Author: Alanna Frost

I was in a composition pedagogy class recently when our professor asked whether the composition classroom could be conducted effectively in a virtual environment. My colleagues were all stating that moving composition to an online space sacrifices some portion of the writing classroom experience that only face-to-face interaction provides. While I do prefer working face-to-face, I have come to realize that online spaces offer many ways to mimic much of the interaction in a classroom, and that students’ performances improve when they experience less of the top-down relationship pressure of most classrooms. For a composition teacher, realizing that students may…

After I graduated with a BA in English in 2005, I decided to take one year “off” to be an English teacher in China. That one year off stretched into four years, and over that time I developed a fascination with the hybrid forms of Chinese and English expressions, frequently referred to as Chinglish. When I lived in China, I would demonstrate the potential confusion in translation with my students. For example, when my students almost dropped something or slipped I would tell them “Small heart!” as a literal translation of 小心! (xiao xin! Be Careful!). Invariably, it took them…