on learning transfer (Biltchener, 2008; not mean that grammar is to be ignored or that Bitchener, 2010; Ellis, Sheen, Murakami & feedback should not be provided. The invitation is Takashima, 2008; Sheen, 2007), evidence is still to avoid punitive grading due to inaccuracies in limited, particularly considering that these studies their use of grammar. The expectation for teaching also suggest that feedback does not necessarily writing, then, is to require students to address their lead to learning. When it comes to grammatical mistakes in a revised draft. While the language accuracy, feedback is given with the expectation does not have to be perfect, they should that students will notice the differences between demonstrate that they have reflected on their their performance and the “standard” grammatical performance by explaining the rationale behind structures, yet learners may fail to internalize these their revisions. A teacher’s focus, then, should be corrections. on this instructional sequence rather than on Given the mismatch between the desired grading. Grading should not focus explicitly on effects of feedback and the reality of its lack of grammatical accuracy. There are many other uniformity, the question then becomes: if language criteria that are often overlooked, such as: overall learning outcomes are not achieved because they effectiveness, organization, audience awareness, are unachievable, is it fair for students to be held genre appropriateness, vocabulary development, accountable? If there is no intake upon receiving revision, and reflection, to name a few. Finally, Dr. Matsuda shared a series of principles to be considered in order to encourage grammar learning. Establish a productive working relationship. Rather than antagonizing different teaching and grading styles, teachers should work as a united front, and help one another when there are differences in teaching expertise. This remark is particularly important when we think of the differences in criteria between language and content area teachers. As language teachers, we should ultimately assess our students’ needs (including their concerns on writing for content area classes). Discuss principles of SLA. Do not underestimate your students. They are most often eager to learn, and rather than having them rely solely on teacher feedback, discussion of language acquisition phenomena and learning strategies should be part of the class. Discuss the rationale for your pedagogy. Students should understand why they are doing what is asked of them in class. For teachers, it might be very clear why a given activity is beneficial to their students. Learners, however, benefit from having learning goals made explicit, since the purpose of an assignment is not always transparent. Discuss implications for grammar errors. Students sometimes minimize the importance of attending to grammar once they are able to get their meaning across. However, as pointed out in the afternoon discussion, their linguistic choices will affect how their voice is perceived. Discussing how errors may affect their intended meanings outside of the classroom can help raise awareness of the importance of grammar. Discuss benefits of peer feedback. Many teachers
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