The act of suggesting in a university writing service in Hong Kong
How do writing tutors manage it?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.30910Keywords:
linguistic formulations, sequential organization, students’ writing, suggesting, tutorsAbstract
This paper describes and analyzes the sequential organization and linguistic formulations of the act of suggesting and the ways suggesting is mitigated, based on a small corpus of 7.5 hours of conversations recorded from one native English-speaking tutor and one non-native English-speaking tutor in an English writing service at a university in Hong Kong. To assist the description and analysis, certain taxonomies developed for interlanguage and cross-cultural research were adopted, while also taking into account findings from the conversation analytic research on writing conferences. Regardless of the two tutors’ cultural backgrounds, their prior experience with teaching and writing consultations in Hong Kong caused them to manage the act of suggesting in a similar fashion. First, the sequential organization of their suggestions comprised five basic patterns: pairing up with praising, criticizing, locating the trouble source, prompting, and suggesting with no prior acts. The insertion of additional turns was common, resulting in extended turn sequences. Second, they used a range of linguistic expressions to increase and mitigate the force of the act, directly and indirectly. The study, although small in scale, allows us to better understand the ways writing tutors handle suggestions in writing consultations in an Asian context and discusses implications for professional practice.
References
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Wong, J. and Waring, H. Z. (2010) Conversation Analysis and Second Language Pedagogy: A Guide for ESL/EFL Teachers. Hoboken, NJ: Taylor and Francis.
Xiao, M. K. (2001) The writing assistance programme: A writing center with Hong Kong characteristics. In I. Leki (ed.) Academic Writing Programs, 7–18. Alexandria, VA: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.
Blau, S. R., Hall, J. and Sparks, S. (2002) Guilt-free tutoring: Rethinking how we tutor non-native English-speaking students. Writing Center Journal 23 (1): 23–44.
Brown, P. and Levinson, S. C. (1987) Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Carter-Tod, S. (1995) The Role of the Writing Center in the Writing Practices of L2 Students. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Virginia.
Craven, A. and Potter, J. (2010) Directives: Entitlement and contingency in action. Discourse Studies 12 (4): 419–442. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445610370126
Curl, T. and Drew, P. (2008) Contingency and action: A comparison of two forms of requesting. Research on Language and Social Interaction 41 (2): 129–153. https://doi.org/10.1080/08351810802028613
Drew, P. and Heritage, J. (1992) Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hyland, F. and Hyland, K. (2001) Sugaring the pill: Praise and criticism in written feedback. Journal of Second Language Writing 10 (3): 185–212. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1060-3743(01)00038-8
Hyland, K. and Hyland, F. (2012) You could make this clearer: Teachers’ advice on ESL academic writing. In H. Limberg and M. A. Locher (eds) Advice in Discourse, 53–71. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Jiang, X. (2006) Suggestions: What should ESL students know? System 34 (1): 36–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2005.02.003
Koshik, I. (2002a) A conversation analytic study of yes/no questions which convey reversed polarity assertions. Journal of Pragmatics 34 (12): 1851–1877. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(02)00057-7
Koshik, I. (2002b) Designedly incomplete utterances: A pedagogical practice for eliciting knowledge displays in error correction sequences. Research on Language and Social Interaction 35 (3): 277–309. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327973RLSI3503_2
Lee, C. 2012. The pragmatics of non-compliance by tertiary Chinese learners of English in writing tutorials. In A. S. Yeung, E. L. Brown and C. Lee (eds) Communication and Language: Surmounting Barriers to Cross-cultural Understanding, 325–350. Charlotte, NC: Information Age.
Li, S. H. (2010) Making suggestions: A contrastive study of young Hong Kong and Australian students. Journal of Pragmatics 42 (3): 598–616. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2009.07.014
Liu, Y. and Zhao J. (2007) Suggestions in teacher-student conferences. Arizona Working Papers in SLA and Teaching 14: 59–74.
Martínez-Flor, A. (2005) A theoretical review of the speech act of suggesting: Towards a taxonomy for its use in FLT. Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses 18: 167–187. https://doi.org/10.14198/raei.2005.18.08
Park, I. (2012) Seeking advice: Epistemic asymmetry and learner autonomy in writing conferences. Journal of Pragmatics 44 (14): 2004–2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2012.09.012
Park, I. (2014) Stepwise advice negotiation in writing center peer tutoring. Language and Education 28 (4): 363–382. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2013.873805
Park, Y. Y. (2011) Advice giving in college EFL writing tutorials. Discourse and Cognition 18 (3): 139–167. https://doi.org/10.15718/discog.2011.18.3.139
Schegloff, E. (2007) Sequence Organization in Interaction: A Primer in Conversation Analysis, Volume 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511791208
Schegloff, E., Jefferson, G. and Sacks, H. (1977) The preference for self-correction in the organization of repair in conversation. Language 53 (2): 361–382. https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.1977.0041
Searle, J. R. (1976) A classification of illocutionary acts. Language in Society 5 (1): 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500006837
Thonus, T. (1999) How to communicate politely and be a tutor, too: NS-NS interaction and writing center practice. Text 19 (2): 253–279. https://doi.org/10.1515/text.1.1999.19.2.253
Thonus, T. (2004) What are the differences? Tutor interactions with first- and second-language writers. Journal of Second Language Writing 13 (3): 227–242. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2004.04.012
Vehviläinen, S. (2012) Question-prefaced advice in feedback sequences of Finnish academic supervisions. In H. Limberg and M. A. Locher (eds) Advice in Discourse, 31–51. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.221.04veh
Waring, H. Z. (2005) Peer tutoring in a graduate writing center: Identity, expertise and advice resisting. Applied Linguistics 28 (2): 141–168. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amh041
Waring, H. Z. (2012) The advising sequence and its preference structures in graduate peer tutoring at an American university. In H. Limberg and M. A. Locher (eds) Advice in Discourse, 98–117. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.221.07war
Wong, J. and Waring, H. Z. (2010) Conversation Analysis and Second Language Pedagogy: A Guide for ESL/EFL Teachers. Hoboken, NJ: Taylor and Francis.
Xiao, M. K. (2001) The writing assistance programme: A writing center with Hong Kong characteristics. In I. Leki (ed.) Academic Writing Programs, 7–18. Alexandria, VA: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.
Published
2017-05-02
Issue
Section
Articles
License
Equinox Publishing Ltd.
How to Cite
Lee, C. (2017). The act of suggesting in a university writing service in Hong Kong : How do writing tutors manage it?. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, 10(2), 129-150. https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.30910
