In this dissertation, peer editing as one pedagogical practice in ESL writing is studied from a sociocultural perspective. Such a perspective has been neglected in the previous research in the field. In this study, the theories of the self, the ethnic identity and the acculturation are examined and an ethnographic study reported. The study suggests that pedagogical practices such as peer editing in ESL writing are also sociocultural practices. We cannot fully understand ESL teaching and learning if we ignore the sociocultural aspects and concentrate only on linguistic, psychological, and cognitive aspects. Using Mead, Bakhtin, Freire, and MacIntyre's theories, I have constructed a theoretical framework for my research in critique of the previous sociocultural theories on ESL acquisition. This theoretical framework has three interrelated components: a non-essentialist theory of the self, a non-ethnocentrist theory of ethnic identity, and a theory of acculturation as pluralistic cultural coexistence and amalgamation. Of these three components, the most important is the constructing and ever changing of a person's ethnic identity, which in turn could have a strong impact on transforming the social world. My ethnographic study, which has been conducted in four ESL writing classes in a college on the West Coast, suggests that students' interaction in peer editing helps students enact their ethnic identity and acculturate into the multicultural American society. Telling and retelling their stories in peer editing, student writers and readers reach out to each other as narrative selves and narrative others. Together, they use the stories to give their life-world meaning. Peer editing not only could help students understand their past and present, but could also help them to choose the actions they want to take to transform themselves and their life-world.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:dissertations-8777 |
| Date | 01 January 1993 |
| Creators | Shi, Xiaowei |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst |
| Source Sets | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest |
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