Read Revising history : altering expectations of first-year writing through Second Language Acquisition theory - Robert A Bailey; K Aaron Smith; Illinois State University. Department of English. | ePub Online

[Normal, Illinois] : Illinois State University, 2011. Genre/Form: Academic theses Material Type: Thesis/dissertation, Manuscript Document Type: Book, Archival Material All Authors / Contributors: Robert A Bailey; K Aaron Smith; Illinois State University. Department of English. Find more information about: Robert A Bailey K Aaron Smith OCLC Number: 841563983 Notes: Dissertation Committee: K. Aaron Smith (chair), Amy Robillard, Christopher Breu. Description: iv, 249 leaves ; 29 cm Responsibility: Robert A. Bailey. More information: ProQuest, Abstract Abstract: This dissertation will demonstrate that first-year composition (FYC) is---and historically has been---defined as a space of remediation, a definition that was established with the creation of the first-year writing course in the late 19th century. This view of FYC has been ingrained in the institutional construct of the modern university, and, despite advancements in knowledge about how writing operates, has been perpetuated in classroom operation through error elimination pedagogy. Finally, borrowing from Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theory, the dissertation will re-imagine writing instruction as a process of language acquisition rather than as a skill to be learned.Although the most common type of writing being taught in the FYC classroom is writing in the student's first language (L1), acquiring the written academic variety of language expected of college students is more similar to acquiring a second language (L2) than it is to acquiring a new variety of the L1. The language that the students write with in FYC is a type of interlanguage, a negotiation set up between the writer's L1 and L2. Therefore, looking at the writing that students produce in FYC will show features that would be indicative of a dynamic, and sometimes even conflicting, negotiation between their L1 (spoken language) and L2 (written language).The dissertation details two historical situations as a means of showing linguistic examples of writing as a process of acquisition. These two examples will be examined to show first, the development of one specific variety of written language as an example of how writing is acquired separately from speaking, and second, the acquisition process of one individual's written variety. The dissertation also includes two classroom studies conducted in two separate FYC courses taught at a two-year college as a means of analyzing how this process of writing acquisition can better be engaged in in FYC programs. Analysis of writing samples from these classroom studies has provided data that demonstrates writing as a process of acquisition rather than a learned skill. Additionally, three short case studies of students who entered FYC at different levels of written language acquisition demonstrates an understanding of how students acquire the written academic variety of language over time.