EFFECTIVE CURRICULUM FOR

TEACHING L2 WRITING
Effective Curriculum for Teaching L2 Writing sets out a clear, practical, and efficient
big picture for curricular thinking about L2 writing pedagogy. Its main purpose
is to help pre-service and practicing teachers design courses for teaching academic
writing and to do this as efficiently and effectively as possible. Uniquely con-
necting curriculum, writing instruction, and language building, the text offers a
step-by-step guide to curriculum design for teaching second language writing,
with practical examples and illustrations. The central premise is that writing and
language instruction need to be integrated, based on a clear understanding of the
writing needs of academic writers, and that principled and language-focused cur-
ricula are necessary to guide this endeavor.

• Part 1 examines curricular foundations in general and focuses on what is socially

valued in L2 writing and pedagogy at school and at the college and university
level. The findings of relevant empirical studies are reviewed throughout Part I.
Two chapters survey the guidelines and learning goals for L2 writing on the
Common Core State Standards required at school and in higher education.
• Part 2 is concerned with the nitty-gritty—the daily realities of curricular
design and classroom instruction.
• Part 3 takes a close look at the key pedagogical ingredients of teaching academic
L2 writing: vocabulary and collocations, grammar for academic writing, and
down-to-earth techniques for helping L2 writers to organize discourse and
ideas.
• The Appendix provides an extensive checklist for developing curricula for a
course or several courses in language teaching. It can be useful in its entirety
or in pieces and portions, as needed.

Bringing together the what and the how-to of developing course curricula with
research-based principles of effective teaching in L2 writing courses, what sets this
book apart is its overarching focus on language pedagogy and language building.
To enhance its usefulness as a course text, each chapter includes an outline of the
main points covered; boxed highlights and illustrative examples; practice activities
and tasks; practical techniques and suggestions for curriculum design and teach-
ing; summary points; and suggested further readings.

Eli Hinkel is Professor, Linguistics and MA-TESL Programs, Seattle Pacific

University.

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 ESL & Applied Linguistics Professional Series
Eli Hinkel, Series Editor

Hinkel • Effective Curriculum for Teaching L2 Writing: Principles and Techniques

Farrell • Promoting Teacher Reflection in Second-Language Education: A Framework
for TESOL Professionals
Nunan/Richards • Language Learning Beyond the Classroom
Christison/Murray • What English Language Teachers Need to Know Volume III:
Designing Curriculum
Turner • Using Statistics in Small-scale Language Education Research: Focus on Non-
parametric Data
Hong/Pawan • The Pedagogy and Practice of Western-trained Chinese English
Language Teachers: Foreign Education, Chinese Meanings
Lantolf/Poehner • Sociocultural Theory and the Pedagogical Imperative in L2
Education:Vygotskian Praxis and the Research/Practice Divide
Brown • Pronunciation and Phonetics: A Practical Guide for English Language
Teachers
Birch • English Grammar Pedagogy: A Global Perspective
Liu • Describing and Explaining Grammar and Vocabulary in ELT: Key Theories and
Effective Practices
deOliviera/Silva, Eds. • L2 Writing in Secondary Classrooms: Student
Experiences, Academic Issues, and Teacher Education
Andrade/Evans • Principles and Practices for Response in Second Language Writing:
Developing Self-Regulated Learners
Sayer • Ambiguities and Tensions in English Language Teaching: Portraits of EFL
Teachers as Legitimate Speakers
Alsagoff/McKay/Hu/Renandya, Eds. • Principles and Practices of Teaching
English as an International Language

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 Kumaravadivelu • Language Teacher Education for A Global Society: A Modular
Model for Knowing, Analyzing, Recognizing, Doing, and Seeing
Vandergrift/Goh • Teaching and Learning Second Language Listening:
Metacognition in Action
LoCastro • Pragmatics for Language Educators: A Sociolinguistic Perspective
Nelson • Intelligibility in World Englishes: Theory and Practice
Nation/Macalister, Eds. • Case Studies in Language Curriculum Design:
Concepts and Approaches in Action Around the World
Johnson/Golumbek, Eds. • Research on Second Language Teacher Education: A
Sociocultural Perspective on Professional Development
Hinkel, Ed. • Handbook of Research in Second Language Teaching and Learning,
Volume II
Nassaji /Fotos • Teaching Grammar in Second Language Classrooms: Integrating
Form-Focused Instruction in Communicative Context
Murray/Christison • What English Language Teachers Need to Know Volume I:
Understanding Learning
Murray/Christison • What English Language Teachers Need to Know Volume II:
Facilitating Learning
Wong/Waring • Conversation Analysis and Second Language Pedagogy: A Guide
for ESL/EFL Teachers
Nunan/Choi, Eds. • Language and Culture: Reflective Narratives and the
Emergence of Identity
Braine • Nonnative Speaker English Teachers: Research, Pedagogy, and Professional
Growth
Burns • Doing Action Research in English Language Teaching: A Guide for
Practitioners
Nation/Macalister • Language Curriculum Design
Birch • The English Language Teacher and Global Civil Society
Johnson • Second Language Teacher Education: A Sociocultural Perspective
Nation • Teaching ESL/EFL Reading and Writing
Nation/Newton • Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking
Kachru/Smith • Cultures, Contexts, and World Englishes
McKay/Bokhosrt-Heng • International English in its Sociolinguistic Contexts:
Towards a Socially Sensitive EIL Pedagogy

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 Christison/Murray, Eds. • Leadership in English Language Education: Theoretical
Foundations and Practical Skills for Changing Times
McCafferty/Stam, Eds. • Gesture: Second Language Acquisition and Classroom
Research
Liu • Idioms: Description, Comprehension, Acquisition, and Pedagogy
Chapelle/Enright/Jamieson, Eds. • Building a Validity Argument for the Test of
English as a Foreign Language™
Kondo-Brown/Brown, Eds. • Teaching Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Heritage
Language Students Curriculum Needs, Materials, and Assessments
Youmans • Chicano-Anglo Conversations: Truth, Honesty, and Politeness
Birch • English L2 Reading: Getting to the Bottom, Second Edition
Luk/Lin • Classroom Interactions as Cross-cultural Encounters: Native Speakers in
EFL Lessons
Levy/Stockwell • CALL Dimensions: Issues and Options in Computer Assisted
Language Learning
Nero, Ed. • Dialects, Englishes, Creoles, and Education
Basturkmen • Ideas and Options in English for Specific Purposes
Kumaravadivelu • Understanding Language Teaching: From Method to Postmethod
McKay • Researching Second Language Classrooms
Egbert/Petrie, Eds. • CALL Research Perspectives
Canagarajah, Ed. • Reclaiming the Local in Language Policy and Practice
Adamson • Language Minority Students in American Schools: An Education in
English
Fotos/Browne, Eds. • New Perspectives on CALL for Second Language Classrooms
Hinkel • Teaching Academic ESL Writing: Practical Techniques in Vocabulary and
Grammar
Hinkel/Fotos, Eds. • New Perspectives on Grammar Teaching in Second Language
Classrooms
Hinkel • Second Language Writers’ Text: Linguistic and Rhetorical Features

Visit www.routledge.com/education for additional information on titles in

the ESL & Applied Linguistics Professional Series.

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 EFFECTIVE CURRICULUM
FOR TEACHING L2
WRITING
Principles and Techniques

Eli Hinkel

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 First published 2015
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2015 Taylor & Francis
The right of Eli Hinkel to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hinkel, Eli.
Effective curriculum for teaching L2 writing : principles and
techniques / by Eli Hinkel.
pages cm. — (ESL & applied linguistics professional series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. English language—Study and teaching—Foreign speakers.
2. English language—Composition and exercises. I. Title.
PE1128.A2H56 2015
428.0071—dc23
2014029191
ISBN: 978-0-415-88998-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-88999-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-83015-4 (ebk)

Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC

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 CONTENTS

Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi

PART I
Curriculum Foundations for L2 Writing
and Language 1

1 Introduction: Effective Teaching and the Curriculum 3

2 What’s Valued in School Writing and Language? 18

3 What’s Valued in College and University Academic Writing? 49

4 Second Language Writing and Language Learning 77

PART II
Curriculum Design for L2 Writing and
Language Building 113

5 How to Design Effective Curricula for Language and

Writing Courses 115

6 Choosing Teaching Materials and Adapting Textbooks 160

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 viii Contents

PART III
Language-Focused Curriculum Elements 183

7 Language Focus: Teaching Academic Vocabulary,

Collocations, and Pre-Fabs 185

8 Language Focus: Teaching Academic Grammar for Writing 216

9 Language Focus: From Text to Discourse 258

Appendix: Curriculum-Development Checklists 293

Index 299

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 PREFACE

The main purpose of this book is to help teachers design courses for teaching
academic writing and to do it as efficiently and effectively as possible. It seeks to
provide pre-service and practicing teachers a perspective on curricular thinking
in L2 writing pedagogy. There are plenty of books and textbooks for teaching L2
academic writing to students and books for teachers on how to teach it.
However, given the sheer number of publications on, about, and for L2 writing
pedagogy, navigating the vast body of theoretical and empirical knowledge, sug-
gestions for teaching, and classroom activities is not exactly quick and easy work.
After all, given that information abounds, it seems important and highly necessary
to see a bigger picture of teaching L2 academic writing. Effective Curriculum for
Teaching L2 Writing sets out to be a clear, practical, and efficient bigger picture for
curricular thinking in L2 writing pedagogy.
The book is divided into two parts: Part I examines curricular foundations
in general and focuses on what is socially valued in L2 writing and pedagogy at
school and, in addition, at the college and university level. Part II is concerned with
the nitty-gritty—the daily realities of curricular design and classroom instruction.
Part III takes a close look at the key pedagogical ingredients of teaching academic
L2 writing: vocabulary and collocations, grammar for academic writing, and the
down-to-earth techniques for helping L2 writers to organize discourse and ideas.

The Book Structure

Part I includes four chapters. Chapter 1 takes a brief look of the components
of a curriculum and the foundations of curriculum design. Chapters 2 and 3
review the attributes of school and academic writing that are valued in soci-
ety. These chapters survey the guidelines and learning goals for L2 writing on

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 x Preface

the Common Core State Standards required at school and in higher education.
Chapter 4 addresses studies of L2 writing and their recommendations for teaching
the elements of language and skills that students must learn in order to be able to
produce passable academic writing. The findings of empirical studies are reviewed
throughout Part I as they analyze a broad range of language and discourse features
that present a detailed and thorough picture of the requirements of student writ-
ing (i.e., what is valued in society), and the investigations of L2 academic writing
(i.e., the studies of the learners).
Part II—chapters 5 and 6—focuses on how to develop a curriculum and the
specifics of curricular thinking, as well as the details of instruction (e.g., choosing
textbooks and adapting and creating teaching materials). The purpose of Part II is
to help teachers to become more effective and efficient, based on current research
in L2 instruction.
Part III consists of 3 chapters. Chapters 7 and 8 address a few shortcuts for
principled instruction and techniques in L2 writing: academic grammar and aca-
demic vocabulary and collocations. Chapter 7 also includes useful and practical
techniques for teaching L2 writers to edit their text. Clear and simple teaching
techniques for organizing ideas in academic L2 prose are the topic of chapter 9.
The Appendix provides an extensive checklist for developing curricula for a
course or several courses in language teaching. It can be useful in its entirety or in
pieces and portions, as needed.

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My eternal, undying, and never-ending gratitude to Naomi Silverman, the Big

Cheese at Routledge, for her support, kindness, friendship of many years, and
infinite—immeasurable—patience. I have it on good authority that Naomi’s
patience is beyond compare.
For their support, diligent reading, cleaning, editing, and locating hundreds of
typos, oversights, goofs, flubs, and screw-ups, my deepest appreciation and sympa-
thy go to Bruce Rogers, the Ohio State University, and Rodney Hill. Thank you
more than I can say. Thank you to Anne Hepfer, Seattle University, for helping me
refine my ideas and for enduring friendship and thoughtfulness.
Through the decades, I have learned from thousands of my students, L1 and
L2 alike. It has been my honor to work with them and serve them the best way
that I knew how. My thanks to them for trying out various techniques, materials,
activities, exercises, short-cuts, tasks, and topics.

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