REFLECTING ON " THE LEGACY OF FIRST YEAR COMPOSITION"

Reflecting on “The legacy of first year composition” by Ilona Leki in Matsuda et al. (2006), Chap. 3.

While reading the chapter, I was moved by Yang’s sad experience where writing classes did not help her address her personal academic problems. In fact, writing plays a great role in academic success but still it should not be the sole language skill to be taught while preparing international/domestic students for academic success.

In my understanding, academic institutions and entities should design and plan courses according to the learners’ needs and professional growth. Indeed, how to prepare a teacher, a lawyer, a political science major without any specific course dedicated to public speaking? How to be a good journalist with no preparatory courses in listening?

Moreover, when students are taking classes that do not meet their needs and interests with regard to their future career, they may be less interested and less motivated. This fact would consequently affect language learners’ participation and the environment conducive to class interaction, which is the core element in language learning/teaching. In this regard, Von Humboldt (as cited in Kumaravadivelu, 2003, p.44), emphatically demonstrated the foremost importance of promoting good environment, including interaction, in language learning. “We cannot really teach language; we can only create conditions under which it will develop in the mind in its own way”.