Writing in a foreign language: linguistic and cognitive aspects

Teacher(s)

Degand Elisabeth;

Language

Dutch

Main themes

Theoretical overview of the field of first and foreign language writing with a focus on the cognitive processes involved. Introduction to the psycho-experimental methods in writing.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

At the end of the class, the student will have an overview of the discourse studies concerning writing production in first and foreign language; will be able to formulate specific research questions and to operationalise them; will be able to establish a link between the studies in written discourse production and matters of writing instruction in the foreign language class; will have a practical experience in the elaboration of a psycho-experimental research design and/or corpus analysis.

Content

The seminar addresses the linguistic proficiency and cognitive mastery factors impacting foreign language writing. After an overview of the research question, students will develop a research plan and test a discourse production elicitation task in Dutch as a foreign language.  The students will develop the experimental protocol, the recruitment of participants and the experimental implementation. Data analysis will be done individually with each student taking responsibility for a specific part of the analysis. The impact of factors will be measured on the presence/absence of linguistic traits to be defined.

Teaching methods

esearch seminar consisting of discussions of the experimental theories and methods presented, one of which will be replicated by the students involving all stages of the experimental protocol:

• definition of the research question and hypotheses
• preparation of the experimental material and/or items
• recruitment of participants
• conducting the experiment
• analysis of the data
• presentation of the results

Evaluation methods

Continuous assessment acquired throughout the seminar: 40% (this part cannot be repeated in the second session): synthesis of reading notes, preparation of material, recruitment of participants, oral presentation of preliminary results, ...
The collective part of the work will be monitored via "dynamo" to evaluate the individual contribution of each student. Students who do not participate in the group work will be excluded from the exam in the first sit.
Individual research report including individual data analysis and presentation of results (60%). The quality of the written language will be taken into account (penalty of up to 20% of the grade of the written work).
The final grade is the weighted addition of grades A (8/20/ and grade B (12/20).
In case of failure, only part B can be repassed. The weighting does not change.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) must be used responsibly and in accordance with the practices of academic and scientific integrity. Scientific integrity requires that sources be cited, and the use of AI must always be reported. The use of artificial intelligence for tasks where it is explicitly forbidden will be considered as cheating.

Other information

A course in statistics for linguistics is recommended (LCLIG2240 or LFIAL2260) but not madatory.

Bibliography

Portfolio sur Moodle

Faculty or entity

ELAL