Browsing Conference Contributions /LS KSM by Title

Academic Writing in a Multi-lingual and Multi-disciplinary Context
Finnegan, Damian; Kauppinen, Asko; Wärnsby, Anna (2011) The Role of the Student Experience in Shaping Academic Writing Development in Higher Education, European Association of Teachers of Academic Writing (EATAW), 29th June – 1st July 2011 University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland	other

English abstract:

Damian Finnegan (damian.finnegan@mah.se) Asko Kauppinen (asko.kauppinen@mah.se) Anna Wärnsby (anna.warnsby@mah.se) Academic Writing in a Multi-lingual and Multidisciplinary Context One crucial challenge of academic writing concerns the increasing heterogenisation of student populations. In many writing classes, we now find “any combination of native-born, international, refugee, permanent resident, and naturalized students,” exhibiting considerable linguistic diversity and multiple levels of English proficiency (Preto-Bay and Hansen, 2006; see also Hall, 2009). At the same time, interest towards academic writing in European higher education is growing, yet resources for teaching do not reflect this. Moreover, the wider student base demands practical application from their writing courses, not theoretical knowledge of language skills (see, for example, Anderson 1983, 2009 on procedural vs. declarative knowledge). To show how these problems can be addressed, we discuss the course Academic Writing in English offered at Malmö University, Sweden, which currently enrolls approximately 300 students per year. The course design is explicitly based on the general model of information processing, which assumes that “complex behavior builds on simple processes” (McLaughlin and Heredia, 1996, p. 213). The focus of all learning activities is on acquisition of procedural knowledge geared towards comprehension and production. One distinctive feature of this course is the very tight integration of electronic resources and other teaching material. This provides student populations various types of continuous feedback and highly individualised learning paths. In this paper, we present and evaluate empirical data pertaining to students’ experience of the content, structure and resources in this course. We also discuss the preliminary results obtained through tests administered before, during and after the course. References Anderson, J. R. 2009. Cognitive Psychology and Its Implications. 7th edition. New York: Worth Publishers. Anderson, J. R. 1983. The Architecture of Cognition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Hall, Jonathan. 2009. “WAC/WID in the Next America: Redefining Professional Identity in the Age of the Multilingual Majority.” The WAC Journal. Vol. 20, November. 33-49. McLaughlin, B. and Hereda, J. L. C. 1996. “Information-processing Approaches to Research on Second Language Acquisition and Use.” In Ritchie, W. C. and Bhatia, T. K. (eds.), Handbook of Second Language Acquisition. San Diego: Academic Press, 213-228. Preto-Bay, Ana Maria and Kristine Hansen. 2006. “Preparing for the Tipping Point: Designing Writing Programs to Meet the Needs of the Changing Population.” WPA: Writing Program Administration, Vol. 30, Nos. 1-2, Fall. 37-57.

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Automated Feedback, Student Experience and Writing as a Process
Finnegan, Damian; Kauppinen, Asko; Wärnsby, Anna (2012) Academic Writing in a Changing World, Second International Conference on Academic Writing (IFAW II) July 31 – August 1 2012 , Tel Aviv, Israel	other

English abstract:

Damian Finnegan (damian.finnegan@mah.se) Asko Kauppinen (asko.kauppinen@mah.se) Anna Wärnsby (anna.warnsby@mah.se) Automated Feedback, Student Experience and Writing as a Process Many EFL learners struggle with issues pertaining to grammar, style and idiomaticity, and, traditionally, language teachers spend a lot of time addressing these mechanical errors (see Zamel 1985). This corrective practice seems to shape learner expectations of the type of feedback that is most effective or useful to them (Hedgcock and Lefkowitz 1996). In the context of teaching academic writing, this may easily pose a problem for allocating teacher resources away from teaching writing as a process to taking care of the learner language issues. Nowadays, e-platforms designed specifically to cater for academic writing offer a new range of feedback possibilities for teachers. Tasks pertaining particularly to language use can, for example, be created so that the feedback is fully automated. The easy and immediate access to such feedback is beneficial for learners with different proficiency levels (Brandl 1995). In our course, in order to free teacher resources for feedback on students’ critical thinking, treatment of sources, structure and context, we used automated feedback, i.e. direct corrections with metalinguistic comments generated within the e-platform, to feedback on skill building exercises pertaining to grammar, style and idiomaticity. Previous research indicates that direct corrective feedback on mechanical errors is efficient in facilitating learning (see Sheen 2007 for an overview of the field). In a pilot study on student experience of the writing process, we noticed that the level of student satisfaction with this automated feedback was surprisingly high and valued as much as the extensive written teacher feedback on papers submitted for examination. In our current study, we explore the impact automated feedback has on student experience of learning skills pertaining to the mechanics of writing as described above from beginner to advanced students of academic writing. Some of the factors we consider are the immediacy/remoteness of the feedback, the extent of the metalinguistic comment and the connection of the skill building exercises to the teaching materials. References Brandl, K. K. 1995. Strong and Weak Students' Preferences for Error Feedback Options and Responses. The modern Language Journal, vol. 79, no. 2, 194-211. Hedgcock, J. and Lefkowitz, N. 1996. Some Input on Input: Two Analyses of Student Response to Expert Feedback in L2 Writing. The Modern Language Journal, vol. 80, no. 3, 287-308. Sheen, Y. 2007. The Effect of Focused Written Corrective Feedback and Language Aptitude on ESL Learners' Acquisition of Articles. TESOL Quaterly, vol. 41, no. 2, 255-283. Zamel, V. 1985. Responding to student writing. TESOL Quaterly, 19, 79-101.

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Det lämpliga talet – svenskläraren som språkvårdare
Olsson Jers, Cecilia : Høgskolen i Vestfold (2011) Literacy - en morsmålsdidaktisk utfordring. Tønsberg i Norge, 2.- 4. november 2011 Den tredje modersmålsdidaktiska konferensen	peer-reviewed conference PAPER

Swedish abstract:

Det är vanligast att svenskläraren i skolan sammankopplas med språkvård när det gäller skriftlig framställning, men även arbetet med den muntliga framställningen behöver uppmärksammas ur ett språkvårdsperspektiv. En vanlig redovisningsform i skolan är så kallad muntlig framställning. Det som utmärker framställningsformen är att en person talar som solitär inför en grupp lyssnare. I olika undersökningar lyfts muntlig framställning fram som en framgångsrik möjlighet att under en längre stund få tala sammanhängande om ett ämne (se t.ex. Olsson Jers 2010; Penne & Hertzberg 2008; Palmér 2008; Wedin 2008). Att få tala om ett ämne under en sammanhängande längre stund innebär att språket sätts i fokus på ett annat sätt än när enstaka ord eller kortare fraser får utgöra svaren på lärarens frågor. I en längre muntlig framställning måste ungdomarna förbereda sig på vad som ska sägas, hur det ska sägas och till vem det ska sägas. Att förbereda sig så innebär att det talade språket kommer i fokus på ett sätt som kräver eftertanke om man vill vara övertygande. På det viset kan man säga att redovisningsformen muntlig framställning har en ytterst viktig språkvårdande funktion i klassrummet då det handlar om att välja mest lämpligt språk och mest lämplig stil för dem man vänder sig till. Lämplig är ett begrepp som återkommer i den svenska skolans styrdokument i synnerhet när det gäller elevers språkanvändning (U2010/854/G m.fl.). Det lämpliga språket och den lämpliga stilen kan undersökas med hjälp av de retoriska begreppen decorum och aptum (se t.ex. Hellspong 2004). Enkelt uttryckt innebär decorum att talaren ska ha sinne för språk och stil som passar sett ur en mer generell synvinkel, medan aptum innebär att talaren ska ha sinne för språk och stil som är lämpligt i en specifik situation. Ur ett rikt och varierat material som samlades in i samband med en större undersökning på en gymnasieskola (Olsson Jers 2010) har jag ett stort antal tillfällen dokumenterade där läraren ger respons till elever som genomfört en muntlig framställning. Den övergripande fråga jag nu ställer till materialet är hur mycket av responsen som är riktad mot lämpliga språk- och stilval och utifrån svaret undersöka om tyngdpunkten ligger på antingen decorum eller aptum; om responsens innehåll handlar om elevens generella språk- och stilval eller om responsen handlar om elevens mer specifika språk- och stilval. Utifrån det vill jag på framläggningen diskutera vilken betydelse responsen har för den språkvårdande roll svenskläraren har. Litteratur: Hellspong, Lennart (2004). Konsten att tala: handbok i praktisk retorik. 2., [utök.] uppl. Lund: Studentlitteratur Olsson Jers, Cecilia (2010). Klassrummet som muntlig arena: att bygga och etablera ethos. Diss. Malmö: Malmö högskola. Palmér, Anne (2008). Samspel och solostämmor: om muntlig kommunikation i gymnasieskolan = Interacting and going solo : on oral communication in upper secondary schools. Diss. Uppsala : Uppsala universitet. Penne, Sylvi & Hertzberg, Frøydis (2008). Muntlige tekster i klasserommet. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget. Wedin, Åsa (2008). Monologen som en resurs i klassrummet. I Pedagogisk forskning i Sverige. Vol. 13. Nr 4. S. 241-257. U2010/854/G m.fl – Förordning om ämnesplaner för de gymnasiegemensamma ämnena. http://www.sweden.gov.se/content/1/c6/15/81/12/977f9ca7.pdf (2011-03-14)

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Aesthetic and artistic aspects of the teaching profession
Kupferberg, Feiwel (2008) NERA's 36th Annual Congress, The new goal-orientation of research strategies, The School of Education - University of Aarhus, Copenhagen March 6-8, 2008	other

Andrew Lang and the Colour Fairy Books
Sundmark, Björn (2005) IRSCL-kongressen Expectations and Experiences: Children, Childhood and Children’s Literature; 13-17 augusti, Trinity College, Dublin, Irland	conference PAPER

Artistic Creativity as an elementary social form. The forms, conditio...
Kupferberg, Feiwel (2007) Paper to ESA Arts conference Lueneberg, 28-32 March,2007	peer-reviewed conference PAPER

Art students meet sociology students: The interview as meta-communica...
Kupferberg, Feiwel (2007) Paper to NERA Congress, Turku, Finland, 14 - 17 March, 2007	peer-reviewed conference PAPER