Pedagogical Implications of Teaching Academic Writing in the 21st Century
In this 21st century filled with technological advancements, there has been a general consensus amongst researchers and educators that reading and writing are changing. Various studies have been conducted describing how literacy has changed from the private world of the print reader to a more social world of email, smartphone text messaging, online gaming and blogging (Ware & Warschauer, 2005). Arguments from scholars proposed that the visual is returning to the pages (Kress, 2003) and that the new social medium platforms for writing are demanding writers skills that allow them to manipulate existing genres and compose new ones. Apart from that, the advancement in technology has also enabled teachers to bring in Information Communication Technology (ICT) into the classroom, making the learning of vocabulary and grammatical structures in language more interactive and meaningful.
Incorporating ICT to aid the teaching of writing from a genre-based process approach
In response to this ever changing literacy world that we live in, it is important for teachers to adapt and change their approach in teaching writing to prepare students for the working world. A genre-based process approach would be more relevant and suitable to teach writing to 21st century students as compared to the traditional product approach which focuses mainly on the regurgitation of structural text types. ICT can be used as a social medium platform for writing so that students get to think about the purpose, audience and context of the text they are constructing. An example could be seen in the use of blogging. As stated by (Allison, 2009), blogging provides the value for students in writing for a larger and authentic audience. Students will have to consider their target audience and how this would have an impact on the type of language that they use. Instead of just looking at the linguistic text, teachers can get students to think about how audio files and visual media can also play a part in emphasising the message that they need to convey. The benefits of using ICT in teaching writing is that it reflects real-world writing, where non-linguistic elements accompanies the textual language in a text.
Hyland in Second language writing (2004) has also pointed out that technological developments have enormously influenced the writing process. ICT can be incorporated into the writing process to aid school teachers in managing time for the more time-consuming stages of the writing process, such as the editing and revising stages. ICT also allows for collaborative writing to take place, where students learn how to pitch their ideas, amend and build on the ideas of their writing peers. According to Bledsoe (2009), when students participate in online collaborative writing projects, they not only develop technology skills but also improve their organisational skills and interpersonal communication.
The use of ICT in providing formative feedback in students’ writing
Traditionally, a teacher has to provide individual feedback regarding students’ writing either through face-to- face conferencing or write a lengthy commentary at the end students’ essay. This is not only a hassle and time-consuming for the teacher but also does not provide much room for students’ to negotiate the meanings they are trying to make. Improvement made by the students’ end would hence be more focused on the structure and grammatical structure of the text rather than on the effectiveness of the meaning conveyed. The use of ICT in writing projects, such as the use of a blog, would help a teacher clearly explain and point out this social aspect of writing that needs to be improved as writing is conducted in an authentic context with real audiences. The comments section made available in a blog is also useful for teacher to provide quick and lengthy feedback regarding students’ writing. Peer feedback can also be conducted, as the blog posts are easily accessible online and comments which are harmful and embarrassing for students can be easily deleted by the administrator. Once revisions and edits have been made, the final draft can be uploaded right after the previous draft and students can clearly see the difference in the two texts that they have constructed and become more aware of what it takes to create a good piece of writing.
The use of ICT in teaching vocabulary in a genre-based process approach
Different genres would require different types of vocabulary used depending on the topic, purpose and audience. For example, the features of writing using the genre of arguing will be significantly different to those of describing or narrating. An argumentative text, for example, will require the use of nominalisations and some affective language to create an emotive effect on the reader in order to persuade them, whereas a descriptive text will use more descriptive verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Hence in the teaching of vocabulary, it is essential to teach students based on a list of words that relates to a specific context or within a lexical field. Additionally, noting that academic language is often specialized due to the need to convey abstract, technical, antithetic ideas and phenomena that are not generally examined in contexts that are characterized by social or casual discourse, the teacher would have to conscientiously draw focus to the needs of writing, be it argumentative or descriptive writing, to better prepare the student for tackling the needs of different genres.
It is thus on the onus of the teacher to winnow the chaff, to assist the student's acquisition of academic vocabulary through numerous exposures to academic lexis, well contextualized examples to opportune the students' usage in writing about relevant disciplines (Lessard-Clouston, 2012). Thus, if certain disciplines do have more exclusive terminology than others, it may be wise to expose EFL learners not just to the AWL, but other word lists contingent to the students' disciplines of focus. Hence, the educator should supplement the AWL with discipline-specific word lists, like the Engineering Word List, Geological Word List, and the Fine Arts Word List, from www.myvocabulary.com, to name a few. It is also noteworthy to consider the use of vocabulary quizzes from www.quizlet.comhttp://quizlet.com/12031181/awl-1b-flash-cards/ (), or exercises found on http://www.englishvocabularyexercises.com, where different vocabulary tests can be done, according to the wordlists required of the discipline. General collocational knowledge can also be honed through knowledge and use of websites like http://www.ugru.uaeu.ac.ae/concordance/index.html, where students can understand the various contexts of use. Lastly, to promote autonomy in the student’s learning of academic vocabulary, links like the AWL highlighter http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~alzsh3/acvocab/awlhighlighter.html or Tom Cobb’s Compleat Lexical Tutor (CLT), http://www.lextutor.ca, where various tools are available for analysing AWL and GSL words from any texts provided.
The use of ICT in teaching coherence and cohesion in a genre-based process approach
Students in Singapore are unique in the sense that they hail from many differing backgrounds. Teachers have to be mindful of the culturally diverse and varied abilities present in their classrooms. As a result, the teaching of coherence needs to run parallel to the needs of each unique individual, allowing them to fully understand and apply the five features of coherence appropriately. Coherence appears to be an abstract and fuzzy concept that is difficult to teach and learn. Hence, teachers themselves may face difficulty in elaborating upon a topic that is essentially vast and difficult to comprehend. Hence, due to these challenges, it is of utmost importance that teachers segment their lessons to focus on each of the key features as mentioned by Lee (2002), during each lesson, having a minimum of five lessons to cater to the five features involved. Effort can be made to plan their lessons in such a way that each feature is explained and elaborated sufficiently based on the specific genre of the text that they are creating.
In different types of genres, different types of cohesive devices are employed. The genre of narrating, for example, will require the use of more temporal and causal connectives to show a logical sequence of events in a story plot. This is unlike the connectives used in an expository writing where comparative connectives, such as 'however' and 'on the other hand', which are used to introduce counterpoints and how connectives, such as 'therefore' and 'consequently', which are used to exemplify and show results. This can be done through the use of ICT at either the outlining stage or the revising stage of the writing process. At the outlining stage, for example, online essay outlining tools, such as http://essayoutliner.jonathanwthomas.net/, can be used to get students to identify and explore the relationships between the ideas in their essay and assign a suitable connective to link up their ideas. Online outlining tools hence helps to regulate the organisation of students’ points into a systematic structural flow. Online mind-mapping tools, such as http://freeplane.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page, can also be used at the brainstorming stage of the writing process to help students to develop coherence of the story by jotting down main ideas and lexical terms that are closely related to their topic of writing.
Where research on academic settings has been concerned, students (both L1 and L2) have often been found to be unclear of task requirements, especially in the more advanced academic settings like tertiary institutions etc. Genre-based teaching can therefore count another merit to its approach because this equips students with skills and knowledge to identify the nature of a writing task and fulfil it accordingly.
Considering the different attitudes to knowledge and approaches to learning in the classroom
Last but not least, the attitudes to knowledge and learning approaches should be considered by the teacher when planning writing lessons. The typical scene in a Singapore classroom is that of a teacher-centered approach where students are spoon-fed and expected to regurgitate text types which they have memorised. Instead of just teaching students to ‘conserve’ knowledge, what teachers can do in the secondary classroom is to start teaching them to ‘critique’ and ‘extend’ knowledge. This is supported by implementing the genre-based process approach in writing classrooms, where students get to think about how the language they use can impact the effectiveness of text message being conveyed. Teachers can also focus more on teaching students how to include in opinions and evaluations in their essays instead of just merely listing down content. Besides that, what teachers can do is to also conduct more collaborative writing activities that allow students to engage in discussions about what makes a good text and get them to review their peers’ essays. All of these can be implemented with the aid of ICT tools such as in the use of Blogger when giving student feedback.
References
Allison, H. (2009). High school academic literacy instruction and the transition to college writing. Generation, 1, 75-90.
Bledsoe, G. (2009). Collaborative Digital Writing: The Art of Writing Together Using Technology. In Teaching the New Writing: Technology, Change, and Assessment in the 21st-Century Classroom, edited by A. Herrington, K. Hodgson, & C. Moran, 39-54. New York: Teachers College Press. Kress, G. (2003). Literacy in the new media age. Psychology Press.
Hyland, K. (2004). Disciplinary discourses: Social interactions in academic writing. University of Michigan Press.
Lessard-Clouston, M. (2012). Technical vocabulary use in English-medium disciplinary writing: A native/non-native case study. The Linguistics Journal, 6, 127-150.
Ware, P. D., & Warschauer, M. (2005). Hybrid literacy texts and practices in technology-intensive environments. International Journal of Educational Research, 43(7), 432-445.
Incorporating ICT to aid the teaching of writing from a genre-based process approach
In response to this ever changing literacy world that we live in, it is important for teachers to adapt and change their approach in teaching writing to prepare students for the working world. A genre-based process approach would be more relevant and suitable to teach writing to 21st century students as compared to the traditional product approach which focuses mainly on the regurgitation of structural text types. ICT can be used as a social medium platform for writing so that students get to think about the purpose, audience and context of the text they are constructing. An example could be seen in the use of blogging. As stated by (Allison, 2009), blogging provides the value for students in writing for a larger and authentic audience. Students will have to consider their target audience and how this would have an impact on the type of language that they use. Instead of just looking at the linguistic text, teachers can get students to think about how audio files and visual media can also play a part in emphasising the message that they need to convey. The benefits of using ICT in teaching writing is that it reflects real-world writing, where non-linguistic elements accompanies the textual language in a text.
Hyland in Second language writing (2004) has also pointed out that technological developments have enormously influenced the writing process. ICT can be incorporated into the writing process to aid school teachers in managing time for the more time-consuming stages of the writing process, such as the editing and revising stages. ICT also allows for collaborative writing to take place, where students learn how to pitch their ideas, amend and build on the ideas of their writing peers. According to Bledsoe (2009), when students participate in online collaborative writing projects, they not only develop technology skills but also improve their organisational skills and interpersonal communication.
The use of ICT in providing formative feedback in students’ writing
Traditionally, a teacher has to provide individual feedback regarding students’ writing either through face-to- face conferencing or write a lengthy commentary at the end students’ essay. This is not only a hassle and time-consuming for the teacher but also does not provide much room for students’ to negotiate the meanings they are trying to make. Improvement made by the students’ end would hence be more focused on the structure and grammatical structure of the text rather than on the effectiveness of the meaning conveyed. The use of ICT in writing projects, such as the use of a blog, would help a teacher clearly explain and point out this social aspect of writing that needs to be improved as writing is conducted in an authentic context with real audiences. The comments section made available in a blog is also useful for teacher to provide quick and lengthy feedback regarding students’ writing. Peer feedback can also be conducted, as the blog posts are easily accessible online and comments which are harmful and embarrassing for students can be easily deleted by the administrator. Once revisions and edits have been made, the final draft can be uploaded right after the previous draft and students can clearly see the difference in the two texts that they have constructed and become more aware of what it takes to create a good piece of writing.
The use of ICT in teaching vocabulary in a genre-based process approach
Different genres would require different types of vocabulary used depending on the topic, purpose and audience. For example, the features of writing using the genre of arguing will be significantly different to those of describing or narrating. An argumentative text, for example, will require the use of nominalisations and some affective language to create an emotive effect on the reader in order to persuade them, whereas a descriptive text will use more descriptive verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Hence in the teaching of vocabulary, it is essential to teach students based on a list of words that relates to a specific context or within a lexical field. Additionally, noting that academic language is often specialized due to the need to convey abstract, technical, antithetic ideas and phenomena that are not generally examined in contexts that are characterized by social or casual discourse, the teacher would have to conscientiously draw focus to the needs of writing, be it argumentative or descriptive writing, to better prepare the student for tackling the needs of different genres.
It is thus on the onus of the teacher to winnow the chaff, to assist the student's acquisition of academic vocabulary through numerous exposures to academic lexis, well contextualized examples to opportune the students' usage in writing about relevant disciplines (Lessard-Clouston, 2012). Thus, if certain disciplines do have more exclusive terminology than others, it may be wise to expose EFL learners not just to the AWL, but other word lists contingent to the students' disciplines of focus. Hence, the educator should supplement the AWL with discipline-specific word lists, like the Engineering Word List, Geological Word List, and the Fine Arts Word List, from www.myvocabulary.com, to name a few. It is also noteworthy to consider the use of vocabulary quizzes from www.quizlet.comhttp://quizlet.com/12031181/awl-1b-flash-cards/ (), or exercises found on http://www.englishvocabularyexercises.com, where different vocabulary tests can be done, according to the wordlists required of the discipline. General collocational knowledge can also be honed through knowledge and use of websites like http://www.ugru.uaeu.ac.ae/concordance/index.html, where students can understand the various contexts of use. Lastly, to promote autonomy in the student’s learning of academic vocabulary, links like the AWL highlighter http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~alzsh3/acvocab/awlhighlighter.html or Tom Cobb’s Compleat Lexical Tutor (CLT), http://www.lextutor.ca, where various tools are available for analysing AWL and GSL words from any texts provided.
The use of ICT in teaching coherence and cohesion in a genre-based process approach
Students in Singapore are unique in the sense that they hail from many differing backgrounds. Teachers have to be mindful of the culturally diverse and varied abilities present in their classrooms. As a result, the teaching of coherence needs to run parallel to the needs of each unique individual, allowing them to fully understand and apply the five features of coherence appropriately. Coherence appears to be an abstract and fuzzy concept that is difficult to teach and learn. Hence, teachers themselves may face difficulty in elaborating upon a topic that is essentially vast and difficult to comprehend. Hence, due to these challenges, it is of utmost importance that teachers segment their lessons to focus on each of the key features as mentioned by Lee (2002), during each lesson, having a minimum of five lessons to cater to the five features involved. Effort can be made to plan their lessons in such a way that each feature is explained and elaborated sufficiently based on the specific genre of the text that they are creating.
In different types of genres, different types of cohesive devices are employed. The genre of narrating, for example, will require the use of more temporal and causal connectives to show a logical sequence of events in a story plot. This is unlike the connectives used in an expository writing where comparative connectives, such as 'however' and 'on the other hand', which are used to introduce counterpoints and how connectives, such as 'therefore' and 'consequently', which are used to exemplify and show results. This can be done through the use of ICT at either the outlining stage or the revising stage of the writing process. At the outlining stage, for example, online essay outlining tools, such as http://essayoutliner.jonathanwthomas.net/, can be used to get students to identify and explore the relationships between the ideas in their essay and assign a suitable connective to link up their ideas. Online outlining tools hence helps to regulate the organisation of students’ points into a systematic structural flow. Online mind-mapping tools, such as http://freeplane.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page, can also be used at the brainstorming stage of the writing process to help students to develop coherence of the story by jotting down main ideas and lexical terms that are closely related to their topic of writing.
Where research on academic settings has been concerned, students (both L1 and L2) have often been found to be unclear of task requirements, especially in the more advanced academic settings like tertiary institutions etc. Genre-based teaching can therefore count another merit to its approach because this equips students with skills and knowledge to identify the nature of a writing task and fulfil it accordingly.
Considering the different attitudes to knowledge and approaches to learning in the classroom
Last but not least, the attitudes to knowledge and learning approaches should be considered by the teacher when planning writing lessons. The typical scene in a Singapore classroom is that of a teacher-centered approach where students are spoon-fed and expected to regurgitate text types which they have memorised. Instead of just teaching students to ‘conserve’ knowledge, what teachers can do in the secondary classroom is to start teaching them to ‘critique’ and ‘extend’ knowledge. This is supported by implementing the genre-based process approach in writing classrooms, where students get to think about how the language they use can impact the effectiveness of text message being conveyed. Teachers can also focus more on teaching students how to include in opinions and evaluations in their essays instead of just merely listing down content. Besides that, what teachers can do is to also conduct more collaborative writing activities that allow students to engage in discussions about what makes a good text and get them to review their peers’ essays. All of these can be implemented with the aid of ICT tools such as in the use of Blogger when giving student feedback.
References
Allison, H. (2009). High school academic literacy instruction and the transition to college writing. Generation, 1, 75-90.
Bledsoe, G. (2009). Collaborative Digital Writing: The Art of Writing Together Using Technology. In Teaching the New Writing: Technology, Change, and Assessment in the 21st-Century Classroom, edited by A. Herrington, K. Hodgson, & C. Moran, 39-54. New York: Teachers College Press. Kress, G. (2003). Literacy in the new media age. Psychology Press.
Hyland, K. (2004). Disciplinary discourses: Social interactions in academic writing. University of Michigan Press.
Lessard-Clouston, M. (2012). Technical vocabulary use in English-medium disciplinary writing: A native/non-native case study. The Linguistics Journal, 6, 127-150.
Ware, P. D., & Warschauer, M. (2005). Hybrid literacy texts and practices in technology-intensive environments. International Journal of Educational Research, 43(7), 432-445.