| This paper investigates how ESL students in an advanced university-level writing course for freshmen nonnative speakers of English, L23, engaged with each other as well as with the writing teacher through dialogue in small group and whole-class discussions. This qualitative study examines how verbal contributions resulting from textual analysis affect the way in which students approach the writing process. Student engagement, for the most part, improved the writing process, but occasionally appeared to hinder it. Through the act of participating in the text-based activities during class time, the students were able to transform written words from the different kinds of texts used for this course into meaningful dialogue, thus increasing their meta-cognitive awareness of textual meaning and developing skills to effectively express ideas in both spoken and written forms.This paper consists of five chapters. Chapter two consists of a literature review of prior and recent L2 research regarding classroom interaction in second language classrooms, relating to the social learning theory, collaboration and group work, as well as to the role of the teacher. I also address the benefits of conducting more L2 research pertaining to the speaking-writing connection and how this can benefit L2 writing students. Chapter three consists of a brief overview of the L23 program, the methods in which the data for this study were gathered and analyzed, and brief descriptions of the three students focused on in my study. In chapter four, I explain the findings in relation to the benefits of promoting text-based discussions to assist with the pre-writing stage of the writing process by focusing on the influential aspects of dialogic interactions observed in L23, including the role of questions in the writing classroom, interactions with the textbook, collaboration and group work, informal interactions, and the negotiation of ideas between the teacher and the students. Chapter five examines how student engagement can be effectively constructed through the interactions with written texts, peers, as well as with the teacher. I then conclude with teaching and learning implications for current and future ESL teachers, as well as for second language learners. |
