Pasadena City College

Causes of ESL Students to Form Discourse Community Within Classroom

Hua-Yu Chang
English 1A
Prof. Ogden
26 April 2016

Abstract
This research paper examines the problem of a closed discourse community often found
in ESL(English as A Second Language) classrooms. Students who are non-English speakers
often form groups with people who can only speak the same first language, and seldom interact

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with other nonnative English learners. This results in affecting ESL students learning efficiency.
Students are not motivated to learn; they remain in their comfort zone while they continue
speaking their first language to others who are also in their discourse communities. Without
being exposed to a full English speaking environment, the ESL students usually fail to meet the
expected level of English even after being in ESL programs for many years. To improve the
situation, the key is to motivate the ESL students to expose themselves in a English learning
environment. With that, the first part of the paper looks deep into the causes of lack of
motivation, and discovers that ESL students are discouraged from learning because their voices
are oppressed when they try to express themselves through English speaking and English
writing. The second part of the paper analyzes furthermore, stating the struggles ESL students
face in both speaking and writing aspect. The author also provides a solution to the problem,
which is --listen to the voice in ESL students speech and writing. As in writing aspect, teachers
often grade their students paper based on how many grammatical errors they make, ignoring
the students idea, their voices in their writing. By paying more attention to the messages the
ESL students express, teachers would be able to build connections with their students. With
more connections, students would be more comfortable in interacting with their peers outside of
their discourse community.

Outline of Causes of ESL Students to Form Discourse Community Within Classroom

I.

Identify the problem

A. My experience of entering a discourse community.
1. English class is a multi-lingual class.
2. Students divide themselves into the languages they
speak.
B. ESL programs are not as efficient as they should be.
1. Define the purpose of ESL classes.

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2. What causes the ESL classes to be less efficient.
C. Students form discourse community within the ESL classroom.
1. Define discourse community.
2. Why is discourse community in ESL classroom a
problem.
D. My experience of being part of the discourse community(as a
Chinese ESL student).
1. The danger of being part of the majority group in
ESL classroom.
2. Compare to experience of being the minority (first
experience)
3. How does that affect learning--Lack of motivation
II. Lack of Motivation
A. Students of a discourse community get help from the members
within their discourse community, causing them to have less motivation.
B. Main reason--ESL students face discouragement when they try to
convey their voice.
1. Define voice
2. How cultural factors affect voice
III. Oppression of voice
A. Difference of cultural factors affect both ESL students speaking
and writing.
1. Common assumptions cause pressure.
B. Voices are oppressed in speaking aspect
1. High speed lecture
2. Not given adequate time to form response
C. Voices are expressed in writing aspect
1. Readers often focus more on the grammatical
errors they make instead of the voice they try to convey
2. ESL students struggle to follow the rules of English
structure.
3. My own experience--discouragement in writing.
D. An example of oppression lead to lack of motivation and cause of
discourse community in the classroom.
1. Chinese ESL students struggle in speaking and
writing aspect.
2. My observation while I was part of the Chinese ESL
discourse community.
E. Like Pipher, I want to write to inform.
1. Why should people care about ESL students.
IV. How to motivate ESL students.
A. The key is to help them walk out of their comfort zone.
`
1. Most regular English students at school dont know about ESL students.
2. Programs that can help regular and ESL students interact with each other.
B. Help the students find their voice.
1. Rather than technical mistakes, teacher should look
at the voice in students writing.
2. My experience of finding myself in writing.

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Putting my shaking fingers on the handle, I hesitated to open the door, to open the road to
my brand new school life. What is going to be presented to me? What am I going to experience?
My body trembled from excitement and nervousness; I feel breathless, overwhelmed by
continuous string of imagination of the other side of the door. Finally, I reassemble my thoughts
and pulled the door open. As I stepped my foot into the classroom, some unrecognizable
language ran into my ears. ", "", " the words
seemed to be expressed with excitement. Soon, the whole classroom was in a cheerful
atmosphere. Yet I wasnt infected with the happiness. The more my new classmates welcomed
me with their language, the more I felt disconnected to the new learning environment. I digged
into the English dictionary in my head, looking for words to interpret the language while walking
toward the teacher, but I failed to do so. When I was about to run out of the classroom, thinking
that I went into the wrong class, the teacher shouted Stop speaking Spanish! This is English
class!The class began to quiet down as I also calmed myself down and look at my surrounding.
In the classroom, I saw the diversity of races, in which students came from different countries
and cultural backgrounds. However, the classroom also seemed to be divided by race and the
first language students speak. Students in different groups seldom communicate with each other,
and members of the same group would communicate with their first language. The English
became the classes of multiple languages. Why is that ?
The multi-lingual class that I experienced was an ESL (English as a Second
Language)class. ESL program provides classes designed for nonnative English learners at
school, mostly newcomers of America. The program serves as a stepstone to help those English

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learners meet the English level of regular English students (native English speakers). However,
from what I experienced, ESL classes are not as effective and efficient as they should be. Many
ESL students struggle their whole life as a student in ESL program, and yet their English level
could never enable them to move on to regular classes. As many people believe, being presence
in a country could help a person learn the language. But why couldnt ESL students meet the
expected English level even when they receive a long-term education in America? This is
answered by Benny Lewis, a multi-lingual author who advocates the importance of making use
of a language. He claims that If you move to a country for a few months (or even years) its
very possible you will NOT learn the language because the best approach to language learning
is to speak from day one, and not just being presence in that country. To truly adopt language,
the language learner MUST NOT be afraid of exposing him/herself to the language, and practice
it constantly. Despite this approach, ESL students are not exposing themselves in the English
speaking environment. The ESL students often divide themselves into the first language they
speak, and speakers of different languages seldom form connections with each other. These
closed groups in the ESL classroom are called discourse communities.
Discourse community, in brief, identifies a group of people who shares a common goal. It is
defined by six characteristics proposed by John Swales, a professor of linguistics who also works
with nonnative English speakers. ESL students qualify for most of the characteristics. In short,
they share the common goal of learning English. According to swales, members of a discourse
community also[use] lexical items known to the wider speech communities in special and
technical ways.(Swales 473) This refers to the language the ESL students use among their first
language group members. The majority of ESL students are from non-English speaking
countries, and it is at times more convenient for them to exchange information in their first

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language, although it might sometimes be puzzling to outsiders (other ESL students). However,
information exchange limited to only the members of a discourse community of language in ESL
classroom could negatively affect students learning. As narrowing the discourse community to
people who can only speak the same first language, they are not practice English with students
outside of their discourse community. They would use their first language so often that the
teacher would have to constantly stop the lecture and ask the students to speak English instead of
their first language. The use of language other than English and the interruption of lecture affect
the learning atmosphere, and slow down ESL students adoption of English.
Discourse communities affect ESL classrooms in similar ways from one school to
another. Many school has ESL programs, and most ESL classes present same problems. I was
exposed to another discourse community when I transfer to another school. Unlike the previous
experience when my classmates welcomed me with a language I couldnt identify with. This
time, I became part of the major discourse community in the ESL classroom. At my new school,
students are mostly Chinese ESL students, students who speak the same first language as I do.
When I stepped my foot into the classroom, students crowded towards me, trying to speak their
first language to me. I was welcomed with familiarity, but I also felt the danger of being part of
the discourse community in an ESL classroom. Although being in the same language discourse
community, students could help out each other, they would also slow down the learning process
of others and themselves. From what I observed as a member of Chinese ESL discourse
community, students would often ask their peers for help without even letting the teachers
instructions process through their head. They rarely speak in English, and they hardly notice the
danger of not practicing a language. Even though ESL classes seems to be a great opportunity for
nonnative English learners because of the English speaking environment they were provided,

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ESL students are not taking advantage of what they are given. While the many students dont
take chance to practice English at school, they dont have English input at home either. In fact,
many of the ESL students parents barely know how to speak English. Even though the students
are in America, they often put themselves into their first language environment with no English
input at all. With no practice, they would show little improvements in learning the language.
However, the ESL students dont seem to notice this danger.
Having the experience of being both an outsider and part of the discourse community
made me realized the causes of limited efficiency of the ESL program, which is lack of
motivation. To identify and further investigate the problem, I interviewed Professor Charlene
Potter, a linguistics and an ESL professor at Pasadena City College. She agrees with the problem
of discourse communities in her ESL classes, and concludes that, the biggest problem is that
students are afraid to speak and make use of English, although the result of their learning is
really depending on their motivation to learn. As a professor of nonnative English speakers,
Professor Potter invests a great amount of time and effort in motivating the students to learn. She
also has many methods in helping her ESL students adopt English language. However, the
students have to first show their will to make use of English . Professor Potter, after sharing her
experience teaching ESL students, concludes, As a teacher, I will provide everything I could to
help the students learn, but first of all, they have to step out of their comfort zone and start
interacting with their classmates and teachers. The ESL students have to expose themselves into
English speaking environment. They should acknowledge the danger of being in a closed
discourse community and motivate themselves to communicate with people outside of their
community.

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There are several factors causing the ESL students to have lack of motivation, forming
discourse communities within the classroom. Despite the influence of other first language
speakers, ESL students often face huge discouragement when dealing with cultural differences
between their home country and America. Cultural factors mainly affect the ESL students in the
aspect of speaking and writing. Students often find themselves hard to participate in class
discussions, and have great difficulty with conveying messages through writing. While the ESL
students struggle to express their thoughts through speaking and writing, their voices are
oppressed. Mary Pipher, a psychologists who believes in the importance of forming an identity,
once wrote, Voices is everything we are, all that we have observed, the emotional chords that
are uniquely ours(42). Pipher believes that individuals form their voices through observing the
world, getting feelings from their surroundings. The observations and feelings would eventually
become who they are. She also thinks that individuals have the desire to express their voices
through a variety of ways. They are eager to show part of themselves to others, to form
connections with them, even if they might not always get the attention they want. As for the ESL
students, they often show desire to express their voices beyond language barriers, even though
others might not understand or show any care about what they want to express. However, the
barrier of language mostly results in silencing the ESL students voices when they try to express
themselves. Their ability to convey messages and connect to people, either through speaking or
writing, are restricted by how comfortable they are with English.
Even though ESL students receive special assistance programs at school, most of them
still struggle with English language and culture. Besides grammatical problems and differences
of language usages, ESL students often have a hard time engaging in oral discussions and
completing writing assignments. In class, ESL students are often afraid to participate in

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discussions and struggle to respond appropriately to literature. That is mostly because in order
for them to understand the reading, ESL students spend of their in-class reading time looking up
words in dictionaries,which results in the inability to complete the reading session or not having
enough time to understand and paraphrase the reading to formulate an answer. Also, in the full
English speaking environment, ESL students, especially newcomers from foreign countries,
often have a hard time getting used to the English speaking speed, pronunciation, and more of
dialogic exchange. According to the article Respectful interactions: learning with international
students in the English-speaking academy written by Janette Ryan and Rosemary Viete,
teachers and educators assume local linguistic and cultural knowledge from ESL students,
which means they make their lecture based on the assumption that they are used to their highpaced lecture. Because of that, many nonnative English speakers are reported that, despite their
desire to express themselves, they are not given adequate time and opportunity to do so. Many
feel that their voices are silenced in classes (Ryan & Viete) Some even feel like English
belongs to native speakers, and that English is not a language that belongs to them. They often
feel that they lack of motivation to learn because they are not given enough chance to express
themselves.
Another source which causes the lack of motivation of ESL students is the
discouragement in writing. In writing, grammar, structure, transition seems to be dominating
what is called good writing. Teachers often look at grammatical error and pay less attention to
the voice in their students writing. OByrne points out in her research that the views of senior
teachers who had been trained and taught at a time when three major grammatical errors on a
high school English paper meant failure(O'Byrne). This hidden rule form pressure ESL
students voice in writing because they often make many grammatical mistakes when they are

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acquiring English writing. Even if the ESL students have outstanding ideas, they would be given
back their paper with markings all over the places, commenting on the grammatical errors they
made. To the teachers, It was easy to see what was lacking in [the ESL students] work; it was
harder to define what they were accomplishing.(O'Byrne). The messages in ESL students
writing are often not sent to readers because readers tend to pay more attention to the mistakes
they make. The ESL students voices are silenced by the rules of language.
Cultural factors also seem to silence ESL students voices in writing. In the research
The growth of voice: Expanding possibilities for representing self in research writing written
by Rosemary Viete and Phan Le Ha, a Vietnamese girl shares her experience of struggling to
identify herself in English writing. She claims that Writers often face confusion as they find
themselves between discourses of writing, feeling unsafe if they do not follow strictly the target
languages writing norms. ESL students often find it hard to follow the rules of English writing,
and often feel lack of confidence with their work. It is due to culture differences which shows
that non-English speaking countries have very different from English writing. With that, the
Vietnamese girl further points out that" Vietnamese writing is seen as 'free' with the focus on
reader's responsibility to encode a piece of writing" and often "there are no specific rules for
academic essays." In contrast to English writing which focuses on clarity and structure, some
countries search for the beauty of languages, which requires the writers to play with words and
leave a lot of implications to the readers. The differences of cultural factors offtimes discourage
ESL students to express their voice because they are not understood by English speakers when
they write with the language they are not familiar with. This discouragement causes the
nonnative English learners to lose their voices in writing, and turn them into the silent group in
the community.

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In terms of cultural factors in writing, critics often target Chinese ESL students with
their writing. Chinese ESL students are often referred as poor writersbecause of the great
difference in Chinese and English writing. Many criticize their lack of paragraph structure in
their essays, but with no understanding of why they make the mistake. In English writing,
people often favor a direct approach to a chosen topic (Cai). Essays written by native English
speakers are often clear in structure. Writers would starts each paragraph with a topic sentence,
proceeding to support this topic by using methods of cause effect, comparison and contrast,
definition, and classification and cohesion devices. On the other hand Chinese English learners
would often form their paragraphs layer by layer, moving from surface to the core (Cai). To
them, subordinate or coordinate relationships between sentences are not as important because the
lack of structure is what creates the beauty in Chinese writing. Another most criticised factor of
poor writing is the indirectness that appears commonly in Chinese ESL students writing.
Native speakers of English usually write paragraphs with "forthright, straightforward, and simple
expressions" (Cai). They focuses on self-expressing and commentaries, whereas Chinese
students prefer indirectness, in which they let the quotes explain themselves. Instead of directly
imposing his or her ideas on the reader, they tends to use the questions metaphors, and
illustrations to reveal his or her intention. This style of writing has to do with the traditional
Chinese poem that students have been taught to read. The unclearness and miserable language
has been developed in essay writing as well, as has been served as Chinese students model of
writing. Because of that, Chinese students tend to bring the habit into English writing, without
knowing that English and Chinese writing has a lot of difference other than what considered
general grammatical differences.

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ESL students find themselves hard to express their voices. That is what I personally
identify with as well. At times I would try to again put in all my style of writing, believing that
my voice would not simply be blinded by grammatical errors and misleading structures. It turned
out that I would received my paper back with red markings all over it, commenting, "I don't
really understand this part""What are you trying to say here?" I was feeling extremely helpless
facing the different writing styles of the two languages. My confidence with writing, the voice I
wanted to express, was repeatedly defeated by all the comments on my writing skills. Thus I
chose to remain silent. However, I could not give up with my identity. My voice of writing is so
strong that it drives me to keep writing. Eventually I got out of ESL class and enter a regular
English class. Although I did not intentionally work hard on improving my writing skills, I put a
lot of effort in conveying my voice. Thus, I believe that having voice is the drive for ESL
students to overcome the struggles and walk out of their discourse communities.
The solution to the closed discourse community in ESL classroom is to motivate ESL
students, helping them walk out of their comfort zones. To do this, the best way is to look into
their struggles and provide solutions to them. This paper discuss the common problems that ESL
students have in speaking and writing aspects. Issues ESL students often face in the speaking
aspect often occurs in oral discussions when those non English speakers are not given adequate
time to form a response. They often feel lack of confidence with their answer as well. To solve
this problem, teachers not only have to be patient and supportive enough to let the ESL students
form their responses, but they also have to provide mental support to those students, letting them
feel more comfortable with answering with a language they are not familiar with. With that
Professor Potter, an ESL teacher shares her experience of teaching ESL students. She often
encourages her students to participate in class discussions by handing out treats, Simple but

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effective she says. Professor Potter further mentions that she could only provide outside sources
to motivate the ESL students to learn, and that the most important key is their own will.
Motivating ESL students in the writing aspect is also important in terms of improving closed
discourse communities in ESL classrooms. The important issue that discourage ESL students in
writing is that teachers often grade the students paper based on the grammatical errors they
make, and not the ideas they present. This becomes harmful to ESL students because even if they
have the desire to convey their voices through writing, their grammatical knowledge often
prevent them from sending the messages to the teachers or readers. Therefore when teachers are
grading the writing of ESL students, they should expect writing accent and correct serious
errors that would significantly interfere with the understanding of the sentence("Tips on
Teaching ESL Students"). Focusing too much on fixing the grammatical errors that students have
might make the teachers hard to notice the messages their students send in their writing. Also,
instead of directly pointing out the mistakes, teachers could make marks and discuss with
students the concept and ideas. With the unclear ideas students might have in their essays,
teachers could discuss with their students and help them find a better way to express themselves
as well.
Although it is all about the ESL students to step out their comfort zone, ESL teachers
could provide an adequate of mental support to help students feel more comfortable with making
use of English language. No matter how much support a teacher could provide, they important
idea is to be patient and supportive to the ESL students just because they take a longer time to
learn. Rather than directly pointing out mistakes, teachers could guide the students to find the
answers on their own, and help them find a way to express their voices.

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Full Interview:
As a linguistics and ESL teacher, Professor Charlene Potter invested her time in helping English
as a Second Language (ESL)students adapt to English language. She works with students who
come from a variety of countries. Her job as a teacher of foreigners requires a lot of effort and
patient. When teaching ESL students, teacher often have to deal with problems such as the
limitation of students lecture comprehension, class participation, grammar usages,writing skills,
and much more. As an ESL teacher Prof. Potter even has to out a lot of effort in just to let
students understand her lecture. Far from the American culture, to the smallest English grammar,
Professor Potter would lead her students to learn English from a variety of aspects and prepare
them to move on to regular level of English.
Here is the interview:
: When I was an ESL student, I discovered that students in the ESL classroom often form
multiple discourse communities in a classroom. Students often gather with others could speak
their first language. I believe that it is a factor that would slow down the students' learning. What
do you think ?
Prof. Potter: That is true. Most students are not exposed to the English-speaking environment
long enough to be able to adopt the language. It causes them to feel uncomfortable or unfamiliar
with making use of English. And because of the little practice they have, it becomes harder for
them to meet the desired level of English.
: As a linguistics and ESL professor, do you have a specific, or special way of helping your
students adapt to English language?

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Prof. Potter: Of course I do. But first the students would have to have motivation to learn. It is all
about their will to learn.
: So how exactly do you motivate your students to learn ?
Prof. Potter: I often reward my students with cookies and candies. And I encourage them to
answer questions with those treats. That really changes the class' environment, and brings
interactions among students.
: To end this interview, I want to summarize the major that ESL students are currently facing, and
hopefully provide a solution that can improve this situation. Based on the idea of discourse
community, how does that affect your students' learning, and how can it possibly be solved?
Prof. Potter: I think the biggest problem is that the students are afraid to speak and make use of
English. The result if their learning is really depending on their motivation to learn. As a teacher,
I will provide everything I could to help the students learn, but first of all, they have to step out
of their comfort zone and start interacting with their classmates and teachers.
As Prof. Potter concluded, lack of motivation is what causes students to form discourse
communities within the classroom. However, it is also true that the struggle the ESL students
face while learning and making use of English discourage them from exposing themselves to a
full-English environment. The struggle is not only from the language aspect, but also from a
cultural aspect. Coming from different culture, students might be experiencing cultural shock,
having limited comprehension with cultural reference, and having limited exposure to rapid
speech or slang. These all discourage ESL students from being engaged in the ESL classrooms.
Therefore I believe that ESL teachers should not only teach their students about basic grammar
usage, but also look into English with a cultural aspect.

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Work Cited
Cai, Guanjun. Beyond "Bad Writing": Teaching English Composition To Chinese ESL Students.
n.p.: 1993. ERIC. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.Chen, Grace. "Inclusion or Exclusion? The ESL
Education Debate." Inclusion or Exclusion? The ESL Education Debate. Public School
Review, n.d. Web. 3 Mar. 2016.
O'Byrne, Barbara. "Needed: A Compass To Navigate The Multilingual English
Classroom." Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy44.5 (2001): 440-49. ERIC. Web.
3Mar. 2016.
Pipher, Mary. Writing to Change the World.New York: Riverhead Press, 2006. Print.
Ryan, Janette, and Rosemary Viete. "Respectful Interactions: Learning With International
Students In The English-Speaking Academy." Teaching In Higher Education 14.3 (2009):
303-314. Academic Search Premier. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.
Swales, John. ''The Concept of Discourse Community." Genre Analysis: English in Academic
and Research Settings. Boston: Cambridge UP, 1990.21-32. Print.
Viete, Rosemary, and Phan Le Ha. "The Growth Of Voice: Expanding Possibilities For
Representing Self In Research Writing."English Teaching: Practice And Critique
6.2 (2007): 39-57. ERIC. Web. 9 Feb. 2016
"Inclusion or Exclusion? The ESL Education Debate." Public School Review. N.p., n.d. Web. 21
Apr. 2016.
"Tips on Teaching ESL Students." The Writing Center at UNCChapel Hill Tips on Teaching ESL
Students Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2016.
Fernsten, Linda A. "Writer Identity And ESL Learners." Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy

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52.1 (2008): 44-52. ERIC. Web. 21 Apr. 2016.

Problem-solution Research: Annotated Bibliography

Discourse Community
Swales, John. ''The Concept of Discourse Community." Genre Analysis: English in
Academic and Research Settings. Boston: Cambridge UP, 1990.21-32. Print.
In this article, Swales proposes six characteristics that identify the discourse community. The
first one states that a discourse community would have a common goal. For the second and third
one, members of the community have to gather and exchange information and feedback. With
that, the members crete genre together, which fulfills the fourth characteristics. Between the
members, they use lexical terms that people outside the discourse community could not
understand. That, is the fifth characteristic. The sixth one, Swales believes, is that members of
the discourse community would not leave the group involuntarily. Together, members of the
group have their own set of rules and ways of doing things, which makes them separate from
other communities.
Problems that ESL Students Face
Viete, Rosemary, and Phan Le Ha. "The Growth Of Voice: Expanding Possibilities For
Representing Self In Research Writing."English Teaching: Practice And Critique
6.2 (2007): 39-57. ERIC. Web. 9 Feb. 2016
Viete and Ha discuss about how the writers voice could change when writing in a discourse
community, and propose the idea that writing in a second language could oppressed the writers
voice. They list the possible reasons that would cause the oppression of voice, including the
conflict people face when crossing geo-political, cultural and community borders. Students often
feel lost and that they dont belong when they enter a community, speaking the language that
they are not familiar with. An example about a Vietnamese girl experiencing cross-cultural
writing is also provided in the essay to show how writing norms differ from America and the
student's home country can affect the student's voice in writing.The Vietnamese girl mentions
that while English writing search for directness and clarity, Vietnamese writing prefers
indirectness and let readers figure out the writers teaser. The difference once made her feel
discouraged with writing, and that many other English as second language writers feel the same
way as well.
Francisco, Janet. "Empower ESL Writing Students: Keep It Simple." International
Journal Of Teaching And Learning In Higher Education 26.3 (2014): 335-342. ERIC.
Web. 28 Apr. 2016
This is a case study of ESL students having a hard time on adjusting their writing/textual
production and organizing structures of the paragraph. Teachers use different approaches
trying to help the ESL students overcome this problem. This is one of the issue stated in
my research paper, and is also one of the problem I stated as part of my personal
experience in the paper.

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Di Loreto, Sabrina, and Kim McDonough. "The Relationship Between Instructor

Feedback And ESL Student Anxiety." TESL Canada Journal 31.1 (2013): 20-41.
ERIC. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.
The research investigates the relationship between instructor feedback and student
anxiety in high school ESL classes. Students were required to a-writing exam as part of
their graduation requirements, while observing about their learning anxiety. The results
showes a negative correlation between students' perceptions of feedback and test anxiety.
This could be served as an example in my research paper about eh challenges ESL
students face in their English learning.
Mustakim, Siti Salina, Ramlee Mustapha, and Othman Lebar. "Teacher's
Approaches In Teaching Literature: Observations Of ESL Classroom." Malaysian
Online Journal Of Educational Sciences 2.4 (2014): 35-44. ERIC. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.
This study records the approaches teachers use when teaching younger ESL students. It
concludes that the collaboration in classroom was minimal, and teachers were lacked
creativity. However, the program provides the potential of enhancing the language
learning environment.

Strauss, Pat. "The English Is Not The Same": Challenges In Thesis Writing For Second
Language Speakers Of English." Teaching In Higher Education 17.3 (2012):
283-293. ERIC. Web. 9 Feb. 2016.
Strauss works with a supervisor and two postgraduate international students to get
information about difficulties and frustration in their English learning process. The difficulties
generally refers to grammatical skills in writing. The article also provides samples of student
work. There is an example of a long and complex sentence written by an ESL student which
helped me prove the writing aspect of ESL students in my research paper.
Ryan, Janette, and Rosemary Viete. "Respectful Interactions: Learning With International
Students In The English-Speaking Academy." Teaching In Higher Education 14.3 (2009):
303-314. Academic Search Premier. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.
Ryan and Viete in this article mainly focuses on how assuming local linguistic and cultural
knowledge can create pressure on international students. The research shows that people often
ignores the fact that there could be a more diverse culture difference that nonnative English
learners are trying to overcome with. For example, many make assumptions that international
students are the group that lack the ability of critical thinking and do not want to participate in
class discussions, when in fact they are just not given adequate time to form the response. The
research goes deep into proving that small factor could discourage the non-native English
speakers courage to participate. They often feel that their voices are silenced, and that they dont
belong. Because of that, Ryan and Viete encourage the teachers to not only focus on the English

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learners academic performance, but also feel more comfortable being in the learning
environment.
O'Byrne, Barbara. "Needed: A Compass To Navigate The Multilingual English
Classroom." Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 44.5 (2001): 440-49. ERIC. Web. 3 Mar.
2016.
In the article, OByrne discusses the struggles ESL students face in class, including the
challenges in reading and participating in class discussions. This serves as a great source of my
research paper in terms of the causes of lack of motivation. The author also provided a lot of
examples and his observations of ESL students when they read and write. The observations
really help me in developing the solution of my research paper.
"Understanding And Meeting The Needs Of ESL Students." Phi Delta Kappan 85.10
(2004): 786. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 16 Mar. 2016
The author of this article use stories to tell the struggles of ESL students. She form
connection between the reader and the girl in the story, letting the girls needs became even
clearer to the readers. Then she provides suggestions to the teachers and parents, trying to solve
the problems she sees among ESL students. The description of the story turned out to be a very
detail source for the solution of my research paper. The suggestions in the article is very useful to
me as well.

Forming Connections
Pipher, Mary. Writing to Change the World.New York: Riverhead Press, 2006. Print.
Mary pipher is a psychologist and an writer who advocates the importance of forming identity.
She thinks that voice is everything we are and things that we value about. Thus, individuals
should try to understand themselves and find their voices. Piphers idea of voice serves as an
important element in my research paper, and makes the so-what statement a lot stronger. The
methods Pipher proposes in finding an individuals voice also helps me in generating the
solution.
Warne, Natallie. 9 February 2015. Being Young and Forming an Impact. TED Talks.
Natalie has to move from city to city with her mom to find work. Her childhood inspires
her to make something great out of her life. She saw the documentary Invisible Children: The
Rough Cut, which encourages her to volunteer for Invisible Children, using her voice to help end
the war. Her story again proves the power of voice, and proving that anyone can do anything.
Her voice and her determination to express her voice is what I think would help the ESL students
walk out of their comfort zone and really overcome the language barrier.

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"Inclusion or Exclusion? The ESL Education Debate." Public School Review. N.p., n.d.
Web. 21 Apr. 2016.
This article provides a debatable view on whether or not ESL classes are needed at
school. The author supports the existence of ESL classes, while providing a lot of evidence to
support his view. The evidence, especially the statistics in the article helps me form an argument
in my research paper. In addition,the author also includes many of the assumptions about ESL
students and their learning environment, which also provides details to my arguments.
Fernsten, Linda A. "Writer Identity And ESL Learners." Journal Of Adolescent & Adult
Literacy 52.1 (2008): 44-52. ERIC. Web. 21 Apr. 2016.
Davis, Sampson, George Jenkins, Rameck Hunt, and Lisa Frazier Page. The Pact:
Three Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream. New York: Riverhead, 2003.
Print
The pact is a story about three doctors who had unpleasant childhoods but try to pursue
their dreams. They found themselves through education and help each other to get through
harshful college life. The idea of finding voice in the book is very strong, which helps me
develop the idea of finding the voices of ESL students. Also, the fact the three doctors build
connections with each other and support one another through college life inspires me to include
the importance of building relationship as part of the solution of my research paper.
Chinese ESL Students
Huang, Jinyan, and Kathleen Brown. "Cultural Factors Affecting Chinese ESL Students'
Academic Learning."Education 129.4 (2009): 643-653. ERIC. Web. 26 Apr. 2016.
In the article, the author states that how helping the Chinese ESL students could help
improve the studying atmosphere of the campus. The author goes detail into the challenges the
the ESL students face, including how culture can influence the way Chinese students express
themselves. The article also includes the methods the teacher use when teaching Chinese ESl
students. This article is particularly useful to me in terms of the cultural influence on Chinese
ESL students.
Gan, Zhengdong. "Learning To Teach English Language In The Practicum: What
Challenges Do Non-Native ESL Student Teachers Face?." Australian Journal Of
Teacher Education 38.3 (2013): ERIC. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.
This is a study which investigates the challenges of ESL teachers teaching students in
Hong Kong. It includes interviews and reflective journals to describe their experiences,
The results indicates that there was a cultural shock and a lack of sense of control in
class. The description of the students are relatable to the Chinese ESL students I describe
in my research paper.

Chang 21

Cai, Guanjun. Beyond "Bad Writing": Teaching English Composition To Chinese ESL
Students. n.p.: 1993. ERIC. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.
In this article, Cai writes about the struggles of Chinese ESL students. She takes the
readers to look at the Chinese ESL students struggle in a cultural aspect, which serves the
interest of my research paper. She mentions how the modern grading policy, which is a few
grammatical errors mean failure, lead to the oppression Chinese ESL students thoughts and
voices. This idea intersects a large part of my research paper when I was stating the cause of the
problem that ESL students face.
Solution
Lewis, Benny. "Why Moving to a Country May Not Lead to Learning the Language &
What Learners & Expats CAN Do - Fluent in 3 Months - Language Hacking and Travel
Tips." Fluent in 3 Months Language Hacking and Travel Tips. Fluent in 3 Months, 26 Apr.
2011. Web. 26 Apr. 2016.
Benny Lewis is a multi-lingual author and he is able to become fluent in a language in a
very short period of time. Although people thinks that the reason of being so fluent in a language
is because he has physically been to those country, he thinks that what makes a person fluent in a
language is practice. This importance of making use of a language is important to the ESL
students as well. Even though they are physically in America, they still need to practice their
English constantly to truly adopt the language.
Brilliant, Judith. "ESL Teaching In Collaboration With College Counseling." (2001):
ERIC. Web. 26 Apr. 2016.
The author of this article looks deep into the struggle of ESL students through different
aspects such as the cognitive issues, the emotional side, cultural issues, and a lot more. The
research and detailed description of the different aspects really inspired me in building depth in
my essay. Also, many ideas in this article help support my ideas and thoughts, which makes my
research paper a lot more detailed.
"Tips on Teaching ESL Students." The Writing Center at UNCChapel Hill Tips on Teaching
ESL Students Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2016.
This website lists almost all the challenges ESL students could face when trying to adopt
English language. It goes into detail in differentiating American Born and non American born
ESL students. Although I did not go in depth in that aspect for my research paper, it is still very
helpful in providing detailed solutions. For the solution of my paper, I included a lot ideas from
this web page.