BLENDED LEARNING FOR MIXED CULTURAL ACADEMIC WRITING PARTNERSHIPS

Writing and New Technologies

BLENDED LEARNING FOR MIXED CULTURAL ACADEMIC WRITING PARTNERSHIPS

Annett Mudoh

Georg­August­Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

Blended learning to improve academic writing skills, specifically for L1, L2 and L3 learners, is widely discussed (Anastasiades (editor) 2012, Häfele& Maier­Häfele 2012). The aim of this electronic poster is to show the ways in which a blended learning environment might help students with mixed cultural backgrounds acquire knowledge about academic writing. Our research question revolved around the ways in which students of many diverse cultural backgrounds and with very different writing experiences (Brinkschulte 2012, Roche 2013) might conform to the expectations and requirements of skilled academic writers (in our case in academic German: Esselborn­Krumbiegel 2012). For our research, we formed ​ tandem partners or small groups of L1, L2 and L3 learners in academic writing partnerships. They were askedby means of a learning agreement to create different types of texts over a 6 month­period in a blended learning environment.

Instructions and feedback were given throughout the writing process, both face­to­face and online. However, students worked mainly among themselves.Both the progression and the results of the students work were documented in e­portfolios. The course feedback evaluations showed an increased awareness in regards to the differences in writing cultures. We found out that ​ tandem partnerships in blended learning seem to enable students to better conform to expectations and requirements as successful writers, since they are able to discuss and exchange ideas and problems among themselves more freely without possible barriers of the hierarchy between teacher­student.

References

Anastasiades P (ed.) 2012, ​ Blended Learning Environments for Adults: Evaluations and Frameworks​ , IGI Global, Hershey PA

Brinkschulte M 2012, 'Schreiben in einer Fremdsprache', in Draheim K, Liebetanz F & Vogler­Lipp S, Schreiben(d) lernen im Team​ , Springer VS Research, Frankfurt (Oder), pp. 59­81.

Esselborn­Krumbiegel H 2012​ , Richtig wissenschaftlich schreiben : Wissenschaftssprache in Regeln und Übungen​ , 2nd edn. Schöningh, Paderborn.

Häfele H & Maier­Häfele 2012, 101 e­Learning Seminarmethoden : Methoden und Strategien für die Online­ und Blended­Learning­Seminarpraxis, managerSeminare­Verlag, Bonn.

Roche J 2013, ​ Mehrsprachigkeitstheorie : ­ Kognition ­ Transkulturation ­ Ökologie​ , Narr, Tübingen.