Reflection of interaction and plagiarism

Reading and writing are interconnected. Readers read articles written by the known or unknown writers, and writers’ works are waiting to be read. The social interaction cannot be avoided.


With the time changing, the awareness of “human resources” appears, especially in the western countries. The issues of “plagiarism” ,“ownership of words”, and “textual borrowing” are becoming more and more important in the academia.

I must acknowledge that I receive information or acquire knowledge from others’ ideas. We cannot inevitably adopt someone’s conception in our works. However, how do we define the intentional and unintentional plagiarism, and clarify the boundary between plagiarism and non plagiarism?

As for the some of the non-western countries, they do not think “plagiarism” is a serious issue except in the academic field. “ When I was in the university, I never heard of that “plagiarism” would cause crime. Many students were accustomed to “cutting and pasting” from the electronic text, and did not prove if the information or data were accurate. So, as instructors, no matter who are L1 or L2 writing teacher, they should help students perceive the issue in their learning process, and guide them how to employ other useful ideas in their writing without plagiarizing as well .

Reflection--Voice and Indentiy in L2 writing

What is the voice? I do think it interconnects with the cultural values. What we think, what we say, and what we write are often influenced by the cultural context.
The terms of “voice”, “process writing”, “peer review”, “critical thinking”, and “plagiarism” originated from what we call the “western”. It is also the products of individualism. It would be difficult to convey the views which are rooting in the western culture to the ESL/EFL learners. In Japan, and Taiwan, people preserve the viewpoints--”interdependence” and “conformity”.
What I am impressed is the description in Ramanathan and Atkinson’s article. A Chinese EFL student pointed out that she has to “create a new self”, and to transfer her “old identity” to “new identity”. (p.56) That is because when she wrote the article, she must write it from the western perspective. “Old sage” or “Others’ sentences” in the writing is not perfect. The writing teachers expect their students would write the personal voice, instead of others. The diverse ways of writing are needed the ESL/EFL learners taking time to understand the differences.
However, I do not think it is a simple task for these students from the diverse cultural background other than western culture to accommodate the ways of writing. School education, and social custom, and thinking were cultivated since we were born.

Reflection on Contrastive Rhetoric/Intercultural Rhetoric

Contrastive Rhetoric research was started by Robert Kaplan. Through the arguments and debates for years, although some questions were left to be answered, I believe these statements would bring us to think of the ESL/EFL writing issues from diverse angles.


Here are some questions for me to consider.

Casanave points out that “because CR deals with paragraph- and discourse- level features, teachers would be wise to introduce CR issues to intermediate and advanced learners rather than to beginners.” (p. 46) I admit that when teachers adopt the investigative and questioning approach in L2 writing, it would be difficult for the beginners to do such activities. However, are there any better methods to assist beginners to compare or contrast L1 and L2 texts?

Also, as Hinds’ point of view, he demonstrated the difference between Japanese writing and English writing. The former is reader-responsible, and the latter is writer-responsible. (p.34). However, McCaff argued that “readers of the text who are deeply familiar with Japanese culture and traditions will not find it necessary to do more work at comprehending than would readers of the English version, as long as both sets of readers share background knowledge.”(p.35) In Rinnert and Kobayashi’s study (2001), “the more experience readers would respond positively to the typically American features of essay, instead of that the inexperience writers concentrate on the content of the different versions. (P.50) So how can we expect the audiences/readers with diverse educational background or the influence of tradition and culture?

Leki (1997) showed that “CR’s primary focus on difference rather than similarities.”(p. 42) As in Xiaoming Li’s study, she found that the American teachers “appreciate logic and a clear opening” and that the Chinese teachers “appreciate an essay that expressed sentimental, natural scenes, and a moral message.”(p.49 and 50) The investigation would help us to understand the writing differences exist in diverse culture and background. However, I believe what we should do is to guide the ESL/EFL learners to acquire the knowledge in rhetorical patterns of target language and decrease the L1 influence to L2 writing.

Reflection on post-process pedogogy

As Applebee (1986) pointed out, “there is almost always a gap between educational theory and educational practice, and process approaches are no exception”. Also, some researchers, Allaei & Connor (1990), Carson and Nelson (1996), Delpit (1995), Gee (1990, 1996), and Ramanathan and Kaplan (1996) argued that the process pedagogy brought disadvantages to the non-mainstream writers. In Taiwan, the “product-oriented” and “teacher-centered pedagogy” are greatly emphasized because of the constraints, like institutional mandate. Thus, “process-oriented” and “student-centered pedagogy” revealed the difficulties to conduct in the classrooms, especially for the junior high school and senior high school students under the “test-oriented culture”. There is no enough time for students to express their experience, and it is time-consuming for teachers to do the activities, such as pre-writing, drafting, peer-review, feedback, and revising. In addition, not all of the students are capable of the proficiency in L2 writing. How can these students provide useful suggestions for their peers? Thus, I still need to consider the following questions. Is the process pedagogy better than the current-traditional rhetoric? How do teachers implement process pedagogy in their writing classes under such a test-oriented instruction? How do teachers assist students to improve their writing abilities?

Second Language Literacy Autobiography

As an EFL learner, I started to learn English since I was a junior high school student. In order to get higher grades in the standardized tests, what I should do was to study harder. During classes, teachers adopted the test-oriented instruction. In English classes, we focused on understanding and memorizing new vocabularies, grammar, sentence patterns. As for speaking and listening, these abilities were rarely emphasized. Although I felt bored to do such tasks for advancing my English grades under the spoon-fed education system, I must admit that I built my reading and writing abilities.
After I entered in the senior high school, improving reading and writing abilities was the priority. Not only did I have to master the content in the textbook, but also I spent time reading the extension materials, like analysis of sentence structures, and verb tenses. Also, sentence practice was also included in the English classes. During long-term holidays, English teacher would assign us to read some revised well-known stories, such as A Christmas Carol, and Pride and Prejudice. Even though I bore burden to prepare for English classes and tests at that time, I still worked hard for getting higher grades. Up to now, I think reading articles is an appropriate method to cultivate students’ reading and writing abilities.
When I attended in the university, learning English was not just restricted in the classes or textbooks. Watching movies, listening to American songs would bring me to get acquainted with the American culture and improve my English proficiency. Furthermore, progressing in listening, speaking, reading, and writing was expected as a student majoring in English department. Instructors would encourage us to speak out in the classes, and group discussion and presentation offer us the chance to learn English spontaneously.
Further, when I am immersing in the American culture, the experience would benefit me in progression in English. I find that learning in the authentic environment would enhance the English ability through contacting with the native speakers under diverse circumstances.