12. Research Proposal(Work in Progress)

My research will focus around the concept of motivation and SLA through writing. My secondary focus will be on ELLs native language and culture influencing writing and SLA and how that relates to motivation. Since it will be hard to evaluate the ways that L1 and native culture are influencing English writing I may change it to the evolution of the ELLs identity through writing and how that increases motivation in SLA.

1. Does personal narrative pieces or dialogue journals increase motivation of ELLs and create positive attitudes towards SLA?
2. Does the participants L1 and culture influence English writing in an American academic system?

Methods:

I will be using a. student writing samples of dialogue journals, or personal narratives, b. participant interviews, c. teacher interviews, and d. participant questionnaires.

1. Does personal narrative pieces or dialogue journals increase motivation of ELLs and create positive attitudes towards SLA?

Students will be given surveys and interviews assessing current attitudes and beliefs about writing in English as well as perspective of self as writers. Students will also have follow up interviews and questionnaires after journal writing or narrative writing to assess and evaluate changes in attitudes towards writing in English.
Teachers will be interviewed to understand the current teaching practices and pedagogy in the classroom. If dialogue journals are already being used in the classroom, then personal narratives will be used, and if personal narratives are already of use then dialogue journals will be used.

Ideal sample size, n=5. However, this may not be possible and in that case only one dialogue journal or personal narrative journey will be analyzed. Surveys and interviews will be given to the entire class in order to understand personal likes and dislikes of students about SLA.
Questions will include:
What is the difference between writing here in English then in L1 ?What are your experiences with writing in English vs L1?What is the difference in teacher feedback between writing here vs. native language origin?
In the case that participant(s) have trouble thinking of topic choices of interest, prompts will be given that they may choose amongst. For example: Describe a moment that you felt most happy, or describe some of your favorite hobbies.

2. Does the participants L1 and culture influence English writing in an American academic system? 

In order to evaluate if culturally specific features of discourse are found in the narratives, interviews asking participants qualities of native culture and language will be used to analyze the narratives or dialogue journals.

I may change my second research question to focus on the way ESL writers’ identities evolve during the writing process, and how this increases motivation as noted by Li (2007). Read:Blog post Li(2007)

• I think the latter would be a better choice, but am still deciding. Blog post #4 explains my thinking behind this Read: Blog#4

11. Motivation and Content

Meltzer, J., & Hamann, E. T. (2004). Meeting the literacy development needs of adolescent English language learners through content area learning part one: Focus on motivation and engagement. Providence, RI: Brown University, The Education Alliance.
Read: Meltzer(2004)

ELL literacy, Meltzer and Hamann (2004) determined that three classroom practices supported motivation and engagement for language-minority teens: (a) connection to students' lives and, therefore, to their background knowledge; (b) responsive classroom environments that encouraged student voice and provided literacy choices; and (c) student interaction during literacy practice that promoted questioning, predicting, and summarizing.

•  Personal narratives and dialogue journals fulfill the requirements of a, b, and c thus my focal purpose of my research project is to find:

Does personal narrative pieces or dialogue journals increase motivation of ELLs and create positive attitudes towards SLA?

10. Identity evolving through writing

Li, X. (2007). Identities and Beliefs in ESL Writing: From Product to Process. TESL Canada Journal, 25(1), 41-64.
Read: Li(2007)

Li(2007) acknowledges that most of the research surronding ELLs and writing is product-orientated. Instead Li investigates the interplay of culture, writer identity, and learner beliefs and the way writer identity and learner beliefs influence the way ESL writers compose and learn to compose academic texts 

Li(2007) discusses how the ELL's native culture is often transferred over into their writing as they acquire English:

"The fourth strand of research considers the notion of identity, including both cultural identity in second-language writing. Research along these lines was initially sparked by Shen’s (1989) discussion of his struggles to establish in written text a second-cultural self that was distinct from his first-cultural self"(pg. 46). 

Previous research about specific culture patterns that arise in the acquisition of English is discussed and instead of analyzing these themes she chooses to focus on the evolution of the ELL's identity in the writing:

"However, the traditional methodology of analyzing written texts for cultural tendencies in writing seemed insufficient to explain how an ESL learner might construct a new identity in writing. What seemed more crucial was to examine the processes by which ESL students learn to write and to present themselves in writing, and how ESL writers’ identities evolve during these processes"(pg. 42).

Also, the differences of attitudes and learner attitudes can be attributed to the learnern's culture: 

"culturally diverse students may have differing attitudes toward these practices as a result of their prior learning backgrounds. For example, ESL students’ beliefs about peer response and teacher feedback, which may be complicated and different from what teach- ers expect, can be related to first-cultural conventions"(pg.44).

•  This clearly shows how important it is to investigate the ELLs' beliefs and attidues towards writing, feedback, and the overall process of writing in both his/her native language as well as in English. 
• I found Li's focus away from cultural patterns in writing interesting. I would like to do both in my research: look if certain cultural patterns emerge as well as the emergence and evolution of writer identity. 

• Li also did extensive interviews with the teacher to see if the teacher's views about learning and writing matched with the learner's views. I find her survey questions to be useful and I plan to implement similar interview strategies to better assist my research goals.

9. The Power of Story

Nicholas, B. J., Rossiter, M. J., & Abbott, M. L. (2011). The Power of Story in the ESL Classroom. Canadian Modern Language Review, 67(2), 247-268
Read: Nicholas(2011)


Nicholas(2011) found that the use of personal stories, "story promoted language learning, an understanding of genre, and community building, while also enhancing authenticity, affect, and motivation"(p. 247).

This study addresses that not all participants in the study have the same proficiency and thus interview questions will have to be changed/ adapted to fit the needs of the participants: "low proficiency learners were not able to respond to the interview questions as articulately and as elaborately as the higher proficiency learners, they were nonetheless eager to discuss their storytelling experiences"(p. 262).

• I would like to use semi structured interview guides that can be adapted regardless of the ELLs language proficiency.

8. Writing: experiences influence SLA

Danzak, R. L. (2011). The Interface of Language Proficiency and Identity: A Profile Analysis of Bilingual Adolescents and Their Writing.Language, Speech & Hearing Services In Schools, 42(4), 506-519. doi:10.1044/0161-1461(2011/10-0015)

Danzak(2011) used language journals to study 6 immigrant teenagers in order to understand their language learning experiences, language proficiencies, and identities.

It was found that the participants  "strengths and abilities varied depending on their experiences and attitudes toward L2 learning"(p.514).

• In order to understand what motivates ELLs to write, I will need to understand their experiences and attitudes about English learning and English writing.
• Also, the study discussed outside forces like social groups and bullying from native English speakers influencing attitudes. I plan to ask questions that will not just address attitudes about English writing in the classroom, but English acquisition outside and in perceptions in social context to better understand motivation.

7. Expressive writing = More involved writers

In this classroom based study using expressive writing, Bilton(2009) asks:
Research Q:‘Will this kind of experiment motivate EFL students to become more involved writers?’
Findings: " Yes. Responses became richer, demonstrating more levels of engagement with the reading passages. The data show that students appeared to be engaged from the outset. The motivating force of fluency arose naturally from their attempts to write and this helped them to overcome the barriers accuracy imposes on writing."

Bilton, L., & Sivasubramaniam, S. (2009). An Inquiry into Expressive Writing: A Classroom-Based Study. Language Teaching Research,13(3), 301-320. Read: Bilton(2009)

Allowing students to write without judgement created greater engagement, involvement, personalization, open-endedness, and hypothesizing

• I would like to use a similar categorial evaluation technique. This way I can measure if the student is changing, becoming motivated over time with our narrative or journal dialogue interactions.

6. Narrative, Identity, Motivation

Wilson, A., Chavez, K., & Anders, P. L. (2012). 'From the Koran and Family Guy': Expressions of Identity in English Learners' Digital Podcasts. Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 55(5), 374-384. doi:10.1002/JAAL.00046

• Wilson(2012) asks: How can educators honor students' home languages while building competence with written and spoken English?  The findings show personal stories and narratives reflected ELLs' culture and identity. 

Findings: "enabled students to instantiate identities in relation to family members, places, items they liked, activities, popular culture, or life events. Second, students purposefully employed a variety of communicative techniques to organize their podcasts and to establish that these aspects of their lives were salient to them. Third, this assignment allowed students to communicate in ways at which they felt proficient, while using the English language in domains that were challenging to them"(380).

I would like to use some of the methods that Wilson(2012) used in his study:

"The interviews consisted of two types of questions. First, Kathryn asked students about their affective orientation toward speaking and writing in their native language and English (e.g., How do you feel about writing in Spanish? How do you feel about speaking in English?). We asked these questions with the hope that we could compare students' answers to the forms of representation including written and spoken languagesthat they selected to appear in their podcasts.Second, we asked students to evaluate their podcasts and the process of making them, including questions such as, What was your favorite part of the podcast? What was the hardest part of making the podcast? Would you do anything differently? What? Why did you do [this part] in the way that you did?"

 I plan to use similar questions in order to note ELLs attitudes towards writing in native language vs English and questions after the narrative or dialogue journal to evaluate change in attitudes. 

5. ELL interests and motivation

In Howard(2012) research it was found that students had specific book preferences, and allowing ESL students to choose their own books allowed for autonomy, engagement, and increased motivation.
Howard, R. M. (2012). ELLS' PERCEPTIONS OF READING. Reading Improvement, 49(3), 113-126

•  If allowing ESL students to choose their own books and reading material increases motivation and engagement, then it raises the question:

If ESL students are to choose their own topics for narrative or journal dialogue does this increase motivation in writing and SLA?

4. Discourse Analysis

I found an interesting study, a discourse analysis of Korean EFL learner's written narratives. Here the written narratives of these English learners held themes that are unique to aspects of Korean culture and distinct use of rhetoric. This was a comparative study that compared native English speakers narratives to that of Korean English leaners' narratives.

• They used a narrative linguistic model developed by McCabe. I am not familiar with his work and will look into his research and literature to better understand my topic. 

• My central focus is motivation and if personal narratives or dialogue journals create ELL motivation to write. I would also like to propose a secondary question that will address if  there are specific culturally and structurally categories that emerge from the narratives.

• I think this would be difficult to evaluate. I could possibly ask the student characteristics of his/her native language and see if these themes emerge. However, if my student has limited English proficiency then it will be difficult to voice native language and culture details and aspects in writing. Instead, I may focus more on the emergence of personal identity  growth and cultural aspects and how the journal writing helps these factors and thus increases motivation.

Kang, J. (2006). Producing culturally appropriate narratives in English as a foreign language: A discourse analysis of Korean EFL learners’ written narratives. Narrative Inquiry, 16(2), 379-407.
Read: Kang(2006)

3. Perceptions and Culture

In order to understand the motivations  ELLs have towards writing, I expanded my search to include ELL perceptions and attitudes about writing and reading English.

Many of the articles I read pointed out that the ELLs native culture influences and is transferred over into how one writes, reads and processes information.

Watabe(1991) discusses how Japanese ELLs will use the passive voice in their writing, thus transferring cultural values and writing styles in their SLA.
Watabe, M., & And, O. (1991). Transfer of Discourse Function: Passives in the Writing of ESL and JSL Learners. Iral, 29(2), 115-34

Also, I took note in how research was gathered. Data was often gathered through comparative analysis as well as through survey questions included asking about the differences between reading in native language vs English.

Iwai, Y. (2008). The Perceptions of Japanese Students toward Academic English Reading: Implications for Effective ESL Reading Strategies. Multicultural Education, 15(4), 45-50.
Read: Iwai(2008)

• This got me thinking, perhaps to understand the motivational aspect better I can ask questions that compare writing in the ELL's native language vs. English. These differences and the attitudes the learner has about them can have insight on what is motivating or discouraging writing in SLA.

2. Journaling with ELLs

A type of teaching and curriculum tool that allows for non corrective feedback, and uses modeling instead is the use of the dialogue journals. Many case studies presented in my research found ESL students to have increased motivation with dialogue journals and collaborative personal works that had positive feedback with minimal corrections.

• I would like to incorporate the use of dialogue journals or ELLs personal narratives and find if these methods increase motivation to write in English or change attitudes about writing.

• ELLs would need to be interviewed or surveyed on current views about writing to compare with later views/attitudes/beliefs about writing after dialogue journals or personal narrative pieces have been used.

I have included articles and case studies relevant to ESL and journal writing:

I. Holmes, V. L., & Moulton, M. R. (1997). Dialogue journals as an ESL learning strategy. Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 40(8), 616.

• Holmes(1997) finds that students increase fluency because they don't have to constantly check for             mistakes and can write like the naturally speak. Also, finds an increase in motivation to write because ELLs of the lack of correction/feedback. 

II. Larrotta, C. (2009). Journaling in an adult ESL literacy program. New Directions For Adult & Continuing Education, (121), 35-44. doi:10.1002/ace.323
Read: Journaling in an adult ESL literacy program

• Lorrotta(2009) implements a dialogue journal in her adult ESL classroom. The findings show ELLs had increased motivation. One learner in her study stated, "The letters we share are not boring. It is the first time I write so much in English. I write and wait for your response and that is fun"(p.40).

• I would like to ask similar questions, so I can see progress and motivation of the participants. 

III.Dunkelblau, H. (2007). ESL Students Discover the Rewards of Reading through Reader Response Journals. Encounter, 20(2), 50-55.

Read: Dunkelblau(2007)

• Dunkelblau(2007) uses journals for ELLs to respond to reading assignments. It was found that students incorporated personal experiences in their response and their responses increased over time 

IV. Orem, R. A. (2001). Journal Writing in Adult ESL: Improving Practice through Reflective Writing. New Directions For Adult And Continuing Education, (90), 69-77.

Read: Orem(2001)

• Orem(2001) discusses how journaling models language concepts without explicitly stating them, and can be used as a communicative and participation approach or a structural approach. 

1. Research Journey

After exhausting the relevant literature, I have found the direction that I would like to pursue with my research project. I centered my research around motivations of ESL students and writing. I started to read articles and research around teacher and peer feedback on ELL's papers. Student's had different preferences about types of feedback that had cultural, and goal orientated influences.

Hyland, F. (2000). ESL Writers and Feedback: Giving More Autonomy to Students. Language Teaching Research, 4(1), 33-54.
Read: ESL & Feedback