Learning as Reflection:

Teaching L2 Compostion Philosophy

It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end. ~Ursula Le Guin

Throughout the 15 years that I have been teaching and tutoring writing in English Composition to
non-native speakers of English, along with my graduate studies in teaching English Composition to nonnative speakers of English, I have developed an eclectic approach to student learning. I take it upon
myself to provide the student with the necessary tools and knowledge so that the student can learn by
discovery and become aware of themselves as writers involved in a writing process. My eclectic
philosophy to teaching writing involves three key elements for the students to participate in: reading,
writing as a process, and learning how to be self-editors.
Students mirror teachers. I believe that the most important concept about teaching to keep in mind
is the need to know who your students are. I need to know where my student is coming from, literally. I
want to know what their culture is like, what writing system they have used in their native language, and I
want to know what my students writing goals are so that together we can work on the overall goal of
increasing their writing proficiency. Students mirror what they have been taught. In order to produce
good writing output, students need to be given the appropriate input. They also need to have their cultural
and informational schemas activated by their teacher so that they can understand writing tasks and gain
insight through their writing using the knowledge that they have already gained through their life
experience combined with their newfound learning. I strive to give my students the appropriate input, in
an inspired and passionate way, in an environment where they feel safe to express their doubts and driven
to learn.
I teach writing in such a way that every writing class is also a reading class. I believe that through
reading literature and analyzing it, students will more readily absorb the language structures that they
need to produce writing by themselves. Through the analysis of poetry and essays students can learn the

literary devices and writing strategies that great writers use and begin to emulate and integrate these
figures of speech and structures into their own writing.
My approach to teaching the writing process is known as the Composition Process Theory
wherein the teacher teaches writing as part of a process that involves brainstorming/outlining, multiple
drafts of the writing piece, and then ultimately a final draft of their finished writing piece. I use the
Composition Process theory to teach writing. This philosophy is that pedagogically writing is treated as a
process with multiple revisions, focusing more on the process of writing and not just the end result (the
product) of writing. The ultimate goal is to increase the students writing proficiency, teaching them to be
self editors. By becoming their own editor, my writing student will have an awareness of their writing
process which will in turn help them be able to express their ideas more clearly in English.
Throughout the writing process that the students engage in, I correct their errors and give them
feedback on their writing in a focused way. I believe that teaching grammar is a part of teaching writing.
Since multiple pedagogical studies have shown that the best way to teach grammar is in context, I use the
drafting stages of writing to give feedback on specific grammatical points. The students are given an error
abbreviation code chart at the beginning of the semester so that when their drafts are returned to them
with correction marks, they are responsible for discovering the error and correcting it. At the end of
each revised draft, I have the students make an error correction table listing the old error in context and
the correction beside it. In this way the student will become aware of their repeated, common errors and
eventually produce an error free essay.
I want my students to understand that as life is a process, so is writing. I want them to understand
that through writing practice they will become better writers. I want them to enjoy the process.
Through literary analysis, writing as a process, and grammar instruction taught in the context of
writing, I feel confident that I can meet my goal to increase my students writing proficiency in English.
The teaching strategy that I use mirrors the writing process. I give my students the necessary input so that

they can produce the desired output. The output is their writing, which comes about through their process
and journey. I hope to inspire students to see that through writing they can create ideas and conceptualize
in ways that they would not be able to without putting pen to paper. As a teacher, to inspire students to
create and also enjoy the process of writing is what I strive to do.