Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Old Gil]

I've got a friend who's going to be teaching a few college students college level writing, and I've suggested that he focus on teaching the 5 paragraph essay format. Problem is that neither he nor myself know that much about teaching writing to English language learners. Does anyone know of any good resources for teaching that specifically adress the hazards faced by ELLs?

Sites like this one:

http://esl4free.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-to-write-five-paragraph-essay.html

could just as easily be aimed at native students and don't really seem to help all that much when it comes to focusing on the specific challenges an ELL will face. Thanks

[djsmnc]

I don't know many sites, but this has been one of my specialties. I usually focus on the 5 paragraph format with the TOEFL essay scale in mind. It's a challenge sometimes to convince ELL's that originality and content are equally, if not more important than grammatical and stylistic issues. I can't tell how many thousands of papers I've reviewed that had almost exactly the same response to a given question, rather than a carefully thought-out perspective on an issue. I usually focus a lot on writing a proper thesis and then knowing how to support it.

Note: Korean papers often have their thesis/main point at the end of an essay, which sums up the argument made throughout the body. The western style of essay usually presents a thesis in the introduction. Just getting over this aspect can take some time.