Written Discourse: An ELL’s Heritage Language May Also Impact His/Her Writing
Let’s turn our attention away from the spoken word and consider written discourse. It’s important to remember that an ELL’s writing may be impacted by his/her heritage language and culture. You may expect to see this kind of evidence at the sentence and syntactical level (ex: In some languages, a descriptive adjective comes after the noun, so you might read a sentence such as, “The grapes green are in the refrigerator.”) BUT did you know that the way a student organizes and/or writes a longer piece of text could be directly influenced by compositional traits of his native language and culture? If, for example, a student is struggling with what American teachers might consider thesis-driven writing, you should be sensitive to the fact that other cultures might support a thesis in a circular rather than a linear fashion. Take advantage of the opportunity to learn about other approaches to written expression while, at the same time, teaching your ELLs the conventions of what would be considered standard writing practice(s) in English.
Let’s turn our attention away from the spoken word and consider written discourse. It’s important to remember that an ELL’s writing may be impacted by his/her heritage language and culture. You may expect to see this kind of evidence at the sentence and syntactical level (ex: In some languages, a descriptive adjective comes after the noun, so you might read a sentence such as, “The grapes green are in the refrigerator.”) BUT did you know that the way a student organizes and/or writes a longer piece of text could be directly influenced by compositional traits of his native language and culture? If, for example, a student is struggling with what American teachers might consider thesis-driven writing, you should be sensitive to the fact that other cultures might support a thesis in a circular rather than a linear fashion. Take advantage of the opportunity to learn about other approaches to written expression while, at the same time, teaching your ELLs the conventions of what would be considered standard writing practice(s) in English.