First Post

Second language writing teachers represent diverse identities such as native speakers or non-native speakers and cultural identities. Many of the decisions that we make in the writing classroom are, either explicitly or implicitly, guided by a sense of who we are. Since underlying beliefs and philosophies are latent and do not readily manifest themselves above the surface without contemplation, it is necessary that L2 writing teachers analyze and reflect upon what they embody in relation to their learners. Casanave suggests that analyzing teacher beliefs from the inside out involves looking into such individual factors as “personality, cognitive style, emotional proclivities (p. 6)”, etc. Focusing on the internal influences of teacher beliefs, I once taught at a vocational college in Korea how to write a cover letter in English as part of a broader course designed to prepare students for employment. The way I instructed my students was that I first had them jot down all the details that they hoped to include in their cover letter and then handed out sample writings to model on the language and organization if necessary. In retrospect, this approach to L2 writing was adopted in accordance with my own cognitive style, which is to brainstorm with my own ideas first and move on to organizing them into a preferred style of the target audience. Also, when I teach, I try to focus on all aspects of writing, such as vocabulary, grammar, content, appropriacy, and organization. I initially tended to focus more on grammar and syntactic variety, but I increasingly lean towards taking into account various elements of writing as a result of my current identity as a doctoral student. In this sense, I would say that all the decisions that I make in the classroom, I would say, are born of the internal dialogue between my past and present.