Before this class is held, students need to go out on a text hunt.
Each student is responsible for at least five resources: an article from
a professional journal related to the field of Second Language Acquisition,
a book in the field (not a textbook), a lesson plan or course curriculum
for an Foreign Language writing course, a sample from a listserv, e-mail,
or other asyncronous mode of communication, and a completed (and hopefully
graded) writing sample that one of their collegues (MATESL students) did
for a class.
In groups of 3 or 4, students should begin by disseminating what
they have found. For each genre of writing, the students should compare
and contrast the writings; making a list of distinctive features contained
in each genre.
From these lists, the class will devise generalities for each of
the genres collected. These will then be used for the rest of the semester
in relation to works done for this course as well as other courses in
the program. These generalities can be adjusted and revised throughout
the semester in a continuous exploration of academic writing in the field
of Second Language Acquisition.