Elaborating on collaborating (in the writing process)
By Michael Rabbidge - Materials Writer
Although traditionally thought of as an individual activity that is best done as part of a homework assignment, writing in ESL or EFL contexts is currently being reimagined as a more collaborative endeavor that should be considered is a similar vein to other communicative activities in the classroom.
Support for collaboration in the writing process comes from a variety of sources. From a cognitivist perspective, Swain’s output hypothesis (1985, 1993, 1995) calls for learners to be pushed to produce output as it is in the act of producing (written) work that learners will be able to notice gaps in their own language knowledge, test different forms of expressing their ideas, and reflect upon the language they have produced.
When this pushed output is done in collaboration with others, the interaction that takes place becomes a site for language acquisition (Swain, 2000). The collaborative dialogue that arises in interaction during writing is also supported by socio cultural theory (Vygotsky, 1978), which describes the problem solving that occurs during collaborative dialogue as cognitive activity which can allow learners to internalize knowledge that arises during the dialogue.
For true collaboration to occur, groups or pairs must produce a single text between them, rather than just discussing ideas and then each learner working independently to produce a written text.
One such activity that captures the dynamics of collaborative writing is the dictogloss, which is an activity where learners reconstruct a short text that the have listened to. A simple procedure for such an activity would be having the teacher read a short text twice, with a slight pause in between readings. As the teacher reads, students listen and note down key words they hear while the teacher reads. Once the reading is finished, students form groups and share what they heard. From here, each group will work together to reconstruct a single text of what the teacher read. Once each group has finished, each group can read their text aloud, and then the teacher can reveal the original text for comparison. The point here is not that students can reproduce the original text perfectly, but that they are given the opportunity to collaborate - and in doing so discuss lexical and grammatical details that aid in their acquisition.
There are many ways of reimagining writing as a collaborative act, from paired essay writing to more entertaining activities that are less concerned with formality. The point is writing should no longer be contained to the realms of individual endeavor, and should be used more extensively to promote language acquisition in the classroom.
References
Swain, M. (1985). Communicative competence: Some roles of comprehensible input and comprehensible output in its development. In S. Gass and C. Madden (eds.), Input in second language acquisition, 235–253. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
Swain, M. (1993). The output hypothesis: Just speaking and writing aren’t enough. The Canadian Modern Language Review 50. 158–164.
Swain, M. (1995). Three functions of output in second language learning. In G. Cook and B.Seidlhofer (eds.), Principle and practice in Applied Linguistics: Studies in honor ofH. G. Widdowson, 125–144. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Swain, M. (2000). The output hypothesis and beyond: Mediating acquisition through collaborative dialogue. In James Lantolf (ed.), Sociocultural theory and second language learning, 97–115. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.