Abstract:

For second language students, writing is both an academic skill and a professional priority. For many institutions, this is written into the mission of the university. However, this presents a particular set of problems which cannot be addressed by simple skill-and-drill methods. Expected to function as a native speaker, language learners struggle to acquire - let alone master - the skills of written English, yet they are held to these professional standards and looked down upon for not possessing them. Further, students cannot rely on language applications or other technology because error correction differs from properly applying linguistic knowledge to the written word. With language support programs being reduced due to a combination of factors such as economics and time, English language learners now have to acquire writing skills in novel ways. Many of these students grew up with rule-based grammar instruction that is inefficient. Others who grew up in an English environment lack the specific language skills required to write at a professional level. The gap between student knowledge and workplace competence, then, becomes an impediment to students, one that affects careers and futures.

This study aims to fill this gap via:
(1) linguistic analysis of written errors, linguistic frequency, and professional requirements;
(2) systematic and patterned curriculum design and instruction to give the students a minimum of language with maximum functional use;
(3) forced recall that guides students from the target language to sentential and discourse levels.

Outcomes will be shown and student surveys reveal their perspective on how this kind of instruction both affected them and improved their ability to write. This pilot study with Arab language learners also reveals how you can use some of the same techniques to help the students in your classroom meet their own specific needs in a way that integrates language instruction into a content-based classroom as efficiently as possible.

Keywords:

Pedgogical innovations, grammar, context-based instruction, technological innovation, forced recall, writing instruction, second language learning, curriculum.