As more and more professions increasingly move to information online, students in formation need to learn how to produce and publish online materials pertinent to their profession. The global aim of this task sequence is to guide ESP students (English as a Specific Purpose) through the creation of an online newsletter.
This task sequence aims to help students understand different genres of writing (particularly journalism) and to improve writing skills in the target language. The sequence also aims to help language students ‘ learn to learn’ (promoting learner autonomy) by emphasizing the metalinguistic skill of ‘ noticing’ language features and reflecting on them.
The sequence is made up of collaborative writing tasks involving shared online writing of newspaper sections, followed by peer editing of each section. The process includes collaborative drafting and refining of articles, images and editorial pieces, followed by collaborative final revision and formatting. The collaboration leads to the final output of an online newsletter.
Authors:
Melinda Dooly
Tasks:
| Collaborative Brainstorming |
|---|
| Collaborative writing |
Institution:
Target Group:
foreign language
Language of task instruction:
Level:
B2
Topic:
writing
Estimated Duration:
5 – 10 sessions
Tags:
collaborative writing
Acknowledgements:
This task sequence was piloted as a collaborative project between students of Nursing (Malmö University, Sweden) and Teaching English as a Foreign Language students (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) in 2005.
Languages that can be used:
Any
Language Configurations:
Lingua Franca
Target Competences:
| Language competence |
|---|
| Online communication skills |
| Media literacy |
| Content knowledge |
Instructions for the task sequence:
This task sequence aims to help students understand different genres of writing (particularly journalism) and to improve writing skills in the target language. The sequence also aims to help language students ‘ learn to learn’ (promoting learner autonomy) by emphasizing the metalinguistic skill of ‘ noticing’ language features and reflecting on them.
The sequence is made up of collaborative writing tasks involving shared online writing of newspaper sections, followed by peer editing of each section. The process includes collaborative drafting and refining of articles, images and editorial pieces, followed by collaborative final revision and formatting. The collaboration leads to the final output of an online newsletter.
This task is made up of three phases:
Phase 1
Students are required to get to know each other (not included in the task descriptions there are several such tasks in the task database)
Phase 2: Collaborative Brainstorming
(You can see detailed instructions on this phase by going to the link in ‘ general information’ ).
Phase 3: Writing Together
(You can see detailed instructions on this phase by going to the link in ‘ general information’ ).
Criteria for Completion:
This is left up to the discrimination of the participants of the collaboration. Suggestions for evaluating the third phase can be found in the more detailed outline of that phase (go to the link through ‘ general information’ ).