"Writing Across Borders"

I thought the film “Writing Across Borders” was very interesting and useful for future teachers. What particularly struck me was the differences in styles across cultures. I knew sentence structure varied and that timed testing and grammatical errors might be a problem, but I liked learning how different cultures structure an essay differently, or emphasize certain things in different ways than we do in the US. I knew that Americans were considered to be very direct, but I didn’t think how other cultures might prefer an essay that states the thesis last, or make circles around the main point.

It makes sense to grade second language students on a different level than native speakers. I like the point the documentary made about grading based on content—was it understandable or did the grammar hinder it so much that it was hard to read? I think it is important to point out errors—otherwise how can they learn? But I liked the point about focusing on a few errors that are repeated because the amount of errors overall may be too much information to absorb and correct all at once.

I remember struggling with common errors when writing an essay in Spanish during my study abroad in Spain. Sometimes I felt like I had to make my arguments or sentences simpler when trying to express what I wanted. Anyone else have a similar experience?