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.