“Watch me writing!”A real-time digital L2 writing

processFilipe W. de Souza

Product Manager | EF eLabEF Digital Learning for Schools

www.filipedesouza.com

I hope you will…

1. Understand the context and experience that digital native L2 students in China bring to the language classroom.

2. Appreciate the complexity involved in L2 digital writing.

Our students today are digital natives,

multi-taskers, and efficient problem

solvers.

We need to understand their world when we

teach writing and especially when we

assess writing.

Communication tools of digital natives

We often ask students to ‘prove’ themselves (their

learned knowledge) in ways that can be completely

strange to them.

However…

How many times have you, as a teacher, assessed a student’s writing based

on a snapshot of the writing process?

A snapshot of writing• What is the development

story this essay has to tell?

• What problems did the writer have to solve in the process?

• What issues did the writer raise in the process?

• What contradictions and conflicts did the writer experience when writing?

Writing is a process; learning how to write

means learning a process.

If we teach writing as a process, why do we

assess it as a product?

Writing…

is informed,is connected,is a process,is a problem-solving activity,is reflective,is highly recursive (not linear),…

Why research the writing process?

“Studying what it is our students do in their writing, we can learn from them what they still need to be taught.” V. Zamel (1983)

“Writing process research can inform us … about the difficulties students may encounter while composing; thus [allowing teachers to] adapt our teaching methods to meet student’s writing needs.” M. A. Latif (2008)

Then, how does digital writing happen?

How do students inform their writing?How do they use connected resources?

What does the process look like?What type of problems do students face?

How are problems solved?What issues prompt reflection?

How do students revise?

If we want to teach writing to digital natives,

then wouldn’t it be helpful to observe a digital writing

process in real-time?

Preliminary study

–L2 (+ language learning)–Writing (+ reading)–Digital–Connected–Real-time–Academic (+ argumentative)–Qualitative

Preliminary study

–Participant

• University student (in South China)• High-intermediate English skills course.• Sophomore (2nd year)• Learning English for 10 years (since 3rd grade)• Speaks: Chaoshan dialect, Cantonese, Mandarin, and English

• Exposed to reading news articles, stories, blogs, micro-blogs (Weibo), emails daily and 3-4 academic articles a year in English.

Preliminary study

– Preliminary interviewWhat do you enjoy about writing in English?

– “I enjoy writing in English itself because it brings me sense of satisfaction, if I write well.”

• What problems do you have when writing in English?

– “Lacking of contents maybe. I think I don’t have creative or valuable ideas in my writing, which is also the problem that exists in my writing in Chinese. Vocabulary is another problem, I usually, I think, most of us (Chinese students) usually can’t finish an essay assigned by teacher without looking up the dictionary.”

Preliminary study

–Writing task• According to one writer, “Ambition is socially

useful. It sustains economic vitality. It prods people to take risks and exert themselves. The Internet is the offspring of workaholics spending long hours to invent a new world and make a fortune … Ambition and its creative powers permeate the arts, the professions, academia, science.” Using logical reasons, and specific examples, explain whether you agree or disagree with the author’s claim about the usefulness of ambition.

Preliminary study

–Traditional writing research employed highly intrusive research methods:

•Direct observation

• Think aloud protocols

• Sanitized environment

Preliminary study

–Current study

• Qualitative – as natural as possible (in dorm room; participants own device)

• Screen recording software (web cam + audio)

• Inputlog – key-stroke logging software

• Minimally-intrusive methods

Real-time L2 digital writing research

“Studying what it is our students do in their writing, we can learn from them what they still need to be taught.” V. Zamel (1983)

“Writing process research can inform us … about the difficulties students may encounter while composing; thus [allowing teachers to] adapt our teaching methods to meet student’s writing needs.” M. A. Latif (2008)

Digital writing

How does the nature of L2 digital writing impact the writing process, the learning process, and the final product?

• The “connected-ness”• The unlimited access to information• The range of digital tools available

“Watch me writing!”A real-time digital L2 writing

processFilipe W. de Souza

Product Manager | EF eLabEF Digital Learning for Schools

www.filipedesouza.com