Changing Practices For The L2 Writing Classroom

This volume was written to make the case for changes in second language writing practices away from the five-paragraph essay and toward purposeful, meaningful writing instruction. As the volume editors say, “If you have already rejected the five-paragraph essay, we offer validation and classroom-tested alternatives. If you are new to teaching L2 writing, we introduce critical issues you will need to consider as you plan your lessons and as you consider/review the textbooks and handbooks that continue to promote the teaching of the five-paragraph essay. If you need ammunition to present to colleagues and administrators, we present theory, research, and pedagogy that will benefit students from elementary to graduate school. If you are skeptical about our claims, we invite you to review the research presented here and consider what your students could do beyond writing a five-paragraph essay if you enacted these changes in practice.” Part 1 discusses what the five-paragraph essay is not: it is not a very old, established form of writing; it is not a genre; and it is not universal. Part 2 looks at writing practices to show the essay’s ineffectiveness in elementary schools, secondary schools, first-year writing classes, university writing courses, undergraduate discipline courses, and graduate school. Part 3 looks beyond the classroom at testing. At the end of each chapter, the authors--all well-known in the field of second language writing--suggest changes to teaching practices based on their theoretical approach and classroom experience. The book closes by reviewing some of the major questions raised in the book, by exploring which questions have been left unanswered, and by offering suggestions for teachers who want to move away from the five-paragraph essay. An assignment sequence for genre-aware writing instruction is included.

Digital L2 Writing Literacies offers an up-to-date overview of digital writing in L2 contexts and illustrates how digital media have expanded the options for research and teaching language and writing in particular. Written by two of the leading educators and researchers in the field, this volume offers a comprehensive review of the literature along with cutting-edge theoretical perspectives on multilingual and multimodal composing for those conducting research and practical ideas for curriculum and instruction for those working with multilingual students in second language, foreign language, and heritage language classrooms. The main chapters provide the necessary background of definitions, key research findings and descriptions of practices, along with detailed sample learning projects and ideas for reflection and discussion that those involved in L2 writing should find interesting and relevant. The authors begin with a wide-ranging review of digital tools and environments and how these are influencing communicative practices and written genres. They address how those tools and environments encourage interactive and collaborative writing in online environments, present innovative multimodal forms of composing such as digital storytelling, and provide new avenues and modes for expression of multilingual writer voice and identity. They further discuss how feedback, revision, and assessment practices for L2 writing must change to reflect the changing processes and products of digital composing. At the end of the book, the authors provide a model of theoretical and pedagogical factors that impact digital L2 writing and include a future-oriented discussion of L2 writing and digital practices in the 21st century, making for a stimulating set of implications and take-away messages to ponder. As the most comprehensive and current state-of-the-art treatment of its subject matter, Digital L2 Writing Literacies: Directions for Classroom Practice is simply the must-read book for all those with an interest in L2 digital writing and language teaching.

This volume uniquely looks at both adolescent L2 writing and the preparation of secondary teachers to work with this population of students. It takes a theoretically eclectic approach that can support a variety of pedagogies.

While assessment and feedback tend to be treated separately in the L2 writing literature, this book brings together these two essential topics and examines how effective classroom assessment and feedback can provide a solid foundation for the successful teaching and learning of writing. Drawing upon current educational and L2 writing theories and research, the book is the first to address writing assessment and feedback in L2 primary and secondary classrooms, providing a comprehensive, up-to-date review of key issues, such as assessment for learning, assessment as learning, teacher feedback, peer feedback, portfolio assessment, and technology enhanced classroom writing assessment and feedback. The book concludes with a chapter on classroom assessment literacy for L2 writing teachers, outlines its critical components and underscores the importance of teachers undertaking continuing professional development to enhance their classroom assessment literacy. Written in an accessible style, the book provides a practical and valuable resource for L2 writing teachers to promote student writing, and for teacher educators to deliver effective classroom writing assessment and feedback training. Though the target audience is school teachers, L2 writing instructors in any context will benefit from the thorough and useful treatment of classroom assessment and feedback in the book.

Argumentative Writing in a Second Language is a collection on teaching argumentative writing, offering multiple vantage points drawn from the contributors' own teaching and research experiences. The value of learning how to compose argumentative texts cannot be overstated, and yet, very little attention has been allocated to the equally important topic of how argumentation is or can be taught in the L2 context. Thus, this volume shifts attention to teachers and argumentative writing instruction, especially within increasingly common multimodal and digital literacy settings. While doing so, it provides a comprehensive, wide-ranging view of the L2 argumentative writing landscape within an instructional lens. Part I of the volume is topic-oriented and focuses on explorations of important issues and perspectives, while Part II features several chapters reporting classroom-based studies of a variety of instructional approaches that expand our understanding of how argumentative writing can be taught. The book will be of value to pre-service and in-service teachers in varying instructional contexts, as well as teacher educators and L2 writing scholars/researchers.

This popular, comprehensive theory-to-practice text helps teachers understand the task of writing, L2 writers, the different pedagogical models used in current composition teaching, and reading-writing connections. Moving from general themes to specific pedagogical concerns, it includes practice-oriented chapters on the role of genre, task construction, course and lesson design, writing assessment, feedback, error treatment, and classroom language (grammar, vocabulary, style) instruction. Each chapter includes Questions for Reflection, Further Reading and Resources, Reflection and Review, and Application Activities. An ideal text for L2 teacher preparation courses and in-service writing instructors, the text offers an accessible synthesis of theory and research that enables readers to see the relevance of the field’s knowledge base to their own present or future classroom settings and student writers. New to the Fourth Edition: Updated with new research, theory, and developments in the field throughout the text Visually accessible layout and design for improved reader navigability Expanded attention to technological affordances for writing pedagogy Stand-alone reference list in each chapter Support Material with activities and resources from the text also available on the book’s webpage at www.routledge.com/9780367436780

The current volume aspires to add to previous research on the connection between writing and language learning from a dual perspective: It seeks to reflect current progress in the domain as well as to foster future developments in theory and research. The theoretical postulations contained in Part I identify and expand in novel ways the diverse lenses through which the varied, multi-faceted dimensions of the connection between writing and language learning can be explored. The methodological reflections put forward in Part III signal theoretically-grounded and pedagogically-relevant paths along which future empirical work can grow. The empirical studies reported in Part II illuminate the myriad of individual, educational, and task-related variables that (may) mediate short-term and long-term language learning outcomes. These studies examine diverse forms of writing, performed in varied environments (including pen-and-paper and digital writing), conditions (writing individually and/or collaboratively), and instructional settings (academic settings – including secondary school and college level institutions – as well as out-of-school contexts).

Genre Explained presents accessible, research-grounded answers to 40 questions that teachers frequently have about genre-based writing instruction