The contributions of Joint Construction to intermediate-level ELS students' independent writing: a mixed-methods analysis

Date
2017
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
The Teaching/Learning Cycle (TLC) is an approach to teaching written genres in which the teacher guides students through stages of Deconstruction (analysis of models) and Joint Construction (whole-class collaborative writing) before students write independently in the target genre. While the TLC has been widely implemented in many different countries and educational settings, the individual stages have not been empirically studied. This dissertation focuses on the central stage, a collaborative writing activity in which the teacher and class jointly construct an exemplar text. The study begins to fill gaps in two bodies of literature: research into collaborative writing has explored pair writing in great depth but paid little attention to whole-class writing; in addition, there is a lack of controlled empirical research into the TLC in general and Joint Construction in particular. ☐ This dissertation investigates the unique contribution that Joint Construction makes to the TLC compared to a modelling-only control condition. Specifically, the research questions ask whether students’ independent writing is better in quality, length, or linguistic complexity after Joint Construction; what types of scaffolding occur during Joint Construction; and what students transfer from the Joint Construction task to their subsequent writing. A quasi-experimental, mixed methods study was conducted using intact classes of intermediate-level English as a Second Language students enrolled in an Intensive English Program in the United States. Sixteen class sections participated over the course of two teaching sessions; 119 students were included in the quantitative analyses. Teachers implemented an instructional unit that taught a descriptive writing genre (a featured house newspaper article). In treatment sections, Joint Construction was conducted between the analysis of models and independent writing; in control sections, an additional modeling task took place. Students’ pre- and posttest writing samples were analyzed for genre completion, descriptive writing quality, length, vocabulary diversity, and grammatical complexity. Transcripts of the recorded Joint Construction classes were analyzed qualitatively to understand the nature of the scaffolding which occurred. Finally, a stratified sample of posttests from the treatment condition was analyzed functionally to trace the specific impact of Joint Construction on the students’ independent writing. ☐ A significant benefit was found for Joint Construction in genre completion and the number of different descriptive adjectives used; the difference between conditions for lexical diversity approached significance. These patterns are consistent with the focus of the Joint Construction lessons, in which teachers and students negotiated the structure of the text in depth and paid close attention to vocabulary. In addition, there is evidence of creative transfer of both ideational and linguistic elements from the Joint Construction to subsequent independent writing. The Joint Construction episodes solicited a wide range of scaffolding techniques, which are categorized in this study along axes of control (teacher or student) and focus on form (explicit or implicit). Prototypical Joint Constructions are hypothesized and explicated using examples from the data. Implications for research include the use of mixed methodology to understand the process and product of collaborative writing. Pedagogically, this dissertation suggests techniques teachers can use to effectively implement Joint Construction.
Description
Keywords
Education, Collaborative writing, Literacy, Second language writing, Systemic functional linguistics, Teaching/learning cycle
Citation