สรุปเนื้อหาการเข้าร่วมอบรม/สัมมนา CULI’s 7th International Conference 2010 Pathway in EIL: Explorations and Innovations in Teaching and Research (ตอนที่ 1)

เนื้อหาสาระที่สำคัญส่วนใหญ่ของการประชุมและ workshop ในครั้งนี้เน้นอนาคตของการเรียนการสอนภาษาอังกฤษในทวีปอาเซียนที่ภาษาอังกฤษไม่ใช่ภาษาแรก โดย keynote speakers และผู้นำเสนอผลงานการวิจัยหลายๆ ท่านทั้งชาวไทยและชาวต่างชาติได้กล่าวว่าภาษาอังกฤษจะเป็นภาษาของ ASEAN แต่ก็ยังมีประเด็นของปัญหาที่ต้องแก้ไข ที่เกิดขึ้นกับการเรียนการสอนและประสิทธิภาพของการติดต่อสื่อสารภาษาอังกฤษของนักเรียน นักศึกษา โดยเนื้อหาที่สำคัญสามารถแบ่งได้เป็น 2 ประเด็นคือ
1. การเรียนการสอนภาษาอังกฤษ
2. ผู้สอนภาษาอังกฤษ

การเรียนการสอนภาษาอังกฤษ
Prof.Dr. Jun Lui จาก University of Arizona, USA. ได้ยกตัวอย่างการเรียนการสอนในประเทศจีน ซึ่งการเรียนการสอนที่นั่นค่อนข้างจะเข้มข้น สิ่งที่เขาเน้นคือสนับสนุนให้อาจารย์จีนสอนภาษาจีนยังต่างประเทศเพื่อเป็นการเพิ่ม connection นอกจากนี้การสอนภาษาอังกฤษนั้นสิ่งที่สำคัญคือการไม่สูญเสีย identity ของตัวเอง นั่นคือการเรียนการสอนภาษาอังกฤษในประเทศที่ไม่ได้ใช้ภาษาอังกฤษเป็นภาษาแม่นั้น ควรที่จะเรียนภาษาแม่ของตัวเองให้ได้ดีก่อน เพื่อที่จะได้ใช้ช่วยในการเรียนภาษาอังกฤษให้มีประสิทธิภาพมากยิ่งขึ้น ดังนั้นการเรียนการสอนใจภูมิภาคนี้ควรที่จะมีวิธี และรูปแบบ (model and approach) ใหม่ที่เหมาะสมกับผู้เรียนใน ASEAN และควรมีทักษะเสริม (Soft skills/ Life skills) ให้กับผู้เรียน เช่น การแก้ไขปัญหา การออกแบบ/ความคิดสร้างสรรค์ ซึ่งก็เป็นความคิดและแนวทางเดียวกันกับ Prof.Dr. Any Kirkpatrick ที่เสนอและสนับสนุนแนวการเรียนการสอนภาษาอังกฤษเป็นแบบ Lingual Franca คือภาษาอังกฤษที่ใช้ติดต่อสื่อสารกันในกลุ่มคนที่ไม่ได้พูดภาษาอังกฤษเป็นภาษาแม่กันทั้งสองฝ่าย ดังนั้น ภาษาอังกฤษที่ใช้จึงมีความซับซ้อนน้อยกว่า แต่เน้นการใช้ประโยชน์ในการติดต่อสื่อสารและความเข้าใจเพื่อให้บรรลุเป้าหมายของการสื่อสารเป็นสำคัญ ดังนั้นหลักไวยากรณ์ และ expression ของภาษาอังกฤษที่เป็นแบบสากล หรือที่เข้าใจกันคืออังกฤษ-อังกฤษ และอเมริกัน-อังกฤษ จึงไม่ได้นำมาเป็นต้นแบบในการเรียน การสอน และการติดต่อสื่อสาร ดังนั้นการเรียนการสอนภาษาอังกฤษจะเน้น Global Englishes ภาษาอังกฤษที่หลากหลายและใช้พูดกันในหลายๆ ประเทศที่ไม่ได้ใช้ภาษาอังกฤษเป็นภาษาแม่

Prof.Dr.Arthur McNeill ได้ยกตัวอย่างการเรียนการสอนใน Hong Kong University of Science and Technology เขาได้สนับสนุนการเรียนโดยการใช้ “เวลา” เป็นตัวตั้งในการกำหนดการเรียนการสอนและสิ่งที่ต้องการให้นักศึกษาของเราได้เรียนรู้ ซึ่งก็หมายถึง Learning Outcome นอกจากนี้ก็คือการใช้ประสบการณ์การใช้ภาษาอังกฤษของผู้เรียน (autonomous learning) การใช้กิจกรรมเสริมพิเศษนอกห้องเรียนก็เป็นอีกอย่างที่ Prof.Dr.Arthur McNeill ได้นำมาใช้กับนักศึกษา โดยกิจกรรมเสริมนี้มีอยู่หลายรูปแบบที่จะสามารถดึงดูดความสนใจให้ผู้เรียนเข้าร่วมกิจกรรมและใช้ภาษาอังกฤษเป็นสื่อในการติดต่อและมีปฎิสัมพันธ์ หรือสร้างความสนใจให้กับผู้เรียนเพิ่มมากขึ้น

การใช้ Technology (ICT) ในการเรียนการสอนเป็นที่ให้ความสนใจทั้งผู้บรรยายและผู้ฟังการบรรยายเพราะเป็นสิ่งที่หลีกเลี่ยงไม่ได้ ในหลายๆ ที่อาจารย์สอนภาษาอังกฤษในหลายๆ ที่ได้ใช้ ICT ในการเรียนการสอนส่วนมากในชั้นเรียน ทั้ง on-line exercise, online pre-class research และอื่นๆ โดยทั้งนี้ต้องเกิดจากการจัดรูปแบบ curriculum การสอนของอาจารย์ผู้สอน ดังนั้นผู้สอนจึงมีบทบาทที่สำคัญอย่างยิ่งในการเรียนการสอน ซึ่งวิทยากร และผู้เข้าร่วมการประชุมได้แสดงความคิดเห็น และแนะนำเกี่ยวกับผู้สอนภาษาอังกฤษในโลกการเรียนการสอนภาษาอังกฤษในภูมิภาคอาเซียน

Imagination plays a great deal in learning

Great learning, understanding and acquiring new knowledge (in all subject matters), to me, come from unlimited and broad imagination. Without great imagination, children won’t be able to learn, to grow and to change. In the conversation between Scott and Jane Goodall, an internationally renowned primatologist and the world’s foremost authority on chimpanzees, they mentioned about suffering (dukkha in Buddhism) in two elements: one is that we want escape things that make us unhappy, thinks that cause pain. The other one is our longing to be aligned with something greater than we are right now. This second thing is very important for us to recognize. Thus, the important thing is if you don’t strive to find it then life seems to lack meaning. Jane stated that our life is a series of attempts to get higher ad higher toward the goal, we can’t cope by ourselves. There is a real longing in people to reach up to this higher state of being. Yet, children these days seem to lack—connection with everyone else. Children in the West have so many things, from video games to cell phones, and yet they have a lot of loneliness and sense of anxiety. Children used to play and laugh and have fun and being creative, and they have a sense of connection with everyone else. We, as adults, seem to take all these things away from them. We are going to tell them they need a video game to be happy. Once children have grown up with the video games and the violent movies, it is very difficult to change their mind stream. Therefore, they need to be instilled the goodness or plant the seeds for goodness and peace—more meaningful and imaginative

Goodall stated about the state of togetherness and the tools for change that we needed to break down the artificial barriers we’ve created between the rich and the poor, between countries, between cultures, between religions, between ethnic groups, between countries, between old and young very often, and between humans and animals. If you imagine that I give you a seed and you take it to Tibet and you plant it, well, it will grow in Tibet only if it’s nurtured by the Tibetan people. And when the fruits come, they’ll be the Tibetans’ fruits. I can take a seed and plant it in Congo and the same will be true. When all these fruits and leaves blossom out there they will be something we all made together.” The Future of Peace,Page 325

The law of Dharma and the Learning of a second/foreign language...some connection there!?

After the read on The Future of Peace, I could not help but quesioned myself of the connection between the teaching of the Buddha and teaching English as a second or foreign language. During the discussion between Scott Hunt and Maha Ghosananda (known as The Ghandhi of Cambodia), Maha Ghosananda stated, “If you look down upon people, are very proud and haughty, your mind will become ignorant. If you are respect everybody, because the whole world is your house and all human beings are your mother. Then you will become very wise. You must have su, chi, po, li. Su means to listen, chi means to think, pu means to question, and li means to record. To listen, to think, to question, and to record, these make you become very wise. If you don’t have them you become ignorant. That is the law of dharma.” (The Future of Peace, p.175)

Second Language Learners: Thought and Language by Vygotsky

I have to admit that I was and am mesmarised by Vygotsky's doctine concerning second language and learners. Here, I decided to share my thoughts about his statement from the book I read once many years ago, Thought and Language I will certainly spare some time to read his work, as well as Piaget and Health, again and try to read more throughly about their works. This is just a small segment of my reflection.

In the book, it states at the beginning that "Vygotsky made it a point to argue that scientific concepts, far from being assimilated in a ready-made form,actuaslly undergo substantial development, which essentially depends on the existing level of a child's general ability to comprehend concept" (p. xxxiv)

I kind of agree with Vygotsky about understanding the concepts. It is true that scientific concepts (or any concepts that students learn) actually undergo substantial development, which essentially depends on the existing level of a child's general ability. This also reminds me of ESL students who learn second languages. These students would certainly undergo or face a difficulty in developing their second language skills if their own language ability or proficiency is poor.

From my experience as an assistant teacher at IELP, Temple University, I found that one student from Tibet was going through a very hard time learning English. She hardly gained or absurbed anything after 6 months of living in the U.S. I was very curious about why she did not understand any concept we taught in class. Eventially, I found out that she was illiterate in her mother tongue. As a result, she could not transfer her exising knowledge to English. This might perhaps help prove Vygotsky's theory.

Service Learning: What a fun, productive (yet exhusted) way to teach!

A reflective writing after the read of Community-Service Pedagogy(writen in 2004)

First of all, I thought I understood what Community-Service or Service learning was when I started reading the first two pages of a textbook. I thought service learning was somewhat volunteer service or an intership. Students would search for their own community nonprofit and social service agencies and assist them to meet their needs. By doing so, students also learn how to deal with all the tasks they are assigned. Like my situation, I worked for a tourist police department as an intern for a two-month period without getting paid. Therefore, I take this as a service-learning. On the contrary, I came across a paragraph at the bottom of page 134 where it said that "Service learning is not national service, community service, or volunteer service or voluntrism, not is it the same as an academic internship or field placement." This relly bewildered me; I stopped reading for a moment; and thought about the distinction between service-learning that I understood and service-learning that Waterman explained. Now, I recalled my understanding about service-learning again. I still thought that it was some kind of services such as the Martin Luther King Day of Service, or tutoring and mentoring projects, in this sense, is not just that students helping communities willingly to meet their needs and their purposes, but students also gain knowledge, skills, and perspectives that broaden their understanding in the "real world writing."

Then, I cam across a passage where Julier mentioned that "Ira Harkery and Lee Benson also see service learning as a pedagogy derived from a theory of democratic education and schooling developed by John Dewey to replace Plato's aristocratic theory of education and society" (134)

After I finished reading the chapter, I had many questions in my head about how service learning can be employed in a classroom, how teachers can assign projects to students based on their various interests, how students can manage their time working for communities, and what the class will be like? One thing that I know of is that teachers are going to have to work harder to have to carefully assign the projects based on their values and other circumstances. Also, there is one more thing that I still doubt with, which is about the outcome(s)that students will get from the "real world writing" or communities. In other words, what would students really get from service learning, and how it would benefit in their writing class?

A recent reflective writing on the project with students (2008)

To be continued!

Compare our life to a woodpecker in regard to sustainable education and development--very sad but true!

This is a reflective writing of the read Eknath's Thought for the Day. After reading Eknath's story and thought on a woodpecker, I couldn't help but agree with him on how dexterous, persevering, determined he is as just a bird! It is preposterous to say that a woodpecker conveys more valuable traits than some of us do, let alone teenagers in this generation and another generation to come. People these days seem to lack of sustained enthusiasm, desire, and passion. Perhaps, looking at the woodpecker pecking away a tree might do us any good! As for my view,talking about it in regard to my teaching avenue as a teacher, possessing a sustained enthusiasm and passion would help create a great deal of sustainable teaching and learning....

The following is a story about a woodpecker of Ekanth.

A few days ago I was watching a woodpecker, a creature I hadn’t seen since I left India. This one had a red turban. While I watched, he came and alighted on a huge tree. He was quite a small creature, and the trunk of the tree was enormous. I wanted to go up to him and say, “What, make a hole in that huge trunk with your tiny beak? Impossible. Preposterous!”

But this little woodpecker was not intimidated by size. He did not throw up his legs in despair; he just alighted and went about looking for the right place to begin operations.

It is the same with transforming consciousness; you have to look for the right spot. In some people it is a particular compulsive craving; in some it is jealousy; in some, blind fury. Some may be fortunate enough to have all three. Each person has to look for that spot where urgent work is most needed.

Let me continue with the story of the woodpecker. Once our red-turbaned chap had checked out possible areas for working, he settled down at what looked like a solid, unyielding spot and started pecking away rhythmically. He didn’t just give a peck or two and then fly off in search of a worm, not to return for half an hour. He went on pecking systematically, with sustained enthusiasm, until he was done. I was amazed at his dexterity. When he had finished, he left such a large hole that if he had gone on, I have no doubt the entire tree would have fallen.

That is the kind of work required to transform personality. For a long time, all we are doing in meditation is pecking away at what we want to change in ourselves. At best it is tedious; often it is downright painful. The problem is that we identify ourselves with the accumulation of habits and opinions, likes and dislikes, which we have developed over the years. We think this is who we are, and are not prepared to let it die.

“How Long Will It Take Me To Speak English Fluently?”

“How Long Will It Take Me To Speak English Fluently?”

One of the questions that Thai learners, as well as other second language learners, always have in mind is “How long will it take me to speak English fluently?” This question is always in the back of the learners’ minds and never seems to disappear. After learning English or other second languages for awhile, the learners start to feel frustrated, disappointed, and become less motivated. As a result, the learners do not seem to gain language proficiency despite many years of learning it, especially in the speaking area because Thai and English are significantly different from each other. Therefore, this becomes one of the significant problems that hold back their potentials in learning English. However, instead of answering to the question, I’d rather restate it to “How will we speak English fluently?” Studying abroad? Paying a big ward of money to a language institute? Or Spending more time on reading something you like?

Certainly, my answer is reading. Generally speaking, it takes a long time, a lot of effort and endless practice in learning a new language such as English. Nevertheless, the learners can expedite the learning process by employing many different methods. One of them is reading. Reading is the key that helps second-language learners to develop their speaking skills. Most importantly, it is so cheap that sometimes it would not cost you a dime. By reading, the learners are able to expand their vocabulary and expressions used in every day conversation. Besides, they are vicariously and inevitably exposed to the new country and are able to understand its culture and people told in the story. Thus, this is another way to help the learners to be able to speak English correctly and fluently. Then, the new questions arise, “How can I start reading? And, what kind of book should I read?”

Based on a research, “reading is a habit which is developed at a very early age. If a child is in an environment where adults are always reading something, the child develops that habit. We need to have material that will entice the young to read more. It is from those romantic books that some of us have moved on to reading other things of importance.” This can be concluded that we should read at the early age. However, does it mean that it is too late for SPU students and other adult learners? No. Learning is never too late! The learners should start reading what they are most interested in. There are many numbers of books, magazines or articles for them to read. For beginners, they might want to read easy and short books, such as the penguin collection, that entice their interests. As soon as they gain enough vocabulary words, they might consider searching for more difficult books to read. If they like imagination, they might want to grab Harry Potter to read in their free time. Harry Potter consists of many episodes, and its next episode is coming out in a movie theatre next year. If they are interested in spiritual living and thoughts, they might want to find a book entitled Take Your Time by Eknath Eswaran. This book teaches them about how to live their lives to the fullest and how to put others’ first; it will certainly enlighten their restless minds! Last but not least, if they are in love, they might consider reading The Letter of Suzanne to Nicolas by James Patterson. This New York best-seller novel will surely bring them to tears, and you will understand the importance of love better.

Now that they know how imperative reading is and what books to read, they can get started on building the habit of reading and find a good book to read. However, they have to START NOW! NO PROCRASTINATING! Once their reading is sharpened, then their speaking will become superb and their writing will be remarkable. Although you should keep in mind that things do take time. If anyone has good books to share with me, please feel free to do so. By Ajarn Piboon Sukvijit

What is the Role of a Teacher in the Teaching of Grammar?

The Role of a Teacher in the Teaching of Grammar

Having delved into an actual teaching arena as my profession, many questions about teaching pedagogies trigger my curiosity, especially on how to teach English as a foreign and/or a second language concerning teaching grammar while employing a communicative approach in a classroom setting. By reading Patrick Hartwell’s “Grammar, Grammars, and the Teaching of Grammar,” it helps me to find the way out on how to impart knowledge to my students. In the book, I find that the issue of teaching in the classroom is crucially embedded in the article. By stating at the beginning of the article that “I would agree with Janet Emig that grammar issue is a prime example of ‘magical thinking’,” Hartwell notes that Students will learn only what teachers teach and only because they teach. In other words, he implies that the teaching of grammar has no more value than “making a prospective driver get a degree in automotive engineering before engaging the clutch” (216). In addition, he includes at the end of the essay that “it is, after all, a question of power,” which is “to take power from the teacher and to give that power to the learner” (228). Here, one cannot help but arguer with this notion by asking, “So, what is the role of a teacher then?” Certainly, the role of a teacher is to contribute an appropriate power to both native and non-native learners in a formal classroom setting.

For native learners, some elements of grammar are acquired by natural means in informal situations. It consists of rules, principles, etc, that are not available to conscious attention. Therefore, the teacher has to pay attention to the internal processes and knowledge the students are building up in their mind. In other words, the teacher’s role, according to Neuleib, is “to help students understand the system they know unconsciously as native speakers, to teach them the necessary categories and labels that will enable them to think about the talk about their language” (206). I totally agree with Neuleib that the teacher still performs an important role in a classroom, and I also believe that in playing this role the teacher must exercise the power in the classroom. I call this power a ‘passive power,’ which means the teacher is a facilitator or a shadow, observing the individual’s needs in writing. As Peal notes in her article, “The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers,” that “Seen in this light, composing becomes the carrying forward of an implicit sense into explicit form. Teaching composing, then, means paying attention not only to the forms or products but also to the explicative process through which they arise” (39). Helping to bring an implicit sense into explicit forms, the role of a teacher is enormously crucial. Because the teacher s will not only teach them the forms or products, but they also have to concentrate on the processes they utilize. As Pearl suggests,

Teachers may first need to identify which characteristic components of each student’s process facilitate writing and which inhibit it before further teaching takes place. If they do not, teachers of unskilled writers may continue to place themselves in a defeating position: imposing another method of writing instruction upon the students’ already internalized processes without first helping students to extricate themselves from the knots and tangles in those processes (38-39).

The power of teachers here is projected as a passive one because the students do not notify the teachers’ actual role.

The teachers’ role as a facilitator, however, is insufficient to assist the second-language learners in “monitoring” of what they have already acquired in a formal classroom situation. Instead, the role of teachers is an ‘active role,’ taking an ‘active power’ to teach students grammatical rules. The teacher has to teach conscious grammatical rules to them in order for them to check whether the tense is right, for instance, in this sense, the teaching of grammar is drastically valuable. From my experience as a teaching assistant in an Intensive English Program, I see that the teacher plays a significant role in order to help second-language learners’ master the principle of writing in English, thereby the students can put the grammar they have learned to good use.

Obviously, it is unnecessary to take power from the teacher and give that power to the learner because eventually students need assistance from their teachers in making decisions in writing. As Murray notes in his essay “Tech Writing as Process Not Product” that “We (as teachers) share our students the continual excitement of choosing one word instead of another, of searching for the one true word” (4). Hence, the role of teachers is essential. It is, after all, a master of utilizing these two different types of power—‘active’ and ‘passive.’ The role of the teacher is then to provide the right power to the right students in order to put the teaching of writing to good use. As Hartwell believes that there are many meaning s of grammar, the teacher’s role is to select the best one that would be appropriate to their students.

The reflection on Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC)

The Pedagogy of Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) by Susan McLead

After I read the chapter, I thought how could be employ this pedagogy successfully in a classroom. I cannot imagine it being employed throughout high-schools or colleges because it needs a lot of collaborations. Don't other teachers think that teaching writing is not their job? And who should be responsible for writing in other disciplines?

According to the chapter, Susan McLead says, "One day I was cornered just outside my office by a friend who taught history, who was furious with me and with (it appeared) not only the English Department but the entire discipline of English. 'Why can't you people teach these students how to write?' he wondered. I was defensive-of course I was teaching them how to write." I started to consider it isn't the responsibility of the history teacher to teach his students in the class how to write a paper in history writing style" Isn't it the history teacher's job to teach students what proper words or sentence structure they should use in the paper? At any rate, I believe that the responsibility of WAC is subject to both teachers. They have to work together as co-workers and decide how they could help their students. I think blaming and tossing the responsibility to the writing teacher is somewhat unfair.

Initially, I thought that writing teacher should teach students who to write well. Teachers should teach students how to write grammatically correct and how to present their paperwork from their own voices. However, after I finished reading the chapter, this pedagogy is really directly beneficial for students. It definitely helps students to ease their writing in any disciplines. It is funny that after I read the chapter, I talked to my friend about it on the next day. She is majoring in Social Science and hate writing for her English class. She said she hated writing because sometimes she handed in her paper for her English class, she got screwed up. she got the paper back with a lot of red marks all over the page. From talking to her, it brought back to the idea of WAC. I don't remember having such problem in my college years because, in Thailand, we teach English as a foreign language. Therefore, all we write is sentences and short paragraph (at least in my University with majoring in English for Business and Communication). I learned only basic English skills and the rest of the program was in Thai.

According to the last paragraph on page 151, "On the contrary, most of us who have been involved in WAC program from the beginning see 'writing to learn' and 'write to communicate' as two complementary, even synergistic approaches to writing across the curriculum." I think that "writing to learn" is the students write for themselves by write journals and "quick write." This helps students and teachers to get a better understanding in terms of communication. The teacher and students will be able to communicate in the same "language." Then, there is another branch in WAC called "writing to communicate" Writing to communicate is to write from the audience by using their former level of their disciplines.

Finally, I have found this chapter was intriguing and extremely helpful for students. I think this is the most effective way for teaching writing method that will definitely benefit students. However, it's lots of work and endeavor. Writing teachers may encourage teachers from other faculties to teach students how to write as well. Overall, I think this pedagogy might be easy to execute in small college and high-schools because it is easier to cooperate with other faculties.

Cultural Studies and Composition

I think that the authors, Diana George and John Trimvur, did not give an explicit explanation of the cultural studies. They gave me hope about the chapter at the beginning such as what is culture studies, where does it come from, what does it want, what does it do, and why has it become? However, they did not come on with any answers to those questions.

According to the book, cultural studies is discussions of its relation to the academic disciplines and analysis of its theoretical problematics as possible 'definition strategies" The strategy is to ask what the object or topics of cultural studies are the circulation of the cultural products are from production to texts to readings to lived cultures (Johnson, 77) I wonder if it means that cultural studies and composition is everything, I mean write about everything that we see or read in which the topic is close to us. Then we critically think about it from our initial thoughts.

It seems clear enough about cultural at the end of the chapter. Cultural studies is the studies of everything that people get involved with. Language is ones of the components of cultural; hence, we use it in a class. We analyze and critical the mass communication such as newspaper, TV, advertisement, so forth and so on which tell us about our culture, then write about it.

Berline suggests that there are two commonplace practices:
1) to begin student writing with topic "close to the self" close to student's write whatever topic they like and close to them, so then they would write something crazy like Britney Spears and other things. How can we make them write something that would seem to be valuable to them? And they know that what they are writing is something that related to culture?
2) to teach close reading and interpretation of texts substituting pop culture or media for literary texts. Teachers can get their students to read and analyzed by media advertising, malls, city streets, and the rituals of everyday life as cultural texts.

Rhetorical Pedagogy--Is it suitable for your young student writers?

A reflective writing on teaching pedagogies while I was working on a Master's degree. This on is Rhetorical Pedagogy by William A. Covino.

In a nut shell, it seems like Rhetorical pedagogy focuses on the relationship between the writer, and audience, and the context. In this pedagogy, teachers should have a good rapport with their students and let them ask questions, then the teachers break off instruction.

Kinneaey suggested that "the pedagogy consists in encouraging writing to keep in view the skills and contingencies that attend a variety of situations and circumstances. The current-traditional Rhetoric maintain unity, coherence, correctness as primary virtues, and produces textbook that emphasize four modes of discourse--nation, description, exposition, and argumentation.

In Twentieth-Century, Rhetoric Burke defines Rhetoric as, "The use of language as a symbol means of inducing cooperation in being that by nature respond to symbols." There was a form which must vary with reference to the audience and context to which it appeals. The form was answering questions, who, what, when, where, how. Rhetoric tended to be a science telling facts and truth.

In recent years, the relationship of rhetoric to literature has more fully known as using language to communicate. William Covino has recently called rhetoric "The performance of literacy." Rhetorical pedagogy has a conception as "Rules for successful paragraph." There rules are as follows:
1) Make an outline. List all the detail,
2) Start with a topic sentence,
3) Have an orderly plan,
4) Use transitional words,
5) Develop paragraph by means of examples, facts, statistics, and supporting details for each paragraph.

At any rates, Rhetorical Pedagogy is focused on precepts grammar structure, context and the readers. This pedagogy is more sophisticated than Process pedagogy. I remember struggling with my writing. Rhetorical pedagogy threw me back into my writing during my undergraduate years. I was inundated with all the rules. As a L2 learner myself, I felt so uncomfortable doing so as I had to follow all the rules strictly--I guess that Grammar kind of represents the power of a teacher. Undeniably, I agree that Rhetorical pedagogy is really regimented and beneficial; however, I am not certain if I agree if it's suitable for younger writers.

Commetary on Process Pedagogy

I read about Process Pedagogy once when I was taking a teaching course about 5 years ago at Arcadia University. We read the book entitled "A Guide to Composition Pedagogies" I did not quite understand what I was reading much back then, but now I think I understand some pedagogies better after teaching for 3 years. I wrote a reflective paper on the pedagogy and I thought it was very interesting.

Process Pedagogy:

It's originated by Donald Murray and Peter Elbow, who wrote "Learning by Teaching." Process Pedagogy, from my understanding, is the approach of teaching writing by teaching students in a series of steps and stages. Most importantly, teachers allow their students to write freely from their interests and believe that the students are writers. The teacher also allows students to choose most of their own topics, forms, and then work on it. The teacher employs invention, free writing and journals, and peer review or revision. Lad Tobin finds that Process Pedagogy is mandatory and essential, which I agree. I have to confess that I hated learning writing by spending the whole class time learning grammar, sentence structure over and over from high school through college. When it was time to write an essay, I freaked out (as well as other L2 learners I am sure)and worried that my grammar would not be correct. However, I question that if the teacher employs the process pedagogy alone, how could students write their stories or compositions grammatically correct, and how could the teacher evaluate students' writing skills?

There is a contradiction between Lad's views and some critics' views regarding the process pedagogy. They argue that process pedagogy cannot be used as the core of teaching writing. They suggest that it is outmoded. They encourage teachers to focus on the finished writing product by reading and more class discussions relating to the finished work of other writers. Furthermore, the teachers should concentrate on writing structure, grammar and usage. I disagree because I think writing students should write more in class not worry a lot about grammar and structure.

There are some powerful critiques criticising the process pedagogy many with different points of view. Some say that process pedagogy is too structured, but some say that that it is dead and suggest that we should use a "Preprocess" or "Postprocess" but they don't know what should replace the process pedagogy. At any rate, I think process pedagogy contains some good rationals that teachers should use. Each teacher has his or her own style of teaching; however, the teachers need to consider which process is best for their students. I believe that the more students write, the better they become. Teachers should not be the center of the whole teaching process. Instead, they should assist their students by correcting their works, showing them how to identify, how to cite sources, and how to write a good essay. I also like the idea of whole language pedagogy--teachers try to make connections to other subjects.

Commentary on Style (Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace by Williams)

Writing is another weakness of second language learners (let say for Thais and others in general). When it comes to writing, we seem to find ways or excuses to escape or run away for miles. It's difficult for those native ones, so I can tell (as L2 learners myself)that it's ten times harder and scarier!

My students here don't know exactly how to write a good paper/essay. One of my assumptions is that they were not taught properly what a good writing structure is in there native tongue. Often times, my students don't under certain concepts of Thai words, so they would have difficulties referring the Thai concept to the English one.

I once made a comment on Williams' Clarity to Coherence in Style (the book he wrote), which I thought very interesting.

Epilogue From Clarity to Coherence: "In this epilogue, I look at four elements that help readers see that larger sense of coherence, particularly how you use the introduction to what you write to motivate readers to read the vest purposefully and attentively." (p.209)

Having an effective introduction is very vital. I totally agree with Williams about this. From my experience as a reader, I was always captivated by an article or a text that had an interesting and mysterious introduction, and had an explicit thesis statement,so I know what I was going to find next, here thesis statement is like a heart to a paper. I, moreover, admired the writer who wrote the piece. However, when it came to me to be a writer, I always had a hard time (and still have) in opening my sentence, especially finding a thesis statement without making it seem too general.

As a non-native writer, I am more conscious about what I write. I most focus on sentence structure and rules in order to have less red marks on my paper when I get it back from my professor. This is a good thing when I follow rules; however, I realized that they did not really help my paper to be considered as a well-written piece of work. Because my paper did not have a concrete idea or thesis statement, so the paper was not coherent, then the reader did not really pay attention to it.By lacking coherence, it can draw away the reader's attention and makes many papers less value.

After finished reading this whole book, I found that my writing is getting better, compared to my papers I wrote in my first semester at Arcadia U. I now realized that whenever I write a paper I have to focus on three important features: clarity, coherence and cohesion.

In my Speech Communication class, currently I teach my students to prepare their speeches by using mind mapping and outline. I have them come up with topic, narrowed topic and a good thesis statement. After doing so, my students understand better on how important it is to organize their thoughts well, and how every important the introduction part is in both writing and giving a speech.