Reclaiming meaning from the machine in second language writing
Betsy Gilliland
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, USA
Students have long complained about having to take mandatory writing classes, arguing that they do not see the purpose given their future goals or preferences. GenAI has compounded this argument, as students often perceive that large language models can do everything they need to do in writing, and do it without grammatical errors. In such circumstances, teachers may also feel that GenAI can correct any remaining grammatical errors more accurately—and more rapidly—than they can. We are in an era when students submit texts written by GenAI that their teachers then use GenAI to grade and that no human may ever read.
What’s missing in this perspective is WHY we write—the actual meaning of writing.
In this talk, I argue that we must bring meaning back into writing instruction. Student writers should know that real people will read their texts, for reasons well beyond giving a grade. Course curriculum focused on real-world genres, as opposed to assessment essays, can help students find meaning in learning to write. Such genres also have real-world audiences, which give students readers beyond the classroom who will appreciate hearing their authentic voices. The entire writing process should be social, from brainstorming discussions to collaborative outlining and drafting; from peer response and writing conferences to celebrations of publication. When teachers and students share in the process and reflect together, students feel like they have a voice, and teachers learn to recognize each student’s unique voice.
Bringing together my own work on adolescent literacy and response to second language writing with discussions of project-based learning and genre pedagogy, I propose opportunities for teachers to guide their students, their colleagues, and their politicians toward recognition of the truly human values inherent in real-world writing. With dedication and focus, we can reclaim the humanity in writing from the machine.
Betsy Gilliland is Professor and Chair of the Department of Second Language Studies at the University of Hawaʻi at Mānoa, USA. Her research examines multilingual adolescent literacy, response to writing, and language teachers as researchers. As a Fulbright Scholar in 2018, she spent a semester working with the Languages program at Universidad de Atacama (Chile) and has taught L2 writing in the US, Uzbekistan, and Thailand. She is co-editor of the open-access Journal of Response to Writing and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Second Language Writing; Journal of Language, Identity and Education; andTESL-EJ. She recently co-authored the book Beyond Plagiarism: Transforming Pedagogy to Help Students Write with Sources (University of Michigan Press) and co-edited EFL Writing Teacher Education and Professional Development: Voices from Under-Represented Contexts (Multilingual Matters).
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