Using writing activities with real outcomes to improve students’ literacy skills – An academic summary

 “Writing for the world: Wikipedia as an introduction to academic writing” is an article written by Tardy (2010), an Assistant Professor who specializes in Writing, Rhetoric and Discourse. In her work, the author refers to the importance of academic literacy in a second language within a context of higher education. Furthermore, she explains how writing an article for publishing on Wikipedia as a teacher-guided task can help develop students’ skills in academic genres.

  

According to Tardy (2010), writing an article for publishing on the English-language version of Wikipedia familiarizes students with academic conventions regarding research, summaries and paraphrases, citing of sources, genre conventions and language use for a specific genre. In this way, students will be able to develop academic literacy skills by analysing sources, considering credibility and reliability, and avoiding plagiarism when writing their own piece.

During the pre-writing stage, students become acquainted with the kind of articles published on Wikipedia, focusing on layout and content. Therefore, patterns of organization, style, and the type of knowledge referred to are examined in detail. Once students have analysed samples of articles within the global website, they will be ready to select their topic.

The while-writing stage implies doing research on the selected topic and completing a Fact Sheet, where students decide whether they are going to paraphrase, summarize or quote the different pieces of information gathered. In addition to this, students are involved in the process of planning and organizing content and drafting their article. Special attention to quotations and references is required at this stage.

The after-writing stage consists of checking for spelling, vocabulary, grammar and punctuation mistakes and publishing the article. In certain cases, some students might need to go through a revision stage, to comply with the preliminary conditions of the website and eventually have their article published. The last step of the activity does not mean that students will forget about their production. Wikipedia is open for other people to edit or even delete the article. “Watching their article evolve over time can be an excellent learning experience” (Tardy, 2010, para. 39).

On balance, Tardy’s (2010) “approach to introducing the skills of academic writing for L2 (second language) writers” (para.5) through this Wikipedia-writing project engages students into a meaningful activity with a realistic outcome and it improves their academic literacy skills. By going through the process described, students are exposed to the procedures and techniques necessary to produce a successful piece of writing, namely research, selection of reliable sources, proper citing, and peer editing.

 

References

Tardy, C.M. (2010). Writing for the world: Wikipedia as an introduction to Academic Writing. English Teaching Forum, 1. Retrieved from http://exchanges.state.gov/englishteaching/forum/archives/docs/10-48-1-c.pdf

Defining Discourse Community

According to Swales (1990), a discourse community is constituted by a group of people who share a set of goals; make use of participatory mechanisms in order to exchange information and feedback; avails itself of a specific genre, using highly specialized terminology; and it achieves a certain level of expertise. The following authors provide evidence which supports Swales’ theory.

Hoffman-Kipp, Artiles and Lopez-Torres (2003) aim at associating teachers’ reflection upon their daily routines with their own practice. These authors are part of a discourse community and they have written their article on teacher reflection “as an important means for developing subject matter, pedagogical, and pedagogical-content knowledge about how to teach” (para. 1). Members of this discourse community will have access to the article through a journal, which is a participatory mechanism, and will eventually achieve a certain level of knowledge. Such members are involved in the teaching practice and that gives them a common goal, together with the goal of improving their teaching practice. Regarding specialized genre and terminology, the authors use terms like prepackaged curricula, situated learning and goal-directed activities, and acronyms such as CHAT and ZPD. Through this kind of language, members “reveal the values and beliefs of the social group in which they are participating” (Modelling Activity Systems for Proleptic Praxis section, para. 25).

Kelly-Kleese (2004) refers to the community college as a discourse community. “Its members have, over time, developed a common discourse that involves shared knowledge, common purposes, common relationships, and similar attitudes and values” (para. 5). One of the purposes of being part of that discourse community is to gain academic integrity and accountability. Developing scholarship and doing research might create the participatory mechanisms for information exchange and such exchange of information will be carried out through a specific genre within the community college discourse community. Conclusively, as a result of being a part of this community members will gain expertise.

Wenzlaff and Wieseman (2004) examined “the nature of teacher learning in a cohort-based, master’s degree program” (para. 2). This program constitutes a discourse community by having the common goals of obtaining a degree in a postgraduate course and improving attendants’ teaching practice. “The teachers sensed that the cohort model assisted in creating a ‘community of learners’ and helped them to become ‘better teachers and learners’” (The Cohort Becomes a Collaborative Culture section, para. 25). In this case, the participatory mechanisms were made up of courses and socially-shared spaces in which students, as well as teachers, could exchange information, discussing learning theories and teacher materials and pedagogy. Therefore, attendants would gain certain level of expertise regarding an improved teaching practice.

Having discussed different exponents of teachers’ discourse communities, it could be concluded that Swales’ (1990) theory represents an authoritative reference of the concept of discourse community. The scholars mentioned are, in fact, part of this discourse community of teachers and they seek improvement in their own practice as teachers but they also seek to develop scholarship in the college community. Their own contribution is the production of material of reference, published in journals as participatory mechanisms, using a specific genre with specialized terminology and aiming at making their readers attain some level of expertise.

References:

Hoffman-Kipp, P., Artiles, A. J., & Lopez Torres, L. (2003). Beyond reflection: teacher learning as praxis. Theory into Practice. Retrieved October 2007, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NQM/is_3_42/ai_108442653

Kelly-Kleese, C. (2001). Editor’s Choice: An Open Memo to Community College Faculty and Administrators. Community College Review. Retrieved October 2007, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HCZ/is_1_29/ai_77481463

Kelly-Kleese, C. (2004). UCLA community college review: community college scholarship and discourse. Community College Review. Retrieved October 2007, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HCZ/is_1_32/ai_n6361541

Swales, J. M. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Wenzlaff, T. L., & Wieseman, K. C. (2004). Teachers Need Teachers To Grow. Teacher Education Quarterly. Retrieved October 2007, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3960/is_200404/ai_n9349405