Evaluation Criteria for StudentCentered University Education Programs

A new breed of universities equipped with studentcentered education programs and advanced digital technologies is changing the face of higher education. “Flipped learning” is heralded as a new model of education, yet its effect is underexplored. The purpose of this study is to provide evaluation criteria to assess and understand the merit of studentcentered education programs and apply them to actual cases. Discussion on the nature of knowledge, its production mechanism and system, and possible contribution of digital technology to usercentered programs are discussed to produce five key criteria; initiative of students, interaction in class, interaction in field, customization of courses, and automated personal service. They are applied to evaluation of Minerva and Ecole 42.

L2 Writer Identity: A College Student’s Multiple Identities

Revealed in English Compositions

Kyungja Ahn

(Seoul National University of Education)

Ahn, Kyungja (2012) L2 writer identity: A college student’s multiple identities

revealed in English compositions English Language Teaching, 24(1), 1-21

This case study examines diverse identities that an EFL student exhibited as she participated

in a composition class at a South Korean university The data include her writing assignments, peer reviews, final portfolio, an interview with her, and surveys as well as the course materials The findings indicate that over the semester, the participant displayed her voice actively and invoked several identities as an English language explorer, language advice-giver, self- expresser, and researcher Among these identities, self-expresser and researcher emerged most frequently The results show that EFL writers should not always be considered as deficient and in need of help, but rather as able to legitimately use English for their own purposes and to help others use English more appropriately The findings imply that critical awareness of EFL writer identity issues is needed for teachers and students in EFL composition pedagogy The results also suggest that L2 classes should provide students with ample opportunities to use the L2 for various communicative purposes and to reveal their multiple selves and voices Further important pedagogical implications for L2 teachers and teacher educators as well as L2 students are discussed

I INTRODUCTION

Being distant, objective, and impersonal has been considered a norm which academic writers should pursue in order to obtain membership into the community of academic discourse (Clark, 1992) However, it has been claimed that written texts inevitably project the writer’s multiple personal voices (Bakhtin, 1986) Researchers have also suggested that any form of writing displays the writer’s identity (Ivanič, 1998; Tang & John, 1999) The issue of how writers create their personal voices and multiple identities

in their writings has thus emerged as an area worthy of exploration Recently, the conception of writer identity has been studied in the area of second or foreign language (L2) writing as well (Fernsten, 2008; Harris, 1997; Ivanič & Camps, 2001; Lee, 2007; Tang & John, 1999), as there has been increasing interest in how L2 writers learn to write, how L2 composition is taught, and how L2 writers’ composition ability can be

developed

L2 writing research has frequently pointed out the differences between native speaker norms and L2 writers’ work, often assuming that L2 learners whose written language does not fit the standard are typically labeled as incompetent or even wanting in cognitive ability (Fernsten, 2008; Harris, 1997) Moreover, as non-native speakers have been considered as taking a lower position than native speakers due to their seemingly less real or authentic language use (Kramsch, 1997, 1998), L2 writers have been primarily regarded as deficient in comparison to native-speaking writers However, more recently, as L2 learners have been viewed as ones with multi-competence (Belz, 2002; Cook, 1991, 1999) and as intercultural speakers (Kramsch, 1998), perspectives about L2 writers have changed

The issue of L2 writing and identities has been explored in previous studies about ESL (Fernsten, 2008; Ivanič & Camps, 2001; Tang & John, 1999) and EFL writers (Lee, 2007) In particular, several studies have focused on diverse ways in which the first person singular pronoun (“I”) is used in academic writing (Ivanič & Camps, 2001; Lee, 2007; Tang & John, 1999) However, the area of L2 writer identity has not been studied thoroughly in EFL contexts such as in South Korea In-depth analysis of the process and products of an EFL writer’s composition over a period of time and investigation into the positioning of EFL writers in relation to others such as the audience might need to further address the identity issue in EFL composition and to develop EFL writing pedagogy

Such research on EFL writer identities can contribute to recognizing how to help writers represent their selves in their writing and develop themselves as effective writers

of English In addition, studies on EFL writer identities in South Korea may foster a more profound understanding of EFL composition instruction as well as EFL writers’ perceptions about themselves and English writing Thus, this case study explores one EFL writer’s identities through her writings in a college composition course in South Korea

II L2 WRITING AND IDENTITIES

Conceptions of identity have gained acceptance in the fields of anthropology, sociology, and related fields such as general education and language education According to Varghese, Morgan, Johnston, and Johnson (2005), identity is conceptualized around certain central ideas First, identity is multiple, shifting and in conflict, not a unitary, fixed, and coherent phenomenon (Norton Peirce, 1995) Second, identity is formed, maintained, and negotiated to a significant extent through language

and discourse (Gee, 1996; MacLure, 1993) Lastly, identity is related to the social, cultural, and political context such as interlocutors and institutional contexts rather than being context-independent (Duff & Uchida, 1997) Similarly, Holland and Lave (2001) proposed the “identity as position” metaphor, viewing identity as positional, relational, and thus multiple and initiated in interaction

The discoursal construction of writer identity draws on Bakhtin’s (1986) view of the socio-cultural nature of language (See Ivanič, 1998) It has been proposed that writers invoke their different identities or their selves in their texts in order to plan rhetorical moves (Bakhtin, 1981) In particular, addressivity (Bakhtin, 1986) of texts has been regarded important because it is essential for examining how writers reveal their identities in their writing since investigation of whom they are addressing allows us to understand which part of themselves they were invoking to better address the audience

An analytical framework of identity construction in academic texts was established by Ivanič (1998) She proposed that several aspects of self exist in any type of written text:

autobiographical self, discoursal self, and self as an author First, autobiographical self

is “the identity which people bring with them to any act of writing.” It refers to the self that is socially situated and that the writer brings in out of his or her own social and

autobiographical background Discoursal self is the image that the writer projects in the

writing and the image of the author that readers construct through reading the texts Thus,

it is the identity which “the writer constructs in the act of writing.” Self as an author

indicates “a writer’s relative authoritativeness” and the self which creates a position in the writing and conscientiously uses authoritativeness in the construction of texts Ivanič (1998) mentioned that these three identities are interrelated, shaping and being shaped by

“possibilities for self-hood” which are situated in the writer’s socio-cultural and institutional setting (p 24)

One qualitative study that revealed how differently self is positioned in academic writing is Ivanič and Camps (2001) They examined how six Mexican graduate students negotiated representations of themselves as they participated in new discourse communities in British universities, engaging in discursive practices that positioned them in different ways They argued that writers’ lexical, syntactic, and rhetorical choices construct identity in the same way that speakers’ phonetic and prosodic aspects

of speech do and that the writer’s self is always presented in his or her writing Three types of positioning were found in the participants’ writing, relating to Halliday’s (1994) three macro-functions of language: positioning with respect to the writers’ ways of representing the world (ideational positioning), positioning with respect to the writers’ relationships with their audiences (interpersonal positioning), and positioning with respect to the writers’ favored ways of converting meanings into text (textual positioning)

More specifically, different writer identities behind the first person singular pronoun have been explored, showing the multi-dimensional aspects of “I” in L2 academic discourse Tang and John (1999) maintained that the first person pronoun in academic writing is used to represent diverse identities of the writers The researchers examined writer identities of 27 freshmen in a Singaporean university, focusing on their use of the first person pronoun “I” in their academic essays They found six different uses of the

first person pronoun including representative (representing a large group of people), guide (showing the reader through the essay), architect (organizing and structuring the essay), recounter (describing or recounting the research process), opinion-holder (sharing a view on information or facts), and originator (creating new ideas and claiming

authority) These identities represent a range from a weak authorial presence

(representative) to a strong authorial presence (originator)

Similarly, in Korean undergraduate students’ academic writing, Lee (2007) found diverse writer identities of “I.” In the analysis of 31 students’ essays (one piece per student), she found 92 instances of “I,” which show a very low average frequency of

2.97 per writing sample She found six different writer identity types: opinion-holder (sharing opinions), which was the most used type (37%); followed by architect (structuring writing); recounter (describing writing process); originator (creating ideas/knowledge claims); guide (leading the reader); and existentialist (having social roles), which was the least used (6.5%)

The aforementioned studies show that a writer invokes multiple identities and locates himself/herself differently depending on the context in which he or she is situated In this way, these studies provided insights about L2 writer identity and L2 instruction However, they mainly focused on the use of only one pronoun (“I”) in one type of writing (essay) by multiple students More in-depth investigation of L2 writers’ series of writings over a certain period of time might be needed to see how they construct their identities Thus, this study examines how an EFL writer displays her identities and positions herself in relation to the audience in the series of compositions she wrote over the semester

III METHODOLOGY

1 Setting and Participant

The data of this study were collected from an academic English class taught by the researcher in the fall semester of 2009 The class met twice a week over the semester, for

75 minutes per meeting A cyber class was also provided primarily for students’

submission of their writing assignments and peer feedback The main goals of this beginning and intermediate composition class were to help students improve their overall English writing skills, to help students understand the composing process, and to provide them with plenty of practice in writing different types of paragraphs

The students participated in a variety of activities in order to understand the basic structure and key elements of diverse kinds of paragraphs such as narrative, descriptive, comparison/contrast, and cause/effect and finally wrote an essay The students also engaged in different genres of writing including an email, a cover letter, a resume, and five personal journal entries Topics for approximately half of the writing assignments were given by the instructor, and the other half were chosen by the students When the instructor assigned a topic for a certain writing assignment, the students were allowed to select a sub-topic and the specific content

Using a process-based approach to writing, for each written assignment the students kept track of their writing process including brainstorming, writing drafts, incorporating feedback from peers and the instructor, self-editing, and revising their compositions Each student was requested to give written feedback about paragraphs by three peers assigned by the instructor or chosen by themselves As students engaged in the writing process, the composition class also covered useful grammatical patterns and expressions for each paragraph type At the end of the term, the students gave oral presentations about their essays and submitted final writing portfolios in which they documented all the artifacts that they had produced throughout the course and reflected on their development as writers over the semester

The subject of the study is Jiwon1, a female student majoring in English language and literature At the time of the study, she was a junior, and the writing class was her first English composition class Of the sixteen students enrolled in the course, she was selected as the participant for this study due to her talent and passion for English composition: She participated in class activities very actively, carefully followed the steps for process-based writing, and revised each of her compositions from two to seven times In her final portfolio, she documented her writing process for each of her compositions in more detail than any of the other students did She was considered one

of the top students in class in terms of her use of the writing process and the quality of her finished assignments

2 Methods of Data Collection and Analysis

The data for this study include Jiwon’s drafts for each writing assignment and her

1 The names of people and the titles of institutions are pseudonyms

final writing portfolio Her reviews of her classmates’ writing as well as the feedback from her peers and instructor about her writing were also collected Like all the other students, Jiwon was interviewed in order to identify her overall responses to the writing class Additionally, surveys of all the students were conducted at the beginning and end

of the semester The first survey was to investigate the students’ experiences with learning in English and English writing and their specific goals for the class The second survey asked about their reflections on the class and their self-assessment as writers of academic English Course materials and the course syllabus were also gathered as data The data were analyzed through grounded content analysis (Bogdan & Biklin, 1998; Glaser & Strauss, 1967) They were carefully and repeatedly reviewed and specifically coded into the instances related to the participant writer’s identities As data were coded, salient and recurring patterns were identified and then relationships among these patterns were investigated in order to create tentative conceptual categories (Bogdan & Biklin, 1998) Final themes emerged from further iterative and refining processes of data reduction, verification, and further data analysis (Miles & Huberman, 1994)

The themes identified in the analysis largely represent Jiwon’s four different identities: language explorer, language advice-giver, self-expresser and researcher In addition, textual analysis of her writings was conducted, focusing on (1) when, where, and how she revealed different aspects of her selves into her writing, and (2) specific textual features such as pronouns and language patterns that she used in her texts

In order to heighten the trustworthiness of the study, data triangulation, thick description, and peer debriefing were employed (Creswell, 2003; Lincoln & Guba, 1985) Multiple data sources including not only her written assignments but also the surveys, the interview, and other written and oral data were triangulated Using these data, the final copies of her writings, her composition process, her experiences in writing, and related contexts were described in detail A peer debriefer who is an experienced teacher and researcher in L2 writing and applied linguistics examined the analyses and interpretations of this study and provided feedback

IV FINDINGS

The results of the analysis show Jiwon’s multiple identities as L2 writer: as a language explorer, language advice-giver, self-expresser, and researcher The following table summarizes the identities represented in each of her writings

The table above shows that Jiwon produced seven different types of writing during the semester As to her identities, she mostly took a self-expresser identity, while she also

revealed researcher, language advice-giver, and language explorer identities Her

TABLE 1 Summary of Jiwon’s Writing (Composition Type)

Genre/Writing Type

No of drafts Date of Completion*

Selection

Primary Identity

Effects of Korea’s Low

12/14

History of Korean Hip

10/30

Effective Ways to Enjoy

11/13 Meanings of My Name Jiwon Self-expresser

11/27

Happy Together, the Best

Evaluations/Suggestions

on Peers’ Writings

Instructor/

Jiwon Advice-giver Portfolio Cover Page 12/16 Development as an

English Writer Instructor

Language explorer

* “Date of completion” refers to the date when the final version of each piece of writing was submitted

** “w/c” means writing center visit, indicating that Jiwon visited the university writing center for assistance with this assignment

language explorer identity emerged when she described her English-learning activities (Journal 1) and English writing development (Portfolio Cover Page) The language

2 Unlike the other writing assignments, the narrative writing was an exercise in which the students were to number a set of sentences in correct time order and write a paragraph using appropriate time signals and combining sentences Since the ideas were not her own, identity was not analyzed

advice-giver identity was displayed when she gave advice about English learning and study methods (Journal 2) as well as assessed and made suggestions for her peers’ writing (Peer Review) She also revealed her identities while expressing her thoughts on herself or topics related to her (self-expresser) and doing research on specific topics (researcher) In the essay and the comparison/contrast and cause/effect paragraphs, she,

as a researcher, wrote about her ideas based on reference materials In the rest of the writings, as a self-expresser, she introduced herself to classmates (Email Writing) and to

a future employer (Cover Letter/Resume Writing) and described the meaning of her name (Journal 3) and her favorite things such as garden ramblers (Descriptive), a movie (Journal 4), and Mr Right (Journal 5)

TABLE 2 Summary of Jiwon’s Writing (Date of Completion)

Letter/Resume Applying for a Job Instructor Self-expresser

10/16 Journal 1 History of My English

Language explorer

10/28 Comparison/

Contrast Tolstoy versus Dostoyevsky Jiwon Researcher

10/30 Journal 2 Effective Ways to Enjoy

11/18 Cause/Effect Effects of Korea’s Low

11/27 Journal 4 Happy Together, the Best

Note Jiwon started her writing as a self-expresser and frequently displayed this identity over the semester Her language explorer identity appeared both at the beginning and the end of the semester During the semester, her identity as a language advice-giver was revealed several times

in her comments on her peers’ writing assignments, and her researcher identity emerged a few times

As indicated in the table, whereas the primary identity that emerged in each assignment is noted, another identity often appeared For example, in the cover page of her final portfolio, Jiwon revealed language explorer and self-expresser identities: She wrote about her development as a learner of English writing and at the same time, she expressed her thoughts and feelings about her development

More prominently, the following table shows that Jiwon’s identities did not emerge sequentially

1 Jiwon as a Language Explorer

Jiwon’s identity as a language explorer emerged when she wrote about her English learning experiences before she took the writing class Her learner identity also appeared

in the composition about her English writing development over the semester

In her writing, she revealed her various English learning experiences at the elementary, secondary, and tertiary levels In the first journal, she described her positive English learning experiences as noted below

Excerpt 1 Journal 1 (History of My English Learning) 3

I have learned English for about fifteen years and English has always been my favorite subject … Looking back … there were some chances that made me interested in English and encouraged me to improve my English ability… I started to learn English at the age of eight through [a] popular English tutoring program I remember my teacher, an

energetic woman She visited my house every other week to check my stud… What I really

liked about studying English at that time was singing chants… // After several years I got

an opportunity to talk with native English speakers for the first time in my life and it served as a momentum to stimulate me to study English very hard Entering my senior year

in the elementary school, I started to attend an English language institute for elementary school students There were many native teachers… // Entering the middle school… my humorous teacher helped me to feel English [was] interesting… His

strategy for teaching English reading was not only funny, but also truly helpful for students

to read and understand meanings of passages

As shown above, Jiwon recollected that she started learning English when she was an elementary school student through private supplementary education including an English

home schooling tutor (hagsupji) and private institutes (hagwon) She recalled several

native and nonnative English teachers who motivated her in her English study through fun, useful, and/or communicative activities such as chants, communicating in English,

3 In all the excerpts, statements are in boldface to focus the readers’ attention Content in brackets adds information or indicates intended meanings which are clear from the context but are not explained in the excerpt They are at times located next to the actual utterances “//” refers to beginning a new paragraph

and learning about English reading strategies in an enjoyable way In this excerpt, as she revealed her language explorer identity, she used many time expressions to specify her English learning experience: the duration and/or passage of time (for about fifteen years, after several years) and specific points of time (at the age of eight, my senior year in the elementary school, entering the middle school) The time expressions are frequently observed in her autobiographical memory as learners

Even when Jiwon had difficulty enjoying learning English at her high school due to the burden of studying for the test (the college entrance exam), she reflected that she revived her interest in English through extracurricular activities

Excerpt 2 Journal 1 (History of My English Learning)

In high school days… I almost [had] lost my interest about English… because there was

so much pressure from [the] college entrance examination Then one of my friends

suggested that I should join [the] English literature club As a member of the club, I read

some poems and novels with the help of our guidance teacher [club advisor] What I first

read in that club was O! Me! O! Life! by Walt Whitman [The] last two lines of the poem

were really touching to me in [at] that time, so I copied it by hand and put it up on my desk:

That you are hereㅡthat life exists, and identity; // That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse (9-10)//Leaves of Grass (1900) // Reading literature works…

served as good diversion for me I read English novels whenever I was worn out mentally The club activities… were really helpful to sustain my interest about English and affected the decision to decide my [choice of] major as well

The journal entry above shows that Jiwon’s participation in the literature club helped her enjoy reading novels and poems and maintain her interest in English, which was close to disappearing due to the pressure of learning English for the college entrance exam In particular, the lines of the poem that highly impressed her indicate her awareness of herself, her life, and her identity As she gained true interest in English from reading literary pieces in English, she matured to become able to endure difficult times and chose her career

Jiwon’s identity as a language explorer also emerged in her reflections on the writing class In particular, in her writing portfolio, she reflected on her performance and development over the semester She also suggested skills that she would like to continue

to improve, as shown below:

Excerpt 3 Final Portfolio Cover Page

… at the beginning of this semester, I felt a little bit nervous as signing [nervous signing]

up for college English writing class That was because I had never taken a formal English

writing course and writing assignments in the syllabus seemed too difficult and burdensome to a beginner But I [have] finish[ed] all the assignments now and feel a sense

of satisfaction for having completed this semester successfully I think that I have learned