Student and Teacher Perspective on Using Writing Conferences in EFL College Composition Classes

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The purpose of this study is to investigate and describe the students’ and their teacher’s perspectives on the use of writing conferences that included group conferences and individual conferences in the multiple-drafting process. This study is based on face-to-face in-depth interviews with the instructor, a native English speaker, and nine selected student participants, relating to a composition course offered to forty-seven sophomores divided into two classes in the Applied Foreign Languages Department at a technological university in Taiwan. The study reveals that the majority of the nine selected students valued the writing conference activity highly, as did the teacher. A further finding suggested by the teacher is that teacher cooperation can be utilized in the EFL composition classroom. In general, the results of the study confirm that the students and the teacher experienced the positive effects of student-teacher writing conferences in this particular EFL context.

Stream: Literacy, Language, Multiliteracies; Languages Education and Second Language Learning

Paper: Student and Teacher Perspective on Using Writing Conferences in EFL College Composition Classes

Yuehchiu Fang received her M.A. in TESOL from Long Island University in 1989 and her Ph.D. in Language and Literacy from The Pennsylvania State University in December 2002 in the United States. She is currently an associate professor in the Applied Foreign Languages Department and the Director of the Language Teaching Center at the National Formosa University. She has 19-year English teaching experience at college level in Taiwan. Her interests include the teaching of ESL/EFL writing and oral fluency, and also the research related to the curriculum design in English Language.

Hui-fen Lin received her Ph.D. in Instructional System Education from The Pennsylvania State University in 2006 in the United States. She is currently an associate professor in the English Department of National Kaohsiung Normal University in Taiwan. Her interests include the teaching of ESL/EFL writing and also the research related to CALL in English Language.