The WRITE Way To Engaged Written Communication

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The WRITE Way To Engaged Written Communication

• Dr. Marie M. Schein
• Texas Christian University
• m.schein_at_tcu.edu

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Teaching Writing Today

• Writing is a Process
• Reading and writing skills are connected
• Technology has redefined TEXT
• Computer-Mediated Communication
• tools are reshaping the idea of reading
  and writing texts

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Goals of Writing Instruction in English as L1

• To express ideas
• To write clear and coherent sentences,
  paragraphs, essays, and other texts
• To write effectively for multiple audiences
• To contribute to a greater community of writers

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L1 Writing And Second Language Writing

• Process
• Writing to express
• Writing to read
• Reading to write
• Audience
• Purpose
• Occasion

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So whats the difference?

• Writing in the L2 is not as natural as writing in
  the L1
• It can be intimidating for many students
• It requires attention at all levels vocabulary,
  sentence structure, spelling, grammar
• It takes more practice to create meaningful chunks

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Collaboration and SLA

• Interaction not only facilitates language
  learning but it is a causative force in
  acquisition (Saville-Troike 2006)
• From a social constructivist perspective,
  learners should be encouraged to participate in
  activities which foster interaction and
  co-construction (Storch 2005)
• Through CMC, learners provide each other
  with knowledge about language and that the
  opportunity to exteriorize their thoughts allows
  students to reinforce and reconstruct their
  knowledge of the target language. Keiko Kitade
  (2007)

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Computer-Mediated Communication

• E-mail
• Threaded Discussion
• Chat
• Blog
• MOOs(Multi-Users Domains, Object Oriented)
• Website/Hypermedia
• Wikis/Hypermedia
• Twitter

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What Can CMC Do for Our L2 Writers?

• CONNECT L2 writers
• BREAK DOWN affective filters
• ENCOURAGE RISK-FREE L2 output without the
  fear of grades
• INCREASE L2 output
• INCORPORATE L2 writing in the daily practice
  routine

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Research Questions

• Do synchronous and asynchronous, risk-free
  collaborative communication sessions help to
  break down affective filters in L2 learners and
  increase comprehensible output?
• Can CMC prepare learners for more reflective
  tasks such as computer-mediated peer reviews?

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Experiment/Purpose

• Use of multiple synchronous and asynchronous
  computer-mediated tools such as Discussion
  Threads, Blogs, and Chats
• Observation of the level and volume of output in
  each session

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Findings

• Learners like the asynchronous format of the
  Discussion Thread and seem to take more
  calculated risks as they attempt more complex
  sentence structures and ideas
• Learners are less comfortable with a chat
  initially but quickly forget to worry about
  writing in real time. They just do it.
• Regular online interactions through CMC pave the
  way to productive, substantial, and candid peer
  reviews

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Computer-Mediated Peer Review Using MS Word
Reviewing Tools

• Observations of online collaboration among
  Intermediate learners of French over a period of
  18 months
• When students have frequent and diverse
  opportunities to use the L2 in CMC tools,
  transitioning to peer review is easier
• L2 learners respond to their peers writing
  samples through pointed questions or helpful
  suggestions
• Students enter their feedback using the Comment
  Box in the Reviewing Tools

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Resources

• Saville-Troike, Muriel. (2006) Introduction to
  Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge, UK.
  Cambridge University P.
• Storch, Neomy. (2005) Collaborative Writing
  Product, Process, and Students Reflections.
  Journal of Second Language Writing 14 153-173.
• Kitade, Keiko. (2007) The role of Offline
  Metalanguage Talk in Asynchronous
  Computer-Mediated Communication. Language
  Learning and Technology February 2008, 12(1),
  64-84