For employment purposes, writing is a particular skill that employers seek out in prospective job applicants. Writing is particularly important for students wishing to demonstrate communicative competency to prospective employers (Soulé & Warrick, 2015). Soulé and Warrick (2015) in their comprehensive overview of digital learning closely align career readiness with students ability to demonstrate the 21st century skills as the 4Cs—creativity, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking. To relate this back to communication in particular, native speakers of English naturally write according to grammatical and linguistic patterns acquired from speaking. According to a recent study (2015), most ELL writing samples will contain more surface
…show more content…
However, this is a major oversimplification of first and second language writing processes. Lincoln et. al (2015) provide one example of differences within ELL writers by further separating them into two groups with very needs in writing—blocked and remedial writers. Blocked ELL writers often have difficulty in their writing because they constantly apply grammatical constructs and rules in every step of their writing. These writers generally focus too much on form and forget about the meaning or purpose of their writing. On the other hand, remedial writers lack the principals in writing competence due to a lack of contact with model English texts. Remedial writers typically provide a writing sample that has both surface and organisational errors that hinder a reader’s understanding of the sample. In order to guarantee success for ELLs, teachers need to be aware of these discrete differences in writing, while recognising that there are also fundamental differences between first and second language writers. The recognition of these differences require instructors to adopt an individualised support process to help ELLs develop their writing skills which is both time and labour
However, this is a major oversimplification of first and second language writing processes. Lincoln et. al (2015) provide one example of differences within ELL writers by further separating them into two groups with very needs in writing—blocked and remedial writers. Blocked ELL writers often have difficulty in their writing because they constantly apply grammatical constructs and rules in every step of their writing. These writers generally focus too much on form and forget about the meaning or purpose of their writing. On the other hand, remedial writers lack the principals in writing competence due to a lack of contact with model English texts. Remedial writers typically provide a writing sample that has both surface and organisational errors that hinder a reader’s understanding of the sample. In order to guarantee success for ELLs, teachers need to be aware of these discrete differences in writing, while recognising that there are also fundamental differences between first and second language writers. The recognition of these differences require instructors to adopt an individualised support process to help ELLs develop their writing skills which is both time and labour