Phase One Findings

Roman-Journal

Romans initial reaction to the journaling portion of the research was that he felt it was a

waste of time, explaining that he had kept a journal in Russian in the past, and that finding

something to write about was challenging to him. He felt that nothing productive came of the

writing. Recognizing Romans practical nature, I pushed him to write just a little in his English

journal daily to practice writing in English stressing the beneficial effects of extensive writing on

writing ability (Watkins, 2001; Sun, 2010). I explained that writing can clarify thinking and that

writing in English might improve his communication skills by allowing him time to formulate

ideas in English (Scrivener, 2011).

Roman was more open to journaling at our next meeting admitting that rereading his

journal written in Russian helped him to realize many important things. He said that reading his

previous entries reminded him of how his thoughts and goals had drastically changed over the

course of a year; how much he had achieved and still had to achieve. He admitted that reading

past entries helped him to understand himself better, making him more in touch with his feelings.
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Reading old entries allowed him to look at himself from the side (Roman, personal

communication, March 1, 2013), providing him with a third person perspective of himself. This

perspective seemed to provide him with welcome insight into himself, which opened him to the

benefit of journaling. He reported writing nearly everyday over the week since our last meeting.

When questioned regarding what language he wrote in, Roman admitted Russian. When probed

he professed concerns that writing in English, wont reflect who I am (Roman, personal

communication, March 1, 2013). He described language as a filter of his thoughts and that his

limited English narrowed his possibility for discovery. He communicated a visual metaphor of

language in his mind. He said the image of a person is connected to the language he uses;

When I look at you, my neurons in my head tell me speak English when I look at my friend

form Uzbekistan, my brain tells me speak Russian (Roman, personal communication, March

1, 2013).

These very introspective confessions provide great insight into Romans personal and

language identities. Highly intelligent, with proficient English, he feels comfortable conversing

in English when environmentally necessary, but his languages cues predictably suggest that

Russian is still the language of his inner self. His concern that personal writing in English will

not reflect who he is, is at the heart of this project. Roman described a frustration he faces when

attempting to express himself in English because some Russian words and sayings could not be

effectively translated into English. In an attempt to coax Roman into personalizing English and

deepening his relationship with it, we agreed upon a compromise to journal in a combination of

English and Russian. This compromise allows Roman to explore himself in English, while still

allowing him to fully express himself in Russian, when English fails him, and is guided by
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research suggesting comfort in switching back and forth between two languages

facilitates learning in both (Watkins-Goffman, 2001).

Roman- Discussion and Writing

Romans self-reflection regarding his present cultural and linguistic environment and

positioning was evident in the conversation surrounding his journal discoveries. However, he did

not complete the first writing prompt assigned as homework. I thought Roman did not complete

his writing assignment because it was homework and assigned his next writing to complete

during our next session, but soon discovered another explanation for his lack of enthusiasm with

this writing assignment. I had initially assigned Roman to write a first person narrative framed

around the context of a law case he was studying in school because he had raised the case as an

example of how his academic writing lacked stylistic flair. Roman described a case he was

studying in some detail to me, as well as American voices hed been exposed to since entering

the States. In an attempt to encourage Roman to find his English voice and individualize his

perspective, I assigned him a prompt requiring him to provide a first person narrative based on

the case. He chose as his English voice, a caricature of his landlord, who Roman stated was

exemplary of a typical American. It did not seem to possess any of the inner reflection of his

journaling. His concern when writing the prompt was accuracy and grammar rather than self-

discovery.

I interpreted his expressed dissatisfaction with his academic writing as a desire to

improve his academic writing, but realized after observing his decrease in enthusiasm when we

moved from journal discussions to writing prompts that he was actually unfulfilled by the purely

academic writing he was currently exposed to and sought a more expressive writing outlet. This

was initially difficult for me to see because he repeatedly mentioned his boring academic
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writing. Id thought he was describing academic writing as boring as a judgment of his ability

to write effectively in the classroom, but he was actually judging the academic writing as boring.

Seeking to encourage a much more personal assignment for our next meeting, I planned a

Proudest Moment narrative for Romans next writing. To my surprise, Roman assigned

himself a writing prompt, an essay on the cultural differences between Russia and the USA. He

chose this topic because hed helped an ELA student prepare a similar presentation for class.

Like Roman, Patricia also learned through scaffolded interactions with less competent ELLs.

Patricia was aware of the benefits of linking learning for other ELLs, but Roman recognized it

as an opportunity for academic growth, noting his decision to help the student was based on

statistics on knowledge retention improvement with practice in reading, discussing, and

teaching. He had not completed the essay by next our meeting, but was determined to do so.

Choosing to write an essay and supporting this choice with statistics on effective learning

confirms academic conditioning, which is no surprise considering his graduate level studies.

Romans participation in this study hints at an intuitiveness in seeking a balance of writing. A

part of him seems to have recognized a need for writing balance. The challenge now became

negotiating this balance, past a backdrop of academic conditioning.

Roman was resistant to the idea of writing about his proudest moment, stating that he

was not proud of anything because he always expected more from himself, but I convinced him

to substitute his essay with this more personal writing. I told him that I was impressed that he

chose to do his graduate work in a second language, that I struggled with conversational Spanish,

and that graduate study in a second language was almost unfathomable to me.

At our next meeting, I urged him to write about the proudest moment of his life to help

build positive association with English by stressing accomplishment in an English context

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(Watkins-Goffman, 2001). The resulting paper was a comparatively more personal, self-

reflective, and concise paper than the one written in third person, presumably due to its personal

nature. He seemed to put considerably more care into it than prompts based on school cases,

taking much longer to write it. Previous narratives were a sequence of trivial events decorated

with flowery description. This narrative had a clear voice, expressing desire and motivation of

the author as well as the conflict of oppositional force. (See Appendix H)

This writing also set my instruction back on course. Much of the focus of this work was

personalizing the writing experience stemming from awareness of the alienation extensive

academic writing may cause students. In my attempts to meet what I had misinterpreted as

Romans desire to improve academic writing, I unintentionally academized his writing with me

by relating initial writing prompts to school. After some reflection, I realized that his

dissatisfaction with his school writing, describing it as boring, was not motivation to write

better academically, but to acquire a more satisfying writing experience through more personal

and creative writing.

Madrona-Discussion and Writing

The conversational portion of phase one with Madrona, centered dominantly around

family relations. Her L1 identity seems to be strongly defined by her roles as daughter, mother,

and grandmother. Throughout this phase, Madrona shared stories of her childhood, learning to

cook traditional Mexican dishes by her mothers side, her assumption of the role of mother in

the family after her mothers early passing, and her proud moments as a grandmother.

Like me, Madrona came from a family of strong oral tradition. A natural orator, she felt

at ease and even, pleased to share stories about her family history. She was however,

uncomfortable sharing her educational past and severely lacking in confidence regarding her
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writing abilities. Because of this, the comfortable conversational atmosphere of the discussion

portion of this study played a vital role in aiding in Madronas transition from orator to writer.

During the conversational portion of this phase, Madrona verbally negotiated meaning over

difficult words, phrases, and expressions, clarifying the details of her stories in English verbally

in preparation for written work. (Ausubel & Anderson, 1966)

Madronas first writing exercise was based on the story of how her English developed in

a workplace context. Sensing Madronas writing insecurities, I chose a topic within which she

could find strength, expressing my appreciation for her English and work accomplishments

(Watkins-Goffman, 2001). She wrote in pencil with eraser in hand and seemed insecure, pausing

often. She stressed her writing inexperience, and low spelling skills. She looked up at me often,

seeming to ask for approval and reassurance to proceed. I calmly encouraged her to continue,

assuring her that there was no right way; she was just writing down the story she had explained

to me verbally. (See Appendix I)

Madrona narrated past experiences with great enthusiasm and detail. She was eager to

share the details of her life with me, talking for hours. It was clear that she had a strong ability to

develop story orally, and that our long discussions aided in transitioning her intrinsic storytelling

ability to writing.

All of her stories possessed a clear order with beginning, middle, and end. Her

paragraphs, though not grammatically correct, were clearly divided by concept, each including

topic and support sentences. I immediately shared these observations with Madrona. She

beamed at my compliments and the more I focused on these strengths, the more secure her

writing and voice became. This strongly supports the vital role of a supportive learning

environment to achievement (Ausubel & Anderson, 1966).

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Madrona Journal

Madrona was eager to begin the journaling portion of this phase. She stated that family

nicknamed her Dona Methodica, Miss. Methodic, because she meticulously logged her days on

a calendar. She was eager to translate this log into a daily journal. Based on Madronas writing

experience, and insistence for specific instruction on journaling requirements, we agreed on

daily writing of approximately three English sentences about her day, feelings, and experiences.

Madrona enthusiastically purchased a special book in which she reported writing almost daily.

These entries were far less philosophical than Romans, but she attended to them religiously.

Patricia-Journal

Meeting with Patricia throughout phase 1, it became evident to me through her

evasiveness of the topic that she was not devoting significant, if any, time to the journaling

assignments. When questioned about these assignments, she never directly answered if and how

often she was journaling. She told me how busy she was and focused on school writing instead.

Patricia is the only participant in this study with holistic English speaking opportunities.

She has intimate relationships in English and through work promotions and recent academic

accomplishments; she has developed a sense of pride in herself in multiple English contexts.

Perhaps this contributed to her lack of motivation evident in the other two participants. This

points to one of the obvious flaws of the journaling assignment. If journals are entirely personal,

the teacher has no way of ensuring student participation. However, the students who completed

it reported personally benefitting from the exercise. Roman spoke extensively on the insight he

gained from reviewing his past and current journals. Madrona practiced writing everyday in

compliance with the assignment providing her with stress free extensive writing opportunities

and balancing her writing practice from writing for self and writing for other (Britton et al.,
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1975). Motivation certainly plays a role in student participation. Internal motivation is vital to

such a personal assignment as private journaling. Although compliance cannot be enforced, it

seems to hold the potential to benefit those who participate.

Patricia-Discussion/Writing

During our discussions Patricias stories, like Madronas, centered heavily on family.

She was also very eager to discuss her academic accomplishments, but admitted that her

speaking skills were still considerably stronger than her writing skills. Patricias self

confidence and pride in her academic achievements acted as an inspiration for me to help instill

something similar in Madrona based on research suggesting that ELLs may find adapting to

mainstream culture easier if they excel at something such as work, school, or a hobby.

(Watkins-Goffman, 2001). Madrona had minimal experience in writing in L1 or L2. Simple

writing lessons and practice in English empowered her to see herself as a writer in English.

Writing in English was accomplishing something in L2 that she felt deficient in L1.

Patricias writing was very clearly influenced by her academic training. When the

writing portion of the meetings came up, she asked many structure related questions. How long

should I write for? How many paragraphs should I write? How many pages should I write

(Patricia, personal communication, March 15, 2013). Her assignments were titled and paragraphs

indented.

This structure stressed Patricias writing experience and provided me with further insight

into possible explanations for her not completing the assigned journaling. Educated in Portugal

to the 4th grade, she had little Portuguese writing experience, just as Madrona had minimal

Spanish writing experience. In fact, it wasnt until Patricia began attending Community College

English as a Second Language (ESL) classes that she received significant writing training. This
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writing was specifically structured as were the ESL classes as college preparatory training, and

were wholly academic. Through them, she learned how to write for school.

Discussions with Patricia focused on family and were increasingly detailed and

personal as time progressed, but her writing was always very generalized and the stories that

she shared immediately leading to writing sometimes seemed rehearsed. I realized that she may

have been recycling discussion and writing topics formulated in ESL classes because she often

referenced school writing assignments- based on family history, cultural values, and the

immigrant experience- verbally while writing with me. Harklau (2006) describes the power of

such narratives to arouse sympathy and admiration created significant incentives for students to

disclose such narratives even when not explicitly solicited by teachers and that they may have

the potential for students to essentialize themselves as a cultural other in order to secure

teachers sympathy and support (Harklau, 2006, p. 115). This suggested to me that Patricias

academic training was the main influence on her writing; even her personal stories were written

for the teacher. With no other writing practice, Patricia never learned how to write for self. Her

academic writing was a source of pride for Patricia. In this sense it was a very beneficial force,

but without exposure to personal writing, I feared Patricia might miss out on the freedom and

exploration this writing style offers, and also allow herself to be narrowly defined as

immigrant in her English relationships.

Phase 1 General Findings

My interactions with three distinct students helped me to recognize themes of learning

and success. Madrona was the only participant with no academic resources. Both Roman and

Patricia had developed pride and a sense of accomplishment from academic success evidenced

through Patricias eagerness to share her school work and accomplishments with me and
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Romans proudest moments discussion and writing, but appeared to lack writer identities

balanced between academic and personal writing. I determined to provide Madrona with the

academic support she lacked balancing it from the start with personal writing and to provide

Roman and Patricia exposure to more creative styles of writing they were lacking.