1. What do you think are the similarities and/or differences between informal writing and academic writing/professional writing?
1.1. 1
1.1.1. Academic writing requires proper or more serious format in writing like a legal document. Sometimes, it also requires us to use citations or even more clear logic to organize the structure. However, informal writing, it more emphasis on others to understand the meanings. Some similarities like both these two types of writing aim to transfer oral language into a written format for others to read and analyze. Hairui
1.1.1.1. I agree that informal writing is often focused more directly on meaning, whereas academic writing also places emphasis on form. Academic writing generally places more restrictions on the way the meaning is expressed; sometimes this is in order to follow conventions, and sometimes it is to ensure that the message is conveyed accurately and precisely and that it reaches the target audience. -Maxwell
1.2. 2
1.2.1. Informal writing is one which is used for personal or casual purpose. For example, writing a travel journal, writing a recipe, etc. Formal writing is for business or academic purpose, for example, writing an essay or paper. -Rita
1.3. 3
1.3.1. Academic writing has strict requirements regarding grammar, format, structure, and citation. Writers expound and proove their opinions following a strict manner. On the contrary, informal writing is more casual and has more personal tone than academic writing. - Jiayi
1.3.1.1. I agree. And I think academic writing is based on the "standard form" of language recognized by the mainstream educational system, while informal writing grants more freedom in genre, grammar, word choice, punctuation, etc. Also, since informal writing usually has -Yixuan
1.4. 4
1.4.1. I think the main goal of informal writing and formal writing is similar——conveying information. The difference is the approach and ways of conveying information. In informal writing, there are fewer requirements for expressing, which means that you can convey the information in any way you like as long as you or the recipient can understand. In formal writing, you need you to pay more attention to the forms and format of your information. Also, you are supposed to use languages and forms that most people in this field can understand. ——Yujia (Ann)
1.5. 5
1.5.1. In addition to the things mentioned by others, I think there's also the issue of audience. Formal writing for academic reasons is usually written in the third person for a general audience the writer does not personally know. While in informal writing, it is usually writing for oneself, to someone you already know, or to a bigger audience on a personal level--which allows the first person. - Tori
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2. In what ways do you foresee children’s writing development being different and/or similar to that of adult writing development–particularly for adult ELLs?
2.1. 1
2.1.1. Adults have more world knowledge and so would be able to write about more complex or abstract topics at an earlier stage than children. The types of words which adults would learn to write first might be different from the word that children learn first; however, learning of spelling patterns in English might follow a similar developmental pattern. -Maxwell
2.2. 2
2.2.1. I think children develop writing from scratch. They need to learn letters, words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and then passages. But adults can develop writing by using L1 writing. In such case, adults may develop faster than children. However, L1-L2 transfer may not always happen positively. If L1 affects L2 writing learning, adult learners may learn writing slower. Lufan
2.3. 3
2.3.1. Depends on which types of adult learners ELLs we’re talking about. For emergent literacy learners, besides the knowledge of broad topics and more life scenarios, I consider their writing development will be the same as children. They also have to learn starting with letters, then connecting words with sounds and meaning. If adult learners are already literate in tL1, then finding similarities in their L1 and English may facilitate them better in writing development. --- Sarai
2.4. 4
2.5. ...
3. Instructions: 1. Please respond to two questions. 2. You can choose to answer the original questions or add onto others' responses. 3. You are encouraged to refer to this week's readings or link to your personal experience.
4. Do you journal? What might be some of the advantages/disadvantages of journaling for ELLs in academic settings?
4.1. 1
4.1.1. I do write dairies from time to time. When I was in high school, the instructor told me to buy a notebook, and three times a week, write anything you want. It can be cooking recipe, grocery shopping list, or your random thoughts. I think journaling can help with constantly writing, forming a habit for writing by starting with something small. -Rita
4.2. 2
4.2.1. My Spanish teacher used to ask us wrote weekly journals and it really helped my language learning because in my daily life I didn't have many chances to practice Spanish and writing journals helped me to keep training my writing. Journals don't have to be perfect but the more you write the more your writing improves. -Jiayi
4.3. 3
4.3.1. I used to write journals every day when I was in high school since I think I could record interesting things and my different feelings in my life, which provides me the opportunity to review my growth process. But now I don't write journals. For teaching, writing journals can make us review the lesson and summarise the pros and cons before next class, which can help us make progress in teaching. ——Yujia (Ann)
4.4. 4
4.4.1. I don't write journals. But I think journaling is great for ELLs because it is a good way to practice English every day. Learners can write on their own without worrying about teachers correcting them. But if learners want, they can also show their journals to teachers to check some grammatical mistakes. The disadvantage could be that learners may not want to journal frequently. I think sometimes it is because there is not much to say (just like me). Sometimes, learners may think journaling could be useless because no one gives them feedback. Lufan
5. What is your experience on learning how to spell? If you speak another language, how did you learn how to spell in that language? Are there any similarities or differences between the instruction that you received in learning to how spell in these languages?
5.1. 1
5.1.1. I learn how to spell through repetition the letters in a word and practice how to write it on a piece of a paper. When I learn how to spell Chinese, I normally will find dew words that have the same patterns in writing to help me remember the clue. My high school teacher used to ask us to copy one article five times as an assignment, it is certainly massive work. But, it is very helpful for me to memorize the spelling words. I also used some spelling exercised in high school to memorize English. For instance, the word "apple". The question will be a--le, then I need to know how to fill into the blank. The fill-in-blank exercise helps me to use some cues in spelling words and I can use the letters provided in the question to help me spell the words. Hairui
5.2. 2
5.2.1. Before college, I learned English spelling mainly through the bottom-up approach that focused on memorization, repetition, exercises, and decontextualized learning. We used to have dictations before almost every class. Since my English learning was largely test-oriented at that time, the accuracy of spelling was emphasized by my teachers because it affected the test scores. -Yixuan
5.3. 3
5.3.1. I did not officially learn English Spelling in EFL classes. I believe I learn it through constant practice of spelling in English writing assignment. Also, my English teach in middle school always asked us to do rote memorization and dictation of vocabularies. So I did memorize many vocabularies in this way. After I became familiar with the rule of spelling, I learnt spelling faster with fewer errors. I cannot recall how I learn spelling in L1. But I believe I learn mandarin spelling in a more natural way. --Melody
5.4. 4
5.4.1. I remember being taught explicitly how to spell in English (my first language) when I was in elementary school. It was usually a brief focus on form while learning new vocabulary. Then whenever we practiced these new words or did vocabulary tests, attending to spelling was an aspect of the grade. However, I do not remember being taught how to spell in Korean as I was not formally taught except for one summer abroad course. In that course, we were just expected to absorb the correct spelling whenever we learned new words, and we were given corrective feedback for spelling on writing assignments. - Tori
5.5. 5
5.5.1. I learn how to spell in English mostly through reputation and explicit phonology teaching. For example, when we started to learn letters in elementary school, our teacher told us its pronunciation and we practiced with minimal pairs. We also had a repetition exercise before class or in the morning. We will read the vocab list together, if the word is “school”, we would read “s-c-h-o-o-l, school” for one time and then with spelling for two more times. We will have spelling quizzes every day all the way till high school. If I did poorly in my spelling test, 9 out of 10 times I will receive a punishment of writing my wrong-spelt word for 15-50 times. In middle school and high school, our teacher sometimes taught us phonological knowledge explicitly, such as turning voiceless consonants to voiced ones in certain situations. I have also learned some beginning level Spanish a few years ago. Because me and my teacher share the same L1, she just told me that vowels in Spanish make the same sounds as Chinese Pinyin. For consonants, we would practice with minimal pairs. --- Sarai