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Encouraging students and teachers to engage with writing in and outside of the classroom continues to present problems for teachers of English as a Second or Other Language (ESL/ESOL). Students perceive that writing is boring and difficult and teachers are concerned that marking is time consuming. Add to this a series of studies that indicate that despite the obsession many students have with grammar correction, there is no evidence that it is effective. This is due to a number of factors, including the reluctance on the part of students to rewrite their work, which calls into question the very usefulness of grammar correction. The result is often that ESL course books take an impoverished approach to writing – demonstrated by the fact that writing activities are sometimes relegated to the back of textbooks as an optional extra. Learner Autonomy Has a Positive Affect on Language Acquisition Studies by Bould (1988) and Shulman (1996) show that increased learner autonomy can have a positive effect on all aspects of language acquisition. This builds on the movement away from the traditional model of education grounded in knowledge transmission and towards a student-centred entity over the last 25 years. What results is a dynamic form of education, which presents profound challenges for – and potentially considerable resistance from - both teachers and students. Autonomy, encouraged by an approach steeped in a learner-centred approach could have a demonstrable, positive impact on both the accuracy and fluency of language learner writing. Writing is a skill that most language learners understand in theory that they need to improve, but for a variety of reasons, not least because of its time-consuming nature for both teachers and students, it is often glossed over in practice. Textbooks provide some instruction for teachers and students as to organization, appropriate language structures and typical features in writing, but there is little to help teachers grapple with how to give feedback beyond grammar correction and basic organization. Lack of Teacher Awareness is Part of the Problem Teachers are seldom educated as to the impact cultural difference has on writing, particularly formal writing, and receive scant advice how to introduce these different approaches to written organisation to their students. Students of English need to master not only the grammatical aspects of writing, but also require a clear understanding of English text types and structure. Teachers often assume that these cultural differences in formal style and structure are simply mistakes, in the order of grammatical errors. Generally speaking, teachers find these differences too difficult to tackle and will tend to focus solely on grammatical form, often at the expense of content, critical thinking and other rhetorical skills. Grammar correction, in particular, has been the focus of much research, especially with regards to its efficacy. Truscott (1996) indicates that grammar feedback deals only with the superficial aspects of a second language. Zamel (1995) believes that teachers frequently misread learner writing and confuse students with their generalised comments. Cohen (1987) notes that learners frequently make only mental note of corrections and neither re-write their work, nor are they able to incorporate it into subsequent writings. Semke (1984) was able to demonstrate that students receiving comments only on their content did better than those who were criticised on their grammar alone, yet it is seldom acceptable to either the students or teachers themselves for grammar mistakes not to be corrected. It is also true that the content of writing activities in ESL classes are generally arbitrary, which can hamper the motivation of students to grapple with the clarity or coherence of their argument. Often it is easier and of more immediate interest to focus solely on grammatical issues. Bould (1988: 17) suggests that autonomous learning "is an integral part of learning of any kind" and Shulman (1996: 213) believes that it is a process involving "that most difficult of learnings, that which derives from the inspection of one’s own experience." Learners of writing especially need to be able to engage deeply with their own learning and the feedback they receive from their teachers and other expert users. This kind of agency is perhaps best served by a student- rather than teacher-centred classroom organization, maximising the choices students have in terms of writing topics and the nature of feedback and correction.
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