Eli Hinkel - Teaching Academic ESL Writing Practical Techniques in Vocabulary and Grammar [2004, PDF]

Reviewed by Amy Dayton, University of Alabama

As a teacher and researcher with an interest in both composition studies and second language (L2) writing, I am often intrigued by the gaps that separate these two closely related disciplines. As Paul K. Matsuda puts it, the two fields suffer from a “disciplinary division” that has prevented them from learning from one another’s perspectives. This disciplinary division may be best illustrated by the conflicting views on grammar in the writing classroom. In his influential 1985 essay, “Grammar, Grammars, and the Teaching of Grammar,” Patrick Hartwell concluded that explicit linguistic instruction has no real effect on the quality of students’ writing, and he suggested that researchers abandon inquiries into grammar instruction and move on to more “interesting areas of inquiry” (226). Indeed, many (though certainly not all) scholars in composition studies have moved away from studying the linguistic aspects of teaching writing. In contrast, many researchers in second language writing studies (though again, not all) continue to see linguistic matters, including grammar instruction and error correction, as important areas of inquiry. And from a practical standpoint, ESL writing teachers find that even when we structure our courses, particularly at the college level, around rhetorical issues and process-based approaches, we still spend a lot of our time working with the nuts and bolts of student texts—including grammar and vocabulary—to help second language writers produce more coherent texts. Students often expect and ask for this attention to the syntactic and lexical features of their texts because they want their writing to be as “correct” as possible.

Eli Hinkel’s book, Teaching Academic ESL Writing: Practical Techniques in Vocabulary and Grammar, reflects ESL writing researchers’ continued interest in the syntactic and lexical aspects of writing pedagogy, and the book addresses the concerns of teachers who want to help their students produce more correct, coherent papers. In the introduction to her book, Hinkel points out that many L2 writing instructors use curricula that parallel L1 courses, focusing on rhetorical aspects of writing and process-based pedagogy. Hinkel acknowledges that students need to master the rhetorical aspects and discourse-level features of writing in order to be successful in academic contexts. She also points out that if L2 writers do not acquire the syntactic and lexical skills that they need, their texts will remain incoherent. Hinkel’s book seeks to help teachers address the need for those skills in order to make ESL writing instruction more effective overall—so that L2 writers “have language tools with which to build the text” (ix). The book is useful reading for a wide audience of TESOL practitioners, but it is directed specifically at new teachers and teachers-in-training. The pedagogical suggestions are appropriate for instructors in a variety of settings, including intensive English programs, EAP courses, and college-level ESL writing classes. The book’s pedagogical guidelines are designed for students who are advanced and high intermediate writers.

The first section of the book, “Academic Text and Teaching Second Language Writing,” describes the need for more attention to lexical and syntactic matters, and it surveys relevant research on L2 writing in academic settings. In chapter 1, Hinkel cites the growing number of ESL students (both international and immigrant) in the US and reviews research that demonstrates that they have continued difficulty in creating papers that their instructors find acceptable. Hinkel argues that ESL writing teachers have tended to embrace L1 models without adapting them to the needs of L2 learners, and she is particularly critical of process-based approaches that rely on free-writing, invention, and revision of a text through multiple drafts. She asserts that while English instructors in L1 and L2 contexts emphasize the writing process, faculty in other disciplines “continue to focus on the product of writing” (5). Of course, one could argue that focusing on the writing process will inevitably lead to better final drafts, and some readers may well object to Hinkel’s criticism of process-based approaches. However, I think most readers will agree with her assertions that L2 writers need to acquire linguistic proficiency to write well, and pedagogical models designed for native-speaking students are not always “readily applicable” in ESL contexts (8). After establishing the need for pedagogies designed exclusively for L2 writers, Hinkel surveys the kinds of skills and writing tasks that L2 students most need to learn, and she presents research on how faculty across the disciplines evaluate their texts. She argues that ESL writers need to develop accuracy, to master the most common discourse features of academic texts, and to acquire the lexical and grammatical “chunks” that are most frequently used in academic writing. Moreover, Hinkel points out that L2 writers need explicit grammar correction because they do not generally acquire knowledge of grammar through “noticing” or incidental learning. Hinkel urges teachers to help students edit their own texts, and she provides guidelines for doing so. She provides extensive lists and an explanation of the grammatical structures that ESL writers need to know, and she outlines a method for prioritizing instruction so students learn the most important elements first. Finally, in the appendix to chapter 3, Hinkel provides a detailed curriculum for academic ESL writing classes.

The second and third sections of the book address syntactical and lexical matters at the sentence level and beyond. In section 2, Hinkel devotes a chapter each to sentence construction, noun phrases, pronouns, verb tenses, classes of verbs, and adjectives/adverbs. These chapters provide useful tips for teaching challenging aspects of English grammar. For instance, the chapter on sentences lists of the kinds of sentences that are appropriate to a variety of purposes and genres (e.g., introductions, thesis statements, comparison, contrast, reference to sources, and closing statements). The chapters include classroom exercises as well as convenient reference charts. Each chapter ends with discussion questions and references for further reading. The topics in section 3 include subordination of ideas, cohesion, coherence, and hedging. The chapter on cohesion and coherence will be especially useful to teachers who struggle to explain why a passage can be unclear even though it contains no obvious grammatical errors. Hinkel nicely synthesizes the research on cohesion and coherence, providing ready-made exercises that will help students learn to identify cohesive ties, make lexical substitutions, improve transitions, and combine sentences.

Overall, Teaching Academic ESL Writing is a useful book with very practical suggestions for teaching the syntactical and lexical aspects of written English. The book is well-designed for practicing teachers, student teachers, and for those involved in teacher training. The thorough summations of research findings and suggestions for further reading will be useful for researchers as well. Teachers will appreciate her clear suggestions for working on many of the trickiest aspects of the English language. These suggestions could be easily integrated into a variety of second language writing courses, whether those courses focus exclusively on linguistic matters or are based on rhetorical models and process pedagogy. In addition to being practical and easily accessible for teachers, this book is also an interesting example of the divergent pedagogical and scholarly interests of the related fields of composition studies and second language writing. While composition studies seems to have largely lost interest in linguistic matters, ESL researchers do not appear likely to abandon grammar instruction anytime soon. Hinkel’s readers will be glad that this is the case.