Reflections on the pedagogical imports of western practices for professionalizing ESL/EFL writing and writing-teacher education
Lawrence Zhang | Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland
The teaching of writing in English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL) has been a challenging task for many teachers due to its
multifaceted nature. This paper is a reflection on ESL/EFL writing teaching in three countries, namely China, Singapore, and New
Zealand, with particular reference to professionalizing ESL/EFL writing and ESL/EFL writing-teacher education. It first addresses
issues facing EFL writing and writing-teacher education that relate to the offering of English at various levels in China. It then
moves on to elaborate on how western pedagogical practices have been implemented in Singapore, especially that of a genre-based
pedagogy. Nestled in the context of globalization, I focus on New Zealand, positing that globalization has exacerbated the
challenge in teaching ESL writing because of large numbers of students who are seeking higher education in western countries in
English as the medium of instruction, and yet their first language is not English. I conclude the paper with recommendations that
professionalizing L2 writing (even in school settings) is a mission for all those who are in this enterprise. Proper teacher
preparation programs for training L2 writing teachers should be in place in order for this to happen. China needs to critically
appraise, and learn from, successful experiences such as Singapore and many institutions in the USA and Canada. New Zealand is yet
to formalize ESOL writing teacher preparation programs, where English-as-an-L2 writing-teacher education for primary and secondary
schools is still not a priority in most teacher-education institutions.
Keywords: Globalization, Singapore, New Zealand, second-language writing, professionalization, writing-teacher education, China
Published online: 06 April 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.39.3.01zha
https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.39.3.01zha
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