Collaboration for Liberation: Using TIMET to Enhance EFL Students’ Writing Skills
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Abstract
It is difficult for EFL students to explore ideas and overcome cultural and language barriers, when trying to improve their writing skills in English. Revisiting some of the old collectivist practices, I found value for today's teaching. Throughout a semester, I taught expository writing to 22 college students using what I call TIMET, a collaboration-enhanced-individual-writing model based on students’ socio-cultural and cognitive backgrounds. Data analysis, through the students’ learning processes and written products, in-depth interviews, students’ learning journals and writing portfolio, and class observations, reveals their writing processes, written products, the use of L1 rhetorical conventions in L2 writing, and the attitudes toward learning to write through the invented model. The findings suggest that the students, with some accommodation, could make effective use of their local resources when writing in L2.
Key Words: Thai collectivist conventions, EFL/ESL writing instruction, collaborative writing, Thai rhetorical conventions, L2 writing, models for teaching writing, locality in EFL/ESL writing
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