"You Stopped Too Soon": Second Language Children Composing and Revising

Abstract

This article reports a 6-month observational study of 4 Southeast Asian children as they wrote and revised various pieces in English, their second language. Transcripts of peer response sessions, weekly compositions, and twice-weekly dialogue journals show a surprising amount of cognitive, social, and linguistic skill. Through the process of writing and revising with trusted peers, the children appear to have developed three areas of writing skill: (a) a sense of audience, (b) a sense of voice, and (c) a sense of power in language. The means by which development in these areas took place appear to be the same ones which native English-speaking children find effective, including regular and frequent writing, expectation of revision, peer response, and confidence in oneself as a writer.

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