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The College Writing Toolkit - Tried and Tested Ideas for Teaching College Writing - Martha C. Pennington

19. Academic Writing in the Foreign Language Class: Wikis and Chats at Work

The College Writing Toolkit - Tried and Tested Ideas for Teaching College Writing - Martha C. Pennington

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One of the most valuable aspects of using new technology in teaching writing is the opportunity afforded for collaborative work, especially through the medium of social networking software. In the final chapter in the book, “Academic Writing in the Foreign Language Class: Wikis and Chats at Work,” Ana Oskoz and Idoia Elola argue persuasively for the value of collaborative writing in developing reflective thinking, improved accuracy, and shared knowledge of language use, among both first-language and second language writers. Describing the acquisition of academic writing skills solely through individual study as a “daunting and solitary task,” they present their use of wikis and blogs as a tool to help students in an advanced university-level Spanish class write more effectively in an academic context using their second language. As Oskoz and Elola point out, however, collaborative writing does not supersede the value of individual writing in preparing for the world of work and developing independent thinking.

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