How do we teach writing in a foreign language? How can instructors make writing a more valued and effective practice for students in foreign language classrooms?
Foreign language teaching requires skills in teaching grammar, phonetics, speech, cultural analysis, literary interpretation, and strategies for listening comprehension, reading comprehension, and composition. Foreign language classes often focus on speaking and listening to the detriment of reading and writing, but these latter skills are essential to lifelong learning, global citizenry, and critical thinking, skills that are fundamental to a liberal arts education.
This day-long workshop with Dr. Heather Willis Allen of UW-Madison will introduce participants to a design approach to teaching writing in foreign language classrooms. This pedagogy provides an integrative, student-centered approach in which writing is viewed as an individual and social act, and as a process of making choices from available designs. Dr. Allen is a renowned specialist in second language acquisition who has given multiple lectures and workshops on the design approach to the teaching of writing, and she is currently at work on a book project on the topic.
Workshop participants will have the opportunity to reflect on how they teach writing in a foreign language and receive feedback on a specific writing activity that they will design or revise during the workshop. By the end of the workshop, participants will have created a concrete lesson plan for a writing activity of their own design and be able to create effective design-oriented writing tasks in their future language classes.