Introduction

Last summer, in June of 2012, I had the pleasure and honor of giving the opening plenary talk at a conference organized by the Association of Teachers of English in Iceland (ATEI, which is known as FEKÍ, in Icelandic). The theme of the conference was: Making Sense Through Writing: An International Conference for Everyone in Language Education, and it was held in Iceland’s capital city, Reykjavík. It was my first time in Iceland, a place of striking beauty, with a unique juxtaposition of fire and ice, volcanoes and glaciers. Iceland is also a relatively small country, with a population of only around 320,000, so it was a rare opportunity to meet most of the leading English language educators of an entire country in one place, at one time.

During my plenary talk, I touched on many different areas, all related to the theme of writing. However, for the purposes of this paper, I will focus on three areas of my talk. First, the 1,000-year history that the written word has in Iceland, which I proposed represents a strong historical foundation on which to build second language writing skills. Second, what I learned about the uses of English in Iceland, and third, connecting adolescent L2 reading and writing through the use of popular fiction.

The Written Word in Icelandic History

The organizers of the conference explained to me that they had chosen writing as the theme of the conference in part because they felt that in recent years so much emphasis had been placed on communicative competence in terms of speaking English, that competency in written English might now be lagging behind in Iceland. Therefore, the first set of points I made in my opening plenary were related to the fact that the written word has long held a special place in Iceland, as Icelandic literature has such a long history. It is best known for its medieval sagas, which date back to the 13th century, but reverence for the written word goes back even further, to the 10th century and The Eddas, which is a collection of Old Norse stories that tell, for example, of Viking voyages and how people migrated to Iceland.

Written poetry also has a long history in Iceland, during which poets were highly regarded members of society. An important point that related to the focus of my presentation was the use of narrative structures and devices in the poems to tell dramatic and emotional stories. Icelandic writing was brought to the attention of the wider world in 1955, when Halldór Kiljan Laxness (1902–1998) was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. More recently, in August 2011, Reykjavík was designated a UNESCO City of Literature. Because the written word has a long history in the first languages of Iceland, there is a strong historical foundation on which to build second and foreign language writing skills.

English in Iceland

The second set of points I made in my plenary related to what I had learned from reading the research on the uses of English in Iceland, to make it clear to the audience that my comments were based on an understanding, albeit a somewhat limited one, of the Icelandic ELT context. However, as Arnbjörnsdóttir, a professor of second language studies at the University of Iceland, recently pointed out: “Very little research is available on the amount and type of English the average adult in Iceland encounters in his or her daily life” (2011, p.1) and “very little research is actually available on the amount and type of English the average adult in Iceland encounters in his or her daily life” (p.2). Yet, in spite of the lack of research and the lack of data, Arnbjörnsdóttir explains that: “The assumption in Iceland, as in all the Nordic countries, is as stated in the Nordic Policy on Mulitlingualism from 2006 that ‘Nordic people, internationally speaking, speak very good English’” (p.2).

In relation to the theme of the conference, the key words there were not so much Nordic, international and English, which is where many of the readers of the Nordic Policy understandably focused, but speak and speaking. As noted above, that was one of the reasons why the organizers of the conference chose to focus on written English. In relation to the conference theme, I then presented my hypothesis that this emphasis on speaking appears to have followed the pattern of a move away from grammar-based approaches toward communicative approaches being accompanied by a move away from an emphasis on writing to an emphasis on speaking. This hypothesis is supported by the work of, for example, Quist, an expert in the teaching and learning of Dutch. In her work on what she referred to as “a clash of cultures” in university language teaching (2000, p.123), Quist identified “an emphasis on speaking and interpersonal skills at the cost of writing or accuracy” (p.131).

This decision to focus the conference on writing, as a productive language skill, was also the result of studies such as Arnbjörnsdóttir’s (2011), which concluded that: “The results … show a high and consistent presence of English in Iceland. However, as expected, the exposure is mostly receptive” (p.1). She goes on to state that: “These studies provide empirical evidence which supports previous notions presented by the author and others that English exposure is to a large extent passive which encourages English perceptive language skills over productive skills” (p.1).

Based on the work of Arnbjörnsdóttir and others, the emphasis in recent years in Iceland does appear to have been on speaking and listening, followed by reading, with writing coming perhaps fourth out of the four main language skills. This is not unique to Iceland, and I spoke during my talk about the global growth of screen-based visual literacies, which some feel is happening at the expense of traditional text-based literacies. This shift may be largely the result of technologies that are commonplace now, but that did not exist just one generation ago, especially Internet-based technologies and mobile technologies.

Adolescent L2 Writing

The conference organizers also asked me to talk about young adult learners of English, as this is the group composed of the most avid adopters and users of these new technologies. This focus on writing with young adult learners of English led me to the September 2011 special issue of the Journal of Second Language Writing (JSLW), on “Adolescent L2 Writing in US Contexts.” In that special issue, according to Harklau, “adolescent L2 writing research is an emerging field,” and she highlighted what she referred to as the “sparse research literature in this area” (p. 227). Although Harklau appears to have been referring to the situation in the United States, I proposed that this may also be the case for adolescent L2 writing research elsewhere as well.

Harklau’s position was reinforced by Kibler’s (2011) article in the same special issue of JSLW, in which she reports on “how teachers and adolescent L2 writers describe content area writing” (pp. 211–226). In the introduction to her article, Kibler states that

Adolescent writers in second language settings often spend the majority of their school days in content area courses, such as math, science, and social studies, where they must negotiate challenging literacy tasks in their second languages with little explicit writing instruction (p. 211).

My understanding, based on the research I had read, was that Kibler’s description might also apply to the situation in Iceland.

This may be partly the result of a focus on content-based instruction, which has given way in recent years to a focus on content and language integrated learning, but whatever the reason, this content focus appears to be growing in popularity in a number of countries today. Kibler (2011) went on to explain that “while genre scholars have built an extensive body of knowledge about texts and textual practices across disciplines, little is known about how linguistically diverse secondary students and their teachers understand school-based writing in different content areas” (p. 211). In countries like the United States, this linguistic and cultural diversity is likely to be considerably more pronounced than in countries like Iceland, but a limited understanding of second-language writing in different content areas probably still applies.

Connecting Adolescent L2 Reading and Writing

The JSLW special issue led me back to early work on the connection between reading and writing, starting with Atwell’s 1987 book, In the Middle: Writing, Reading and Learning with Adolescents, and the work on using reading journals as a way of connecting reading and writing. For example, Kirby (1986) identified three reasons for using reading journals with college students:

(1) writing is a way of discovering when students are free to explore new ideas safely, seek patterns, and connect experiences in a journal;

(2) writing is a form of learning when students connect their own experience with text content – hence, the journals are not a display of acquired learning but part of the process of exploring and rethinking ideas;

and (3) writing can be used to monitor thinking and learning when the readers understand that they are negotiating meaning as they write in response to reading. (p. 13)

Although Kirby’s work was not about working with L2 writers, many of her observations and suggestions do apply equally as well to L2 writers as they do to L1 writers. For example: “Encouraging students to be relaxed about putting their thoughts down in a journal, and writing comments that are more probing and supportive than evaluative and judgmental can make students less apprehensive about writing” (p. 13). To illustrate those points, I used extracts from The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins (2008), which is one of most recent popular books aimed at young adult learners; its popularity is shown by the fact that it has been printed in 26 languages in 36 countries.

To show what readers could write in their reading journals, I presented the opening lines from page one of the book:

When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim’s warmth but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattress. She must have had bad dreams and climbed in with our mother. Of course, she did. This is the day of the reaping. (Collins, 2008, p.1)

In relation to Kirby’s (1986) conclusion about students writing comments “that are more probing and supportive than evaluative and judgmental” (p. 13), I shared some of the questions I have asked some of the international students at a university in Canada to respond to in their reading journals. For example: Who is the narrator? Who is Prim? Where and when is the story taking place? And what is “the day of reaping”? Does it have anything to do with the biblical notion of The Day of Reckoning, or Judgment Day, in the Christian religion?

Using a Single Page

To illustrate the fact that the reading input does not have to be extensive for there to be sufficient writing output, I showed some more of the text from the first page that I have used with my intermediate-level students, for example:

I prop myself up on one elbow. There’s enough light in the bedroom to see them. My little sister, Prim, curled up on her side, cocooned in my mother’s body, their cheeks pressed together. In sleep, my mother looks younger, still worn but not so beaten-down. Prim’s face is as fresh as a raindrop, as lovely as the primrose for which she was named. My mother was very beautiful once, too. Or so they tell me. (Collins, 2008, p.1)

Multiple relationships have already been established in these first few lines, including that between the narrator and her younger sister (Prim) and between the two of them and their mother. Therefore, although reading journals are usually thought of in terms of written responses to having read complete books, I proposed that much less text, even as little as just the first page, can provide enough reading input to generate useful written output, which can be used to build up both confidence and competence in L2 writing.

Concluding Comments

In my concluding comments I returned to the 1,000-year history of language and literature in Iceland, especially the use of dramatic and emotional narratives in the ancient Skaldic poetry of Iceland, in connection with the use of such narratives in best-selling, modern day fiction for young adult readers, such as The Hunger Games. I also returned to the winning of the Nobel Prize for Literature by an Icelandic writer in 1955, and the recent designation of Reykjavík as a UNESCO City of Literature in 2011. Within this unique and rich literary history, I presented my conclusion that one of the keys to helping young adults develop their L2 writing skills in English in Iceland could be to tap into the reading of—and responding to—these kinds of engaging and entertaining fictional works.

I also concluded with a note of thanks to Professor Robert Berman and the rest of the ATEI 2012 Conference Organizing Committee for their invitation, and for the opportunity to spend some time working with TESOL professionals from all over Iceland, Norway, and elsewhere.

References

Arnbjörnsdóttir. B. (2011). Exposure of English in Iceland: A quantitative and qualitative study. Netla Journal of English in Iceland, 1–10. Retrieved from http://netla.hi.is/menntakvika2011/004.pdf

Atwell, N. (1987). In the middle: Writing, reading, and learning with adolescents. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Educational Books.

Collins, S. (2008). The hunger games. New York, NY: Scholastic Press

Harklau, L. (2011). Adolescent L2 writing in U.S. contexts: Commentary. Journal of Second Language Writing, 20, 227–230.

Kibler, A. (2011). “I write it in a way that people can read it”: How teachers and adolescent L2 writers describe content area writing. Journal of Second Language Writing, 20, 211–226.

Kirby, K. (1986). The reading journal: A bridge between reading and writing. Forum for Reading, 18(1), 13–19.

Quist, G. (2000). Language teaching at university: A clash of cultures. Language and Education, 14(2), 123–139.

Andy Curtis received his MA in applied linguistics and his PhD in international education, both from the University of York in England. He was the director of English language programs in Hong Kong and in Canada from 1998 to 2011. He served on TESOL’s Board of Directors from 2007 to 2010.