Blogging Best Practice for Process

Writing

Charles JohnsonCheryl Bray

Dubai Men’s College, HCT

TESOL Arabia 2007

Blogging Best Practice for Process

WritingAbstract

Best practicesSupport in the literature and research

Creates self-awareness in studentsAppeals to UAE students

Practical insights empower process writing

Why weblogs?

• Is it just ‘Technology for it’s own sake’?

• If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

(~process writing, that is)

• Technology is nothing unless it brings something new at reasonable ‘cost’

Our message is based on:

• The idea of a ‘personal error suite’• Raising learner awareness of personal

error suite• The motivating effects of

» Affective factors» Publishing to an audience» Awareness of progress at last» Pride in cumulative portfolio» Pride in ownership

• Creating a climate that naturally leads learners to reflect and take action

So why isn’t it working?Doc has no value, may be lost & forgotten

‘Broken record’ Model:

SlaughteredAgain!

Why bother? It’s always the

same…

Finished!I can

forget it now.

Write,Discard,Forget, repeat!

Draft Feed back

Re-draftSubmit

Overall negative experience

Any one of these

negatives will break the cycle

Why it works better with blogging:

Pencil & paper,

double line spacing

Process has

traction

Awarenessgrows with each cycle

Draft Feed back

Reflect & Act

Publish

Overall positive experience

T-S conferenceT highlights error location

Define error suite, take some remedial action

Seeking small, regular improvements

Blogging Best Practice for Process Writing

• Not a quick-fix, a long-term strategy• Aligned w/principles of lifelong learning• Changing personal learning habits takes time • Improvement in small increments• Dawning of awareness takes time• Long-term growth in confidence and learner

independence

Blogging Best Practice for Process

WritingThe typical motivation pattern:

First: affective domain- shiny, new, cool

Then: a slump as it becomes ‘work’

Then: ‘Hey, I’m actually improving!’

Then: a slump when the level changes

We visualise an ascending, saw-tooth line

Blogging Best Practice for Process

Writing• Do you buy-in? Will your colleagues?

– It needs collaboration and cooperation on a departmental / institutional level before really useful data can be generated

• Can we prove it? • We offer no hard data• Plenty of anecdotal evidence

• Theoretical support in the literature

Process Writing is:

Complex,

Goal oriented

Recursive

Recycles vocabulary

Empowers students

Saville-Troike: Vocabulary critical for academic proficiency

Writing is the means to develop vocabulary

Blogging Best Practice for Process

WritingProcess Writing

Nancy Arapoff (1968, 1969)Mary Lawrence (1973, 1975)

and Vivian Zamel (1976, 1982) (Joy M.

Reid, 1993)

Encompasses process of discovery, reflective, relies heavily on revision, journals, personal writing, creativity, incorporates personal experience, integrates grammatical and lexical features,

vocabulary.

BloggingProcess Writing

Composing strategies:

Different if students learned the subject in their L1

than in their L2 (Friedlander, 1990)

Revising strategies:L2 writing proficiency is cognitively different from

language proficiency(A. Cumming, 1986)

Blogging

Process writing is reiterative

Teacher/Student ConferencesJoy Reid, 1993, Ferris 1997, Hyland 2003

Students discover what is useful, explore ideas, rhetorical conventions, technical and grammatical Leki 1989

Blogging

• Errors are systematic

(Kroll, 1991; Lennon, 1991; Scovel, 1988)

• Students can monitor and revise

(Gaskill, 1986; Mittan, 1989; Wong, 1984)

Mistakes will be made, others will be blamed. Dilbert

Blogging

Writing to communicateHinds, Eisterhold, Conner, and Farmer in

Celce-Murcia and Olshtain, 2000

How do we teach ESL students to imagine an audience beyond themselves, to see a context for writing, a writer’s intention, authentic tasks? Haas and Flower, 1988

BloggingSkilled writer needs an audience to

improveHedge, Tribble 1996

Celce-Murcia and Olshtain, 20000

Purpose of writing

Who will read the writing

Student, other students, teacher, others…..

Blogging

Over 35 million blogs

31% inEnglish.

http://www.nevillehbson.com/wp-content/uploads/blogosphere-languages-mar06.gif

Is anyone out there ?

BloggingCognitive activity, engages higher order skills, problem solving Mendelsohn, Stevick 2004

Metacognitive strategies: students plan, control and evaluate their learning

Anderson, 2002

Metalanguage: language about language

Brown, James D and Thom Hudson, 1998

Blogging

Weblogs (Blogs)

Visual

Part of contemporary culture

Multisensory

Interactive

Provide external audience

Reduces affective filters

BloggingUsing technology the teacher becomes a guide and mentor, encouraging students to take

charge of their learning. Hanson-Smith, 2002

Process writing can be laborious, students need to improve confidence

Need to motivate low level students Ferris, D. and John S. Hedgcock, 1998

Blogging

Students have anopportunity to show what

they know and teach each other

Language and the way we communicate is

changing

Blogging

The teacher needsto encourage creativity.

Students need to respecteach other’s work, learn how to give and respond to feedback. Celce-Murcia and Olshtain, 2000.

Blogging

Technology

MultisensoryAppeal to different

learnersMusic expands

Links can extend beyond the blog to reflect the

student’s interests

Technology

MultisensoryAppeal to different

learnersMusic expands

Links can extend beyond the blog to reflect the

student’s interests

BloggingVisual medium

Enhance materials

Visuals scaffold writing

http://www.geocities.com/perry_peterson_1999/word-ver1.jpg

Support in the literature and research

Creates self-awareness in students

Appeals to UAE students, motivating

Practical insights empower process writing

Blogging Best Practice for Process Writing

BloggingBibliography

Anderson, Neil J. (2002). The role of metacognition in second language teaching and learning. CAL Digest. Retrieved April 10, 2004 from

http:www.cal.org/resources/digets/0110anderson.html

Bryson, Bill. (2001). The mother tongue: English and how it got that way. New York: Harper Collins Publisher, Inc.

Brown, James D. and Thom Hudson. (1998) The alternatives in language assessment. TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 4, p.

653 – 675.

Celce-Murcia, Marianne and Olshtain, Elite. (2000). Discourse and context in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Blogging

Bibliography

Chamot, Anna Uhl, and O’Malley, J. Michael. (1987) The cognitive academic language learning approach: a bridge to the mainstream. TESOL Quarterly, 21, 227-249.

Ferris, Dana and John S. Hedgcock. (1998). Teaching ESL composition: purpose, process, and practice. Mahwah, HJ: Erlbaum.

Gardner, Howard. (1983). Frames of mind, the theory of mulitple intelligences. New York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers.

Blogging

Hanson-Smith, Elizabeth. (2001). Computer-assisted language learning. Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Ronald Carter and David Nunan(Eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hyland, Ken. (2003). Second language writing. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Nunan, David. (2001). Second language acquisition. Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Ronald Carter and David Nunan(Eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Reid, Joy M. (1993). Teaching ESL writing. Prentice Hall Regents.

Bibliography

Blogging

Saville-Troike, Muriel. (1984). What really matters in second language learning for academic Achievement? TESOL Quarterly, 18(2):199-219.

Stevick, E.W. (1998). Working with teaching methods: what’s at stake. Boston: Heinle and Heinle Publishers.

Stevick, E.W. (1996). Memory, meaning & method. (2nd ed.) Boston: Heinle and Heinle Publishers.

Technorati. (2006). http://www.nevillehbson.com/wp-content/uploads/blogosphere-languages-mar06.gif

Bibliography