Student writing standards: A descending spiral or a bold new direction?
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Margaret McKinney
Margaret McKinney is a senior lecturer of English for Academic Purposes at the University of Groningen Language Centre, The Netherlands, and is responsible for the online provision of language support materials, which have been structured into a Language Toolbox and are delivered through the electronic learning environment Blackboard.
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Ruben Comadina Granson
Ruben Comadina Granson is Head of Modern Foreign Languages at the University of Groningen Language Centre, The Netherlands, and has extensive experience in designing blended-learning courses, organising learner-centred, multi-level group work for higher education, and creating intercultural awareness among participants.
Abstract
Many academics speak of a “literacy crisis” when referring to student writing standards, often pointing the finger of blame at an overall increase in social networking. The resulting tendency has been for language teachers in higher education to take a corrective, or even remedial, approach to writing fluency. This paper examines blogging as an approach which complements and adds value to the traditional method of submitting an assignment to a lecturer for grading. Examples from English and Spanish language courses on an International Business and Management programme at the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands will be used to illustrate how writing for social media can create a cycle of motivation which enables students to take control of their own writing process and standards, hence becoming their own goal-setters, correctors and remediators.
About the authors
Margaret McKinney is a senior lecturer of English for Academic Purposes at the University of Groningen Language Centre, The Netherlands, and is responsible for the online provision of language support materials, which have been structured into a Language Toolbox and are delivered through the electronic learning environment Blackboard.
Ruben Comadina Granson is Head of Modern Foreign Languages at the University of Groningen Language Centre, The Netherlands, and has extensive experience in designing blended-learning courses, organising learner-centred, multi-level group work for higher education, and creating intercultural awareness among participants.
©[2013] by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
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- Languages for specific academic purposes or languages for general academic purposes? A critical reappraisal of a key issue for language provision in higher education
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- Can blended learning aid foreign language learning?
- Establishing a Korean language programme in a European Higher Education context: Rationale, curriculum and assessment procedures
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Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Bridging passion and profession: Supporting agency and investment in multilingual university writers
- Understanding the learning experiences of postgraduate Latin American students in a UK context: A narrative approach
- Languages for specific academic purposes or languages for general academic purposes? A critical reappraisal of a key issue for language provision in higher education
- Student writing standards: A descending spiral or a bold new direction?
- “Come and sit here next to me”: Towards a communicative assessment of oral language skills
- Special features of assessment in reading comprehension in a Finnish university language centre
- Can blended learning aid foreign language learning?
- Establishing a Korean language programme in a European Higher Education context: Rationale, curriculum and assessment procedures
- Meeting the needs of students, in-service workers and enterprises in a multilingual and multicultural Europe: A challenge for language centres
- Enhancing professionalism through collaboration between teachers and administrators in University Pedagogy courses
