More questions on Atkinson's article

2)Atkinson states that many researches showed that there is “[a] mismatch between L1-oriented process pedagogy and the life experiences of various kinds of students”. The examples he gave reported on “non-mainstream writers” in US contexts but also mainly on other contexts where such pedagogy has been “imported”. What does such a realization mean to you as a composition or second language teacher?



3)In the version of process pedagogy to writing that Atkinson used, he “played a substantial, interventionist role in students’ writing processes, offering comments and encouragement designed to mold students’ writing in definite ways” (Atkinson, 2003, p. 10). He also gave little choice of topics to his students, and “rarely encouraged self-discovery as the primary purpose of writing assignments; quite to the contrary, these assignments typically asked students to write ‘about something’-some social issues or concern beyond their purely personal, individual lives” (Atkinson, 2003, p. 10).
As L2 writing teachers, whether in an L1 context or L2 context, do you identify with Atkinson’s practice? In your opinion, what is the rationale behind such teaching practices?



4)Although Atkinson advocates for a post-process pedagogy, he acknowledges the usefulness of process writing with its stages of pre-writing, drafting, feedback, and revising. He thus argues not for a paradigm shift but for a paradigm expansion. To what extent do you agree with this view and why?



5)Writing has the lion’s share the realm of literacy and is thus a matter of power and culture. Power in terms of who has access to such literacy and culture in terms of whose norms are implemented, used and promoted. On page 6, Atkinson poses this question: “[w]hat do notions like ‘voice’, ‘critical thinking’, ‘originality’, ‘clarity’, and ‘plagiarism’ mean outside the cultural contexts in which they have been developed and are so deeply embedded?” . In your teaching practices, and especially those of us who teach in the Outer and Expanding Circles, how do you deal with such notions in practice and how do you operationalize them?