theory

1
Extensive Writing Online

• theory practice

Richard S. Lavin FESSPUK
2
Problems with first year tertiary English

• Few classes with one teacher insufficient
  contact with English
• Emphasis on reading, grammar, vocabulary in high
  school.

3
Solution

• Speaking in class
• Writing outside of class

4
What kind of writing?

• Things students are interested in
• Emphasis on fluency
• Quantity

5
Quantity

• reading comprehension is predicted far
  morepowerfully by variables associated with the
  amount of reading that students engage in and
  their opportunities to read

Cummins, J. (2000). Academic language learning,
transformative pedagogy, and information
technology towards a critical balance. TESOL
Quarterly, 34(3), 537-48.
6

• grammatical aspects of students writing seemto
  improve more from regular practice than they do
  as a result of having errors corrected

Truscott, J. (1996). The case against grammar
correction in L2 writing classes. Language
Learning, 46, 327-69.
7
Online is best!

• Archiving
• Countable
• Analyzable
• Access any time
• More sociable
• CMC encourages greater volume

8
CMC gt greater volume
perhaps the most remarkable and appealing
features of LANs are the high volume of writing
by students and their great degree of
participation
Braine, G., Yorozu, M. (1998). Local area
network (LAN) computers in ESL and EFL writing
classes. JALT Journal, 20(2), 47-59.
9
Classroom dynamic

• the instructor played less of a role in
  Web-based BB discussions than the students did
  whereas in face-to-face discussions
  contributions were distributed evenly between
  the instructor and the students
• Kamhi-Stein, L. D. (2000). Looking to the future
  of TESOL teacher education Web-based bulletin
  board discussions in a methods course. TESOL
  Quarterly, 34(3), 423-55.

10

• Shy students who usually do not participate in
  class discussion expressed opinions elaborately
  in online discussions, and greater participation
  was witnessed

Shibuya, A. (2002). Utilizing eGroup for Japanese
students. The Language Teacher, 26(3), 21-22.
11
Extensive Writing

• Similar to ER
• Quantity
• Enjoyment
• Different from ER
• Social

12
Media

• Chat
• Email
• Mailing lists (Email groups)
• BBS
• Weblogs
• WikiWiki

13
Dimensions

• Asynchronicity
• Many-to-many
• Pull

14
BBS criteria

• Cost
• Ease of setup
• Hosting
• Interface
• getting started
• daily (unsupervised) use

15

• Blackboard
• www.blackboard.com
• WebCT
• www.webct.com
• The Forum Company
• www.forumco.com
• StereoDreamScene
• www.stereodreamscene.co.uk
• Ezboard
• www.ezboard.com

16
Favourable Effects

• Writing quantity
• Enjoyment
• Class atmosphere
• Computer literacy

17
Ezboard features

• Appearance
• Counting contributions
• Custom titles

18
Variations

• Integrated vs. Non-integrated

19
Implementation

• QCCs
• Reply to student 1.5
• Message in integrated forum 2

20
Implementation

• Ezboard index
• l 2m t1 t2
• t1 title (converted to numeric value) after 1
  month

21
(No Transcript)
22
Security
23
Interface
24
(No Transcript)
25
(No Transcript)
26
(No Transcript)
27
(No Transcript)
28
Push/Pull
29
Convergence
30
(No Transcript)
31
(No Transcript)
32
Disadvantage

• Limited hierarchy (threading)
• Community gt Forum gt Topic
• Topics contain original message and replies, but
  no replies to replies.

33
Issues

• Balanced curriculum
• Improvement in quality?
• Reinforcement of errors

34
ER vs EW

• ER program more effective than frequent writing
  program at improving students' writing

Tsang, W.-K. (1996). Comparing the effects of
reading and writing on writing performance.
Applied Linguistics, 17(2), 208-33.
35
Waring
EW
ER
?
Nation
36
On output

• in producing an L2, learners will on occasion
  become aware of (i.e. notice) a linguistic
  problem. Noticing a problem can 'push' learners
  to modify their output. In doing so, learners may
  sometimes be forced into a more syntactic
  processing mode than might occur in
  comprehension. Thus, output sets 'noticing' in
  train, triggering mental processes that lead to
  modified output. What goes on between the
  original output and its reprocessed form, it is
  suggested, is part of the process of second
  language learning.

Problems in Output and the Cognitive Processes
They Generate A Step Towards Second Language
Learning MERRILL SWAIN and SHARON
LAPKIN Applied Linguistics, Volume 16, Issue 3
(1995)
37
erroneous output may be evidence that a
learner has made a hypothesis about the language
being learned and is testing it out
Corder, S. P. (1981). Error analysis and
interlanguage. Oxford Oxford University Press.
38

• In speech comprehension, the interactive and
  compensatory nature of the human comprehension
  system can both promote comprehension and hinder
  language development for second language
  learners... the processes of grammatical encoding
  during production and monitoring to check the
  matching of the communicative intention and the
  output enable language learners to assess the
  possibilities and limitations of their
  interlanguage capability. This may, under certain
  conditions, serve as an internal priming device
  for consciousness raising for the learners, which
  in turn creates an optimal condition for language
  learning to take place.

Comprehension and Production Processes in Second
Language Learning In Search of the
Psycholinguistic Rationale of the Output
Hypothesis Shinichi Izumi Applied Linguistics
Volume 24, Issue 2, 2003 pp. 168-196
39

• students writing English summaries of books they
  read in an ER program scored better on cloze
  tests than students receiving instruction on
  cloze tests and than students writing summaries
  in Japanese

Mason, B., Krashen, S. D. (1997). Extensive
reading in English as a foreign language. System,
25(1), 91-102.
EW is necessary to realise the full benefits of
the learning resulting from ER.
40

• Reading, then, if it is to represent engaged and
  meaning-making activity, must allow for the ways
  in which readers contribute to and make
  connections with the text. Writing provides a
  unique opportunity for discovering and exploring
  these contributions and connections, for it
  allows the reader to dialogue with a text and
  find a particular way into it.

Zamel, V. (1992). Writing one's way into reading.
TESOL Quarterly, 26(3), 463-85.
41

• with first language classrooms, writing plays a
  central role in the learning process, but not so
  much with second language learning (at least in
  modern communicative approaches). With second
  language learning, research tends to focus on how
  learners learn to write in the second language,
  rather than how they learn the second language
  through writing. Similarly, in first language
  classrooms, researchers learn about children's
  learning processes through their writing, whereas
  this window into learning processes tends to be
  closed to a large extent with second language
  learners.

Harklau, L. (2002). The role of writing in
classroom second language acquisition. Journal of
Second Language Writing, 11(4), 329-50.
42
Questions

• QQCs whats appropriate?
• What percentage of the curriculum should be
  devoted to fluency-focused writing?
• Journal writing online or on paper?
• How to handle accuracy-focused writing?