Popular Presumptions and their Fallacies in Teaching ESL Writing: Reflections on my First-year Experience as an English Writing Teacher

This paper makes in-depth reflections on the writer's first year experience as an ESL writing teacher at a Chinese college. In this paper, the author reflects on four popular presumptions about ESL writing teaching he held at the outset of the course and the problems he encountered during the course, and critically points out fallacies and dangers rooted in the presumptions, arguing that without conscious understanding of them, inexperienced writing teachers could be trapped and end up in a failure of teaching. The author therefore highlights some new developments of ESL writing and their significance for the situation in China, and proposes an integrated approach for the green ESL teachers to create leaner-centered L2 writing classes in their own classroom practice.