Rationale

Radicalizing Traditional Writing Classroom Practices 

Cultivating Confidence in L2 Writing: Communicative and peer review practices

The edited volume including research and practices is designed to bring communication into the L2 academic writing classroom, be it for English as a second language, other languages, or for academic purposes. We believe that teaching writing is often considered challenging due to the heavy-load of lecturing and grading (Patwary, 2023). Experienced writing teachers have the benefit of established practices, alleviating some of the struggle that comes with class preparation and lecturing. However, it is easy to rest in that comfort, and that can hinder the integration of new practices. 

On the other hand, those new to teaching writing may be inundated by the sometimes overwhelming amount of work necessary in a writing course(Mittan, 1989 as cited in Ferris & Hedgcock, 2005). Planning lectures, creating materials or adjusting lessons to integrate textbooks, alongside marking essays and providing feedback leave little time for further innovation .

In addition, teaching writing has a silent enemy: a majority of the tasks assigned in writing courses can be described as quiet writing activities (Liu & Hansen, 2002), which can lead to isolation between the students and their teacher, and isolation among the students themselves. This potentially leads to students who struggle to voice their questions about their writing, as they are not trained to talk about the writing process (Lee, 2016). 

Although the obvious goal of an L2 writing class is to cultivate students’ academic writing skills, in order to benefit students as overall language learners, it is necessary to include practices that emphasize the other language skills. A writing class has a natural reading integration as sources are necessary for the writing process. Although there may not be instances of listening practice activities, there is inherent listening practice when students listen to lectures. Speaking, however, does not have an obvious point of inclusion. 

One widely used approach for adding communication among students in the writing class is peer review (Patwary, 2023), but the practice can be a bit dated. A common peer review activity sees students tasked with marking each other’s papers on a checklist based on the project rubric. In theory, students should discuss with each other the suggested edits they have for their peer review partner (van der Berg, et al., 2006); however, students who are unused to discussing their writing may be unsure how to perform the speaking part of this style of peer review. Thus, silence prevails. 

There is ample literature (Hislop & Stracke, 2017; Hyland & Hyland, 2006; Liu & Hansen, 2002; Patwary, 2023) that supports the benefits and students’ positive perceptions in an ESL writing classroom; however, there is a significant gap in practice and research that show variations on ways in which communication can be brought into the well-established practice of peer feedback.

Our initial edited volume, Cultivating Confidence in L2 Writing: Communicative and Peer Review Practices, provides writing teachers with innovative peer review approaches and other tools for creating communicative writing classrooms. It highlights instructors who are breaking the mold. Each chapter presents a classroom practice that introduces new ways to embed communication or reimagine peer review in the L2 academic writing classroom, many supported by research.

We now turn our attention to ready-to-use materials that can be adapted for both secondary and tertiary writing classrooms.

To make this new collection accessible to teachers of all experience levels, we aim to gather resources from practitioners working across diverse L2 writing contexts worldwide. The forthcoming volume (working title Cultivating Confidence in L2 Writing: The Guidebook) is envisioned as a field guide—a practical resource for anyone seeking to enrich their teaching. These materials are designed to function as hands-on guides rather than research reports. Contributors will take part in envisioning the writing classroom as a communicative space that builds student confidence and expands the growing body of modernized writing practices. 

References
 

Ferris, D., & Hedgcock, J. S. (2005). Teaching ESL composition: Purpose, process, and practice. Lawrence Erlbaum Association, Inc.

Hyland, K., & Hyland, F. (2006). Feedback on second language students' writing. Language teaching, 39(2), 83-101.

Lee, I. (2016, May). Putting Students at the Centre of Classroom L2 Writing Assessment. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 72(2), 258-280. https://doi.10.3138/cmlr.2802

Liu, J., & Hansen, J. G. (2002). Peer response in second language writing classrooms. University of Michigan Press.

Patwary, M. N. (2023). Peer Feedback in Developing Writing in Tertiary EFL/ESL Education: A Review of Related Research. Crossings: A Journal of English Studies, 14, 154-166.

Van den Berg, I., Admiraal, W., & Pilot, A. (2006). Peer assessment in university teaching: evaluating seven course designs. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 31(1), 19-36.