Making Students Engaged in Improving Their English Writing Skills – A Case-Study from a Norwegian Upper Secondary School

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
May Olaug Horverak ◽  
Gerd Martina Langeland
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Upper Secondary School ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Upper Secondary

scholarly journals L2 fluency in spoken interaction: a case study on the use of other-repetitions and collaborative completions

2018 ◽  
pp. 118-138
Author(s):  
Pauliina Peltonen
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Secondary School Students ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Upper Secondary School ◽  
School Students ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
Spoken Interaction ◽  
Problem Solving Task

Second language (L2) speech fluency has usually been studied from an individual’s perspective with monologue speech samples, whereas fluency studies examining dialogue data, especially with focus on collaborative practices, have been rare. In the present study, the aim was to examine how participants maintain fluency collaboratively. Four Finnish upper secondary school students of English completed a problem-solving task in pairs, and their spoken interactions were analyzed qualitatively with focus on collaborative completions and other-repetions. The findings demonstrated that collaborative completions and other-repetitions contribute to interactional fluency by creating cohesion to the interaction. Collaborative completions were also used to help the interlocutor to overcome temporary (individual) disfluent phases. Overall, the findings suggest that individual and interactional fluency are intertwined in spoken interaction, which should be acknowledged in theoretical approaches to L2 fluency and in empirical studies examining L2 fluency in interactional contexts.

scholarly journals Upper secondary school students’ perceptions of and experiences with feedback in English writing instruction

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Drita Saliu-Abdulahi ◽  
Glenn Ole Hellekjær
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Formative Assessment ◽  
Writing Instruction ◽  
Secondary School Students ◽  
Upper Secondary School ◽  
School Students ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
English Writing Instruction

Abstract This paper presents a survey of student perceptions of feedback in English writing in a context where formative assessment is mandatory. The study comprises 329 first year upper secondary school students from seven schools in eastern Norway, and uses a survey to examine their perceptions of and experiences with feedback in EFL writing instruction. Overall, the findings reveal that students receive varied feedback, on language as well as global errors, but primarily to finished and graded texts. There is little use of feedback between drafts, or of oral conferencing and peer-feedback. While many students do not follow up feedback at all, those who do tend to focus on language error correction and less on global errors. However, student follow up in general, and of global errors in particular, increases markedly with unfinished and ungraded texts, possibly because of available time and teacher support during the revision process. This indicates that feedback utilization can be improved by setting aside classroom time to work with texts between drafts during which students can receive teacher support, and by making this an integrated part of English writing instruction. Key words: L 2 writing instruction, feedback/formative feedback, formative assessment, multiple-sourced feedback.   Elevers oppfatninger om og erfaringer med tilbakemeldinger de får i skriveundervisningen i engelskfaget i den vidergående skole Sammendrag Denne artikkelen presenterer en kvantitativ studie av tilbakemeldinger i engelsk skriveundervisning i en kontekst hvor formativ vurdering er læreplanfestet. Den undersøker hvordan 329 norske VG1-studenter fra syv videregående skoler i øst Norge opplever og følger opp tilbakemeldingene de får som del av engelskfagets skriveundervisning. Funnene viser at studentene får variert feedback, med god balanse mellom kommentarene på språkfeil som på mer generelle feil med teksten, men at tilbakemeldingene først og fremst gis til ferdige tekster med karakter. Det er lite bruk av feedback til uferdige, ikke karaktervurderte tekster, av muntlig veiledning og av feedback fra andre studenter. Mens mange studenter ikke følger opp feedback overhodet, øker oppfølgingen, av språkfeil og i enda større grad av såkalte «globale» feil, markant de relativt sjeldne gangene de får til å arbeide med uferdige, ikke karaktervurderte tekster. Dette tyder på at utnyttelsen av feedback kan bedres ved at elevene får arbeide med uferdige tekster og med lærerstøtte mens de reviderer, og dette gjøres til en integrert del av engelskundervisningen. Nøkkelord: L2 skriving, skriveundervisning tilbakemeldinger, formativ vurdering, vurdering for læring, ulike tilbakemeldingsmodaliteter

scholarly journals Scaffolding open inquiry: How a teacher provides students with structure and space

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Birgitte Bjønness ◽  
Stein Dankert Kolstø
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Scientific Inquiry ◽  
Interaction Analysis ◽  
Upper Secondary School ◽  
Open Inquiry ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Scaffolding Strategies ◽  
Present Case Study

The present case study examines a teacher’s scaffolding strategies supporting his students during a twelve-week open inquiry project at an upper secondary school. We use interaction analysis to identify how he provides structure and space in the different phases of open inquiry as well as how it constitutes the students’ inquiry process. The study reveals that the teacher scaffolded this open inquiry in two opposing ways; he created space for the students to make their own experiences and ideas, which eventually set up the need for more directed scaffolding to discuss the challenges students experienced, and directing students’ ideas in certain directions in phases with structure. We suggest that the interplay between structure and space creates what can be seen as a driving force providing both exploration and direction for open inquiry. Moreover, we propose that the dual concept of ‘structure and space’ can work as a thinking tool to promote teachers’ competence on how to scaffold more authentic versions of scientific inquiry in schools.

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