Writing in English: Perspectives of an ethnic Chinese teacher and her students

The purpose of this study was to investigate how, I, an ethnic Chinese teacher, and my students in Taiwan, co-constructed how to write in English and how our views impacted the teaching and learning processes. Significant to this study was a focus on my student participants' perspectives about their Chinese and English literacy experiences as well as their viewpoints about what strategies they implemented and what difficulties they encountered when composing freewriting and academic writing.; This study was developed within Vygotsky's sociocultural framework, especially his concept of the zone of proximal development. That is, students are able to progress from their actual level of development to their potential level of development through the help of more knowledgeable others (their peers and teacher). I also examined prior research on Chinese writing conventions and the characteristics of Chinese students' English developmental writing, hoping to explain how Chinese writing conventions and students' literacy experiences influenced the way they wrote in the present study. As qualitative teacher research, the data collection techniques employed in this study included the use of demographic sheets, a teaching journal, learning journals, artifacts, writing assignments, informal conversations with my participants, and personal email communication.; The findings of this study indicated that interactive classroom conversation and the use of writing as a means to form meaningful communication instead of regulated classroom language was a key to leading my students from rote learning to creative learning. Another important finding of this study was that the use of modeling techniques, peers' help, and students' background knowledge could build up their confidence and facilitate their writing skills.