Writing process research has attracted significant attention in English composition studies. However, much less research exists on the relationship between foreign language (FL) and first language (L1) writing processes. This study focuses on whether university students studying a FL (in this case German) at an American university use the same processes and writing strategies in FL and L1 writing in two different genres (letter and article). Using a computerized tracking device, individual writing sessions were analyzed through statistical techniques and individual case studies. Statistical results provided evidence that students wrote less, but revised more, when writing in the FL than in the L1. In their L1, students tended to revise less in the letter genre than when writing an article. The author advocates using the computer for writing process research, given that it is an unobtrusive and efficient method of data collection and because it provides researchers with an easy way to replicate research and to share data.towards Writing Across the Curriculum at many colleges and universities has originated from this branch of research.Researchers in second language (L2) acquisition, English as a Second Language (ESL), and foreign languages (FLs), however, have been slow in addressing important issues in L2 and FL writing. Very little research has been conducted on the relationship between writing in a L2 and writing in one's first language (L1) and, as Krapels (1990) has illustrated in her summary of L2 writing process research, the research findings in this area reveal major contradictions (p. 50). No clear and satisfactory account of L2 writing processes has yet emerged, and questions such as the following remain largely unanswered: Is the writing process the same in FL as in L1 writing? Do writers use the same strategies when writing in a FL as compared to their L1? Do individuals who write well in their L1 tend to be good writers in a
In this article we present an integrated curricular model for addressing the transition from the intermediate to the advanced language level through peer‐assisted learning activities in the post‐secondary German classroom. In a series of group projects between students in second‐ and third‐year conversation courses, we employed a learner‐centered approach that encouraged reciprocal peer mentoring. Both the contemporary focus on multiculturalism and the format involving collaborative work between students in two different language courses were critical components of our project. Engaging with contemporary political and cultural discourses in a peer‐assisted learning environment, course participants obtained important skill sets, which served to enrich their linguistic, cultural, cognitive, and interpersonal competencies.
Offering a blended form of collaborative and personal reflections, Dawn Smith and Helga Thorson discuss how their lives intersected through the I-witness Field School, a course on Holocaust memorialization offered by the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies at the University of Victoria. Contemplating what is remembered and what is forgotten not only in the context of collective and cultural memory but also through the realm of education, the authors of this article draw on Michael Rothberg’s notion of multidirectional memory and Marianne Hirsch’s concept of postmemory to advocate for a multidirectional and intergenerational education that leads to social change.
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