Writing and Learning to Write: A Double Challenge

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: THE EVER MORE COMPLEX WRITING CURRICULUM Several scientific paradigm shifts have influenced the teaching and learning of written composition. Inspired by developments in linguistics and language education, the writing-as-communication shift took place in the nineteen seventies. More stress was put on the (communicative) effect of the text than on its correctness; grammatical correctness made way for pragma(linguis)tical adequacy. This educational shift resulted in more realistic writings assignments, related to ‘real life’, in explicit attention for ‘audience’ and ‘purpose’ as criteria for effective writing, and in the integration of readers’ feedback in writing curricula (e.g. Elbow, 1973). In the nineteen eighties, an orientation on writing-as-a-process was added to the writing-as-communication paradigm. Cognitive psychologists like John Hayes applied Newell and Simons’s problem solving theory to writing and writing instruction as research domains. Together with a linguist, Linda Flower, Hayes conducted several studies, using the thinking-aloud methodology in order to describe the way in which experts and novices differ in their execution of writing tasks. Writing curricula developers paid more attention to the recursive character of writing and to various means for coping with cognitive constraints. Consequently, traditional ‘step-by-step’ instructional methods (‘think first, then write’) were refined and contextualized (‘in case X, it is worthwhile to just start writing, in order to generate new ideas’). This process-approach also demanded introspection by students, so that they could describe their writing processes and label the effectiveness of the constituting activities. It became clear that planning, evaluation and monitoring are key meta-activities in effective writing. Later on, (socio-)linguists developed their own branch within this paradigm (Flower 1994), describing how norms for genres are taught and learned within communities. This socio-historical paradigm was inspired by Vygotsky and Piaget. It is more strongly related to education than the problem-solving studies in the nineteen eighties, because teachers-student-interactions are often object of study. Studies on collaborative learning offer insight in the processes and products of knowledge acquisition, e.g. when discussions and negotiations of working groups are studied (Milian 1996, Saada-Robert 1999, Rouiller 1996, Rouiller & Allal 1997, Ribas, Farrera & Camps 1997; Camps & Milian, 1999; Allal 1999). A fourth paradigm emerged in the nineteen nineties, and originated in