slpc2 writing development initiatif guelph 2013
TRANSCRIPT
A Writing Development Initiative Adapted to Today’s Classroom
Reality
Dr. Johanna Danciu & Dr. Rosa Hong
Second-Language Pedagogies : New Technologies and Learning Outcomes,
University of Guelph, 2013
The scopeO Present the Writing Development
Initiative (WDI) in French that aims to accommodate :
O new course structures (more than 100 students)
O heterogeneous language competency levels
O higher learning standards set by students and academic institutions
Key pointsO What is the WDI ? O Why the WDI ?O Goals & aims of the WDIO Innovative aspectsO Practical application : the
FRE280Y – Advanced Language Practice II (2012-2013)
O What to come
What is the WDI in French ?
O Integrates techniques to improve writing skills
O In an advanced French language grammar course
O Practical applications, despite high course enrollments
Why the WDI ?O Originated due to institutional
concerns regarding overall academic skills.
O Need for Innovative Strategies to address these concerns.O FRE280YO LIN204F/205S
O Second Language Learners face added difficulties.
Main goalsO Assist students in becoming
autonomous second language learners
O Improve their capacity to apply theoretical concepts to their own linguistic outputO grammatical theoriesO stylistic device choices
O Bridge the gap between students’ perception of competence and their actual linguistic ability
How do we achieve our main goals?
O Create opportunities for consistent practiceO solidifies French linguistic structures
O Provide more frequent individualized and immediate feed-back O enhances self-assessment and self-
correction skillsO Implement fundamental practical
knowledgeO discipline specific writing O collaboration skills
Innovative aspectsO WDI is completely integrated into the course
structure O Focuses on students’ learning process rather
than on the final written productO Relies mainly on task-specific writing
exercises O Deploys visualization tools to facilitate
individual error pattern recognition & correction
O Incorporates experiential learning components through collaborative evaluation process
Practical Application of the WDI in FRE280Y
(2012-2013)Monday: LECTURE (12-1)
Friday: TUTORIALS (9-11 / 11-1 / 1-3)
Who are our students?O 121 enrolled students (in Sept. 2012) O Different types of previous experience in
French language O French ImmersionO Extended FrenchO Core French
O Some 1st year students but many have completed at least one university French course
O Many are in the UTM Concurrent Teachers Education Program
How is the WDI integrated in the course?
O Marking schemeO 5 Written Assignments (5 best out of 6): 25%O 4 Term Tests: 35% (test1 – 5%, test 2, 3, & 4 – 10%) O Final Exam – cumulative: 30%O Participation & Progress: 10% (based on lecture and
tutorial attendance)
O Writing assignments coincide with material covered in the course: O informative text O expressive text O narrative textO style elements (connecting words, stylistic devices, etc.)
Actual structure of the WDI
WEEK Mon. Tue. Wed. Thu. Fri. Sat. Sun.
IIILEC:
Topics given
TUT:-1st draft due
-Writing worksho
p
IVLEC:Final draft due
Students write plan & first
draft
Students correct and rewrite their
draft
The 6 writing workshops
1 correction of a peer’s
text + summary
1 correction of a peer’s text
ANDcorrection of
the grammatical error table
2 corrections of a peer’s text
& plan(syntax & content)
2 corrections of a peer’s text
& plan(syntax & content)
ANDsummary
2 corrections of a peer’s text &
plan(syntax & content)
ANDerror
categorization based on
marking scheme
2 corrections of a peer’s text &
plan(syntax,
content & structure)
ANDerror
categorization
1
2
34
5 6
By the last taskStudents will have been provided with enough
writing practice in order to:
O recognize and correct syntactical errorsO identify grammatical category of errorsO evaluate stylistic device choicesO analyze text structure based on text types O synthetize and summarize O provide critical feedback
Examples of writing assignments
O FOR CUBA!
Examples of evaluation grid
3
1
1
2
69
Examples of evaluation grid
Example of the error categorization grid
How can correcting mistakes improve their FR
O project 2 rewrite + categorization of mistakes + added stylistic elements
O aims to start the defossilization process
O FOR CUBA !
Student feed-back
less anxiety
comfortable
confident“IT CLICKED”
What to come?O Possible solutions to current issuesO Evaluation of the WDI as a whole
O pre-test O post testO survey
O Future directions O more discipline-specificO lower-level language course
*Merci de vôtre attention !
Can YOU spot the error? What grammar category is it?
Selected ReferencesO Péry-Woodley, M.-P. (1993). Les écrits dans
l’apprentissage, Paris: Hachette.O Nunan, D. (1999). Second Language Teaching &
Learning, Boston: Heinle & Heinle Publishers.O Silva,T. and Matsuda, P. K. ed. (2001). On Second
Language Writing, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
O Harris, J. (2012). A Teaching Subject: Composition since 1966, Logan: Utah State University Press.
O Llach, M. P. L. (2011). Lexical Errors and Accuracy in Foreign Language Writing, Bristol: Multilingual Matters.