“Platform nine and three‐quarters” and more: Scaffolding ESL writing through teacher modelling and creative imitation

Abstract

This article offers an account from a preservice teacher of a 5‐year double bachelor's degree programme seeking certification for teaching English as a second language (ESL) in Hong Kong. Crystal charts her capstone experience of conducting classroom‐based writing research into one of the family of story genres—narrative—under the guidance of Choi. Her Grade 9 ESL learners were instructed to produce a written response to a prompt from the wizardry world of Harry Potter. This pedagogical intervention was motivated by a desire to scaffold the writing of ESL learners, with the longer term goal of their developing the necessary knowledge and skills required for high‐stakes examinations. The article reviews the challenges of ESL writing instruction and considers using genre pedagogy to scaffold ESL learners, moving them towards the goal of becoming builders of effective and creative narratives. The pedagogical concerns were tackled through a focus‐group interview with ESL learners, as well as the collection of evidence from selected writing samples. The article concludes that explicit writing instruction through teacher modelling and creative imitation can be an enabling and liberating experience for still‐developing ESL learners.

A genre-based approach in the secondary school English writing class: Voices from student-teachers in the teaching practicum

“…Accustomed to a teacher-centered instructional style and driven by the grade-getting goal, both teachers and students hesitated about the connection between language acquisition for examination and genre learning for literacy skills and were struggling to teach language points in genre instruction. These perceived challenges have echoed the previous findings on the use of genre pedagogies in mainland China ( Li et al, 2020 ), Hong Kong ( Lee, 2012 ; Choi and Wong, 2018 ), ESL in K-12 contexts in the United States ( Gebhard et al, 2013 ) and United Kingdom ( Fisher, 2006 ), arguing that the adoption of GBA is context-dependent, and the external obstacles beyond the control of the individual teacher exert a negative impact on their genre innovation.…”

“…First, teacher educators are expected to collaborate with the associate teachers to provide scaffolding and reshape student-teacher’s cognition of GBA during the teaching practicum. In line with our respondents’ potential knowledge gap, some key issues should be addressed to iron out their cognitive conundrums on enacting GBWI: (a) introduce the nature of genre as a social action, explicating how language choices are systematically and dynamically linked to the writing context; (b) incorporate genre analysis in teacher training courses to model how to co-construct particular stages or functions of the texts, compare different genres to foster genre awareness ( Derewianka, 2003 ; Negretti and Kuteeva, 2011 ; Yayli, 2011 ), and give flexible choices based on the diverse rhetorical situations of a given genre while exploring the stable generic conventions ( Johns, 2011 ; Worden, 2018b ; Kindenberg, 2021 ); (c) have a clear focus on language learning in genre instruction, which can be achieved through leading students toward the gradual control of phrases, patterns, or multiword sequences that signal schematic structures ( Choi and Wong, 2018 ; Huang and Zhang, 2020 ; Li et al, 2020 ), and the assessment criteria involving genre dimensions should also be presented at the instructional stages to align genre learning goals with the standard tests.…”

“…Given that the explicit teaching of the genre in GBA is highly dependent on teacher knowledge ( Worden, 2018a , b ; Kindenberg, 2021 ), writing teachers, the genre experts in the classroom, are expected to be “conscious of the genre decisions they make and what those decisions will teach students” ( Devitt, 2009 , p. 339). In this sense, teachers with adequate genre expertise are in a better position to give pedagogical intervention, who can not only offer content, linguistic and structural scaffolding through genre analysis and modeling but also connect these generic features to the writing purposes and contexts to raise students’ meta-awareness ( Hyland, 2003 , 2007 ; Johns, 2011 ; Choi and Wong, 2018 ; Worden, 2018b ; Kindenberg, 2021 ). Nevertheless, previous research also identified the practical challenges encountered by unprepared teachers to balance the discursive regularity and rhetorical flexibility in the genre approach ( Fisher, 2006 ; Gebhard et al, 2013 ; Moore, 2019 ).…”

“…Being aware of the stable conventions in the focused genres, some teachers may pinpoint generic forms as transferable rules to enable “students to learn with confidence” ( Johns, 2011 , p. 58) and better prepare for the tests ( Fisher, 2006 ). However, since it disconnects the discernable structural and lexical features of texts from social contexts, students are also restricted in developing rhetorical and genre awareness to conceive the influence of audience and context on language use and to express and create ideas in text generation ( Hyland, 2003 ; Choi and Wong, 2018 ; Moore, 2019 ). Therefore, the conflicting nature of genre as a simultaneous stable and flexible entity ( Worden, 2018b ; Kindenberg, 2021 ) is closely related to the dual teaching focus on genre-specific knowledge and genre awareness, which perplexes teachers a lot or even is overlooked by teacher cognition ( Johns, 2011 ; Yayli, 2011 ).…”

Exploring the Effect of Instructional Scaffolding on Foundation Level Students’ Writing at the City University College of Ajman: A Case Study

“…These students need adequate support and preparation to help them write meaningfully and accurately in English. The literature indicates that effective second language (L2) writing should be cohesive, well structured, and adequately organized (Choi & Wong, 2018;Fareed et al, 2016;Piamsai, 2017;Spycher, 2017). In addition, many studies emphasize the effectiveness of instructional scaffolding in improving students' writing.…”