Vol 10 No 3 TESL Reporter

              ttsl tisl
N
viip t
h

1 I

teaching english as
volume
10

a

second

aa nigU pl al i l mnls laie hawaii
spring 1977

no

3

TOWARD interactive MODES IN GUIDED composition
by gerald dyk stra u
guided composition is a tool now widely used by teachers to elicit relatively large amounts of substantially correct and acceptable writing while simultaneously calling on each writer to contribute at a level commensurate with his or her ability it is worth emphasizing that guided composition arose out of the traditional school goal of composition writing zind that the two an 1 still resemble each other very much I would like to suggest how that happened and go on to characterize the current look of guided
I composition having done that 1 will come I to my dual purpose in this presentation 1 want first to propose a manner of relating guided composition to much of current thought in linguistics and psycholinguistics then propose some still little used but promising learner interactions that can contribute added variation vitality and relevance to composition and the teaching of composition Se sociie tys insistence on the three Rs has given an important place to writing in ym our school systems our school sy sterns in interpreting the writing mandate have included composition composition thereafter evolved as a need within our educational institutions the extent to which it actually functions for all people in life outside of our educational institutions has been and may continue for some time to be a question subject to varying answers and points of view we need not insist on the answer here but it is useful to recognize doubts about its efficacy and relevance very clearly however students in schools are asked to write composition writing is highly relevant to school life furthermore student writing is not expected to reflect a highly personal style it must rather reflect common standards of form and style to a considerable extent teachers giving writing assignments usually assume these standards the results have not always been encouraging the student products resulting from C writing assignments have for the most part

F

CONTENTS
page
1

guided composition by gerald dykstra computer compatibility in the classroom ia

Toward i1 teractive modes in tow a 1n

page 5 by michael D miller discourse structure in reading page 6 by ron shook terminal behavior and language page 8 by don bowen sector analysis and working sentences page 10 by lynn henrichsen HOCUS POCUS or TPR page 13 by gary R oddous T he conttrasstiive analysis hypotthesis o h es th e n ra t ve and ESL proficiency testing page 16 by kenneth aitken

page 2

TESL reporter

been less than fully acceptable to teachers guided and controlled composition in a wide range of forms came in response to the evident needs they have been suggested as one approach to support all the early stages of learning to wrriitte11 there is an attempt wrr tee l c i ie in guided composition to break down the writing assignment from the broad write a composition to ever smaller components until we come to the assignment that the learner can handle readily the learner can then move up the scale until we finally reach once again the assignment write a compo2 sition the basic format of controlled and guided composition is a series of models one or more paragraphs long the learner uses the model as a guide and follows the explicit directions of a step which varies according to the learners ability if the learner is relatively unsophisticated shehe follows the dia rections of a beginning step which will call for minimal learner contributions if the learner is relatively advanced shehe follows a the directions of a step that calls for more extensive or even maximum learner contribution in this framework the length and sophistication of the model remain stable throughout the course and students at varying levels of ability produce final writing products that look approximately equally sophisticated and that are very regularly acceptable in form and style 3 the unanticipated power of these early courses is attested to by the fact that folk tale style an incidental characteristic of models of one of the early courses was discernable in the subsequent writings of ni students who had taken the course and was commented upon by others who did not know about the nature of the students in a more recent development course models while remaining constant within a book show increasing length complexity and sophistication from book to book in a multi book series 4

itel

humans do not universally learn to write acceptable compositions as a normal species specific behavior without reference to special training learning to write school compositions has not been like learning to speak ones native language where is guided composition in relation to some of the current rationalist outlook in linguistics and psycholinguistics this may be of interest inasmuch as some followers of trrannfofrorationaaliisstt theories have uniformly a s s m matil n o condemned efforts to introduce control into the acquisition of any ability related to
language 1 think we can show such condemnations I to be misdirected and counter to the rationalist view itself in the first place at least one major variety of guided composition that variety which is the principal concern of this article rests heavily upon transformation albeit less to explain grammar than to elicit actualizations of it in performance more important the condemnation rests upon the obviously erroneous assumption that writing a composition is a species specific behavior on a par with learning to speak a language the rationalist framework suggests that universal species specific behaviors are acquired without reference to training or structural programs it does not imply that other behaviors are so

am suggesting the view that controlled and guided composition consist of a more careful and successful version of the old 1 I have assignment write a composition not tried to answer the question of the real world outside of school applications of composition ability whatever those appliI cations might be a question 1 will not deal with here it seems fully evident that
1 I

acquired quite the contrary still more important students with guided composition are demonstrating learning that was not equally achieved without this structure just as we might presumably have a lesser number of successful physicists or engineers if we relied wholly upon natural situations without educational institutions or programs it seems we would have fewer and less acceptable compositions without approone might priately developed programs be happy with such a situation but that relates to the question of out of school relevance which we cannot consider here none of the above should suggest that we have reached a plateau in progress it only suggests that we now have an alternative that is superior to the simple instruction write a composition that simple instruction commonly had to be combined with the hope that writing a composition would be intuitively learned by all students in a way exactly parallel to the way that oral language had been learned the difference should

page 3 spring 1977 writing ability can be achieved by choice and perhaps be sufficiently highlighted by the with the help of carefully designed programs fact that we dont have to say to infants of presentation that even some bizarre learnprior to speaking age speak a sentence as ings nonsense syllable sequences and other we have to say to students write a compoold laboratory favorites can be learned sition w the use of oral symbols representing the through carefully arranged rev ards and punishments language competence of the individual is we are highly prepared 6 to learn to widely regarded as universal in the human function with the oral representation of species and related to the human mind any linguistic symbols we seem less well natively r epresentation of the relationship of mind to endowed less highly prepared to learn to m oral or written symbols must at this time be write there is no empirical evidence that regarded as approximate and tentative rather composition writing is universally learned than precise and determinate nevertheless from as messy a set of data as that we use for it seems worthwhile stating such a relationship in order to clarify the reasoning behind the use and apparent functioning of dr gerald dykstra is presently a professor of communications at approaches to development of facility with the university of hawaii and prinuse of written symbols when parallel cipal planner for the language approaches to development of facility with arts for elementary schools at oral symbols seem not to function well the figure below represents my interpretation of the hawaii curriculum center a rationalist conception of the mediated but learning oral language or do science and still quite direct relationship of human mind to less pre designed to learn to walk a tight rope oral language behavior 5 appended to or recite long lists of nonsense syllables we this representation is a postulated double are highly unprepared to learn to peck at relationship for the area of performance seeds or fly by flapping any of our with graphic symbols here of course we appendages will be concerned primarily only with the assuming for the present that learning to productive use of graphic symbols writing write compositions is a less predetermined learning category than learning to speak and assuming that composition writing is nevertheMIND less a desired goal we may accept within INNATE O t H er NNATE rationalist legitimacy of environmental adoThER iInnate LANGUAGE FACULTIES i mp justment as well as within empiricist thought FACULTY OF MIND the legitimacy of environmental adjustment in the form of 1 programming from easier I to harder for the learner and also 2 pro4 other structures viding contingencies of reward in the form OT HER HE DEVELOPED angg contrrb u ttn g DE VEVEOOPED 0 arib i D EL L PE D LANGUAGE of making the tasks more varied and vital to writen tten rit STFstuucures competence 1 r cttures language and putting them in richer and more releOF MIND M t ncy co mpetency l L vant social contexts since composition is not as universally learned as oral language since its relevance or related RELATED performance extent of function outside the classroom is LANGUAGE with graphic BEHAVIOR OR not immediately clear to all since it is neverrepresentation performance of symbols theless required of almost all of our young with oral people and since we have been able to put the writing representation of of acceptable linguistic considerable structure and sequence into the compositions symbols assignment write a composition to the point where success is more readily achieved an extended diagram would presumably by a larger number under more favorable specify other faculties of mind and would conditions for both teacher and student we indicate that some learnings are less than might now gain a further step by adding oral innate or pre prroggammed that some perhaps language and other interactive modes to our p o r ra m d science abilities perhaps some aspects of guided corn position programs m
1
1
1 I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 1

10

i

page 4

TESL reporter

we will present two simple interactive I1 modes here 1 I and 1I with variations on each and with an indication of how they may be I combined 11i11 essentially all of the possioi I illiI bilities mentioned here have been validated in a range of learning environments though all have not been validated with the guided composition programs referred to in this article finally we will mention an interactive mode that highlights evaluation and possible future developments suggests toward getting the writing of compositions to tie in more closely with lifes needs and possibly having it become more naturally lemnable like oral language though possibly a ar abl e with less relevance for composition programs as we now know them 1 I interactive variations in producing the composition at the most advanced stage of normal use of guided composition the learner always knows the appropriate step to work on shehe locates this step number on a chart a and selects one o1 several models on which 0t that step can be worked the learner can then proceed with the task and usually does so successfully ordinarily the writer works
alone
A minor variation which adds a new dimension is to have two writers whom we shall here call A and B work together in any of the following slightly variant ways 1 A dictates what is to be written 0

joint product make a selection of any element that is contributed to the composition 11 interactive variations in checking or II reading the composition in the normal classroom laboratory or programmed use of guided composition the teacher can quickly spot check the learners compositions little time is needed for traditional correction work learner papers are all substantially correct and yet each is working at approximately his or her maximum level of contribution within the current framework of prepared programs in guided composition within the constraints that are given yet the teacher is still ordinarily the ultimate target the one for whom the composition is written the teacher is the only guaranteed reader or checker the one who determines whether the learner advances to the next step this is true to the traditions from which guided composia

writes it from that dictation 2 A and B discuss what is to be written and produce a joint project 3 A writes while B watches the process and comments wherever B thinks improvement is possible or has a question A is free to ask for advice at any point but the product is As 4 A and B write simultaneously but at different step levels or if at the same b 1ev i step level then using different modeessthey m od l l They also stop to examine each others progress and assure themselves that each is doing the best that either is capable of they may be encouraged to comment sparingly or alternatively to kibbiittz extensively or even bt to heckle or argue strongly for changes wherever they see possible alternatives 5 at all step levels where there are elements of free choice partners generate a given number of alternatives say 10 before the author or authors if they are making it
B

tion sprang A minor variation on the teacherr ache s serving as the only reader consists of having one or more learners serve as readers too in any of the following slightly variant ways 1 learner A writes learner B proofreads before initialing the work and passing it on to the teacher further variations are possible here inasmuch as Bs proofreading and any resultant notations may be passed directly on to the teacher or may be used by A to make corrections on the original version or to write a corrected version 2 learner B proofreads as in 1 above learner C also proofreads and if necessary makes notation in differently colored markings 3 learner B edits shehe reads a several compositions for response shehe a ranks compositions on the basis of form andor content making either complete rankings or putting compositions into two or more categories eg half only in the near a ot re 7 or perfect basket or in the mmoee interesting m f category or in the most publishable category etc 4 learner B serves in the role of professional critic or general user and writes a response to the ideas presented in the composition with emphasis on critique

continued on page 18