This semester in the Writing Centre, <\/span>I focused very heavily on learning how\u00a0<\/span>to\u00a0<\/span>best help non-native English speakers improve their writing<\/span>; to do so, I used what tools I had available as a linguistics student to teach a solid foundation of good English grammar as it applies to structuring sentences, paragraphs, and whole essays.<\/span>\u00a0Last semester, I took a class called Discourse Analysis, which focused on how to structure narratives based on\u00a0<\/span>topic<\/span><\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>comment<\/span><\/i>\u2014i.e., \u2018new\u2019 and \u2018old\u2019 information. After finishing the class, I realized that many of my ESL clients in the Writing Centre had issues with topic-comment structure in their essays, as they were mapping their native languages\u2019 information structure onto their English writing<\/span>, thereby causing their essays to sound unnatural<\/span>\u00a0and often unclear<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>After a quick search through Google Scholar, I also discovered that this was by no means a new issue; there were many publications on\u00a0<\/span>topical structure analysis<\/span><\/i>\u00a0(TSA) as a means of improving ESL student writing (Conner & Farmer 1990; Schneider & Connor 1990; Chan 2010). Using these resources as a starting point<\/span>\u00a0and drawing in resources from my experience at CanIL,<\/span>\u00a0I narrowed my focus to two main goals:\u00a0<\/span>a)<\/span><\/i>\u00a0figure out how to pass on topic-comment structure to my students in way that was accessible and not too \u2018<\/span>linguisticky<\/span>\u2019, and\u00a0<\/span>b)<\/span><\/i>\u00a0pass on this knowledge to the other tutors so that they, too, could teach their students the same lessons.<\/span>\u00a0For the first, I tested different strategies of explanation across different sessions, often with the same student (whereby I checked for comprehension session-to-session); for the second, I gave semi-weekly presentations to the writing tutors on issues related to topic-comment (word order, sentential elements, etc.).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In the end<\/span>, I found the work very rewarding.<\/span> Not only did I get positive feedback from the other tutors regarding the presentations I gave semi-weekly on different issues related to topic-comment, but I found it easier to relate this information to the students I saw in the Writing Centre. I did often have to get creative in how I presented the information to them. Often, as I <\/span>suspected, the most linguistic term was not the most appropriate one; simple, mundane terms like\u00a0<\/span>subject<\/span><\/i>,\u00a0<\/span>verb<\/span><\/i>, and\u00a0<\/span>object<\/span><\/i>\u00a0were readily understandable, but more complex concepts like\u00a0<\/span>agent<\/span><\/i>,\u00a0<\/span>patient<\/span><\/i>, and\u00a0<\/span>predicate<\/span><\/i>\u00a0were trickier. In the end, I found paraphrastic explanations of these terms to be far more helpful: instead of \u2018agent\u2019, I sa<\/span>id<\/span>\u00a0\u2018doer of the action\u2019; instead of \u2018patient\u2019, I sa<\/span>id<\/span>\u00a0\u2018person\/thing receiving the action\u2019; and instead of \u2018predicate\u2019, I said \u2018the rest of the sentence\u2019 (after I had already explained what the subject was).<\/span>\u00a0Getting creative in explaining each of these and many other terms not only helped my students, but also helped me as well. As the adage goes: \u201c<\/span>If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough<\/span>\u201d (Einstein, supposedly).<\/span> Therefore, once I learned how to explain topic-comment simply, I was sure that I understood it properly and could continue teaching it.<\/span><\/p>\n References<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Chan<\/span>, A. Y. W.<\/span>\u00a0(2004)<\/span>.<\/span> Noun Phrases in Chinese and English: A Study of English Structural Problems Encountered by Chinese ESL Students in Hong Kong<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>Language, Culture and Curriculum, 17<\/span><\/i>(<\/span>1<\/span>)<\/span>, 33-47<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>https:\/\/doi.org\/<\/span>10.1080\/07908310408666680<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Connor, U., & Farmer, M. (1990). The teaching of topical structure analysis as a revision strategy for ESL writers. In B. Kroll (Ed.),\u00a0<\/span>Second Language Writing<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span>(Cambridge Applied Linguistics): Research Insights for the Classroom (<\/span><\/i>Cambridge Applied Linguistics, pp. 126-139). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.\u00a0<\/span>https:\/\/doi.org\/<\/span>10.1017\/CBO9781139524551.013<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Schneider, M., & Connor, U. (1990). Analyzing topical structure in\u00a0<\/span>ESL<\/span>\u00a0essays:\u00a0<\/span>N<\/span>ot all topics are equal.\u00a0<\/span>Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 12<\/span><\/i>(4), 411-427. http:\/\/hdl.handle.net\/1805\/2649<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Charles’ Reflection Charles Murphy April 20, 2021 This semester in the Writing Centre, I focused very heavily on learning how\u00a0to\u00a0best help non-native English speakers improve their writing; to do so, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":5908,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[193,109],"class_list":["post-5475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reflection","tag-reflection-charles_murphy","tag-spring-2021"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pad6JM-1qj","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/learningcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/learningcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/learningcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/learningcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/learningcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5475"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/learningcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7110,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/learningcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5475\/revisions\/7110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/learningcommons\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/learningcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/learningcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/learningcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}