DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Writing to Learn Techniques in Foreign Language Education

 

(Adapted from Jean Andra-Miller’s “Integrating ‘Writing to Learn’ and Foreign Language Proficiency Concepts.” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Pacific Northwest Council on Foreign Language. ERIC ED 386.922, 1991)

 

This technique is based on Toby Fulwiler’s model. It consists in empowering the learner to acquire knowledge through active participation in writing, reading, speaking and listening processes. It recommends a "real world" approach appealing to the learner's own perceptions and experiences.

Fulwiler's basic technique could be reduced to a formula. First the teacher opens class with a short (five to ten minute) free-writing session involving quiet, private, individual writing. At the beginning of a course, such writing can deal with students' attitudes toward course material or address their fears. This initial writing also helps the instructor identify each student's level of writing proficiency. Subsequently, such writing can explore a concept, structure out the basic plot of literary works, provide definitions, etc. Next, students spend ten to fifteen minutes sharing their writing in peer groups of three to four persons. One person acts as a recorder who collects the group's responses in order to report them to the entire class. During a third phase, group reports are listed on an overhead or on the chalkboard. Students jot down concepts their own groups did not dis-cuss. To conclude the process there is a general discussion of collected input, followed by a five minute in-class free-write during which students explore their feelings about the process, or comment on new insights they have gained. If a journal approach is used, students include this in-class writing in it along with additional free response entries they may write outside of class.

More on this approach here.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

The Dialogue Writing Assignment 

This assignment idea is from Anna Soo-Hoo, WAC Fellow, City Tech (2017-2018)

 

Three-quarters into the semester of a 101-level French course, pair up your students to write a dialogue such as the following: the two speakers discuss how they view certain characters in a French painting from a nearby museum. You, the professor, will have chosen a dozen paintings that are meaty enough to work with, and on the back of each image that you randomly hand out to students it would be good to have background information that the museum provides for that painting. Even if the students end up not having time to visit the museums, the fact that they know that these objects are close by helps to reduce the gap that they may feel between themselves and a culture that is new to them. Back to how this writing assignment can work: each speaker must ask his/her classmate a few questions (to practice the different ways of forming questions), use the negating construction ne…pas to disagree at least twice, and provide a new way of seeing XYZ each time that there is a disagreement. For example: “Non, cet homme n’est pas fatigué !  Il  ______________ !” Creating follow-up questions using the interrogative adverb pourquoi (why) would deepen the dialogue. The students’ explanations for what they see will often be creative, but you can tell your students that if their statements are too silly, then that would most likely invite follow-up questions that they may not be able to answer in French, given that only a few chapters of the textbook have been covered so far. The 101-level students will of course not have enough vocabulary to provide in-depth arguments for their viewpoints, but this kind of dialogue in which each speaker defends his/her way of seeing something differently can move students past William Perry’s “middle stages of multiplicity” (Bean 22) and closer to that point when “a real need for reasoned argument begins to emerge” (Bean 22). Thus, students in introductory level foreign language courses are not merely learning to write. They are not limited to filling themselves with data. Writing a dialogue in which a piece of artwork is interpreted from different angles can be seen as a way of writing to learn. Assigning a dialogue that will be collected at the end of class can also make peace between the idea that learning French should be a more conversational type of activity and the idea that students need to be more conscientious about their writing. That each dialogue is being looked over by two students before they hand it in can help to reduce the number of grammatical errors.

 

When students see themselves able to write comprehensible albeit short paragraphs and dialogues in a language that they have recently learned, this can serve as a kind of support for them when they become frustrated with writing long papers (in their native or near-native language) for their other courses. If students catch themselves writing convoluted paragraphs for their other courses and can’t seem to find a way out for the time being, then thinking back on the short paragraphs and dialogues that they wrote for their introductory foreign language courses can be a reminder of how they have the ability to write clearly. That memory can be what gives them the push to take another stab at revising their convoluted papers for other courses. Happily remembering those short paragraphs and dialogues can take the edge off the stress momentarily, which is not a small thing.

 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

The Penpal Letter:

This assignment is indicated for introductory level students, after a course on places and living environment.  

 

A group of French students will be visiting your town for a week. You have been paired with a Julien and have been corresponding by mail. As the date approaches, you received the email below:

 

Salut,

Nous arrivons bientôt aux Etats-Unis. Comment est ta ville? Est ce que c’est une grande ville ou une petite ville? J’habite une petite ville dans le centre de la France. Où est ce que tu vas en ville pendant (during) la semaine? Qu’est ce que nous allons faire pendant ma visite?

A bientôt,

Julien

 

Respond to the email, answering your penpal’s questions. In your response try to answer the following questions: how big is your town? What facilities do you find or do not find in your town? Where do you usually go? Where will you go with your visitor? Write 10-12 sentences.

 

Tips:

Before writing:

Review the vocabulary for talking about and describing places. 

While writing:

Refer to the specific questions in the instruction

After writing:

Make sure that the subjects and verbs agree and that any adjective you have used agree in gender and number with the noun.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.