Transforming Early- Stage Writing into Composing: How to Motivate Young ESL Learners to Write, the Activity Way
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24113/ijohmn.v10i4.288Abstract
Writing is an activity in which mind and body are simultaneously engaged; content and language correlate; a person and ‘an other’, as a representative of a community, coexist. If any one element in the pairs mentioned above turns dysfunctional, writing collapses. While in a second or foreign language, possibilities of such failures and mismatches are more. This paper explores the potentials of the activity theory as discussed at length in the Soviet psychology of the first half of the last century. The paper begins with an inquiry into how writing instruction in English as a second language (ESL) can be made more productive, and ends with a proposal of transforming the act of writing into an activity of composing, using the framework of activity theory.
Downloads
Metrics
References
Chaiklin, S. (2019). The meaning and origin of the activity concept in Soviet psychology—with primary focus on A. N. Leontiev’s approach. Theory and Psychology. 29. 1.pp. 3-26.https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354319828208
Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, Massachusetts MIT Press.
van Dijk, T.A. (1981). Episodes as Units of Discourse Analysis. In Deborah Tannen (ed.), Analyzing Discourse: Text and Talk. Georgetown: Georgetown University Press, pp. 177-195
Engestrom, Y. (1999). Activity theory and individual social transformation. In .Y. Engestrom., R. Mictinen., and R.I. Ponamaki.(eds.).Perspectives on Activity Theory. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. pp.19 – 38.
Gergen, C. A.(1992). Review of Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in Discourses .by Gee, J. P. Ilha do Desterro 29, 1992 pp 139-146.
Hadley, A. O. (1993). Teaching language in context. Boston: Heinle & Heinl
Krshen, S. D. (1985). The Input Hypothesis: Issues and Implications. London, Longman.
Lantolf, J.P., and Thorne, S. L. (2006). Sociocultural Theory and the Genesis of Second Language Development. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Matsuda, P. K. (2012).Let’s Face It: Language Issues and the Writing Program Administrator. WPA: Writing Program Administration, 36(1), 141-163.
Myles, J. (2002). Second Language Writing and Research: The Writing Process and Error Analysis in Student Texts.Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. VI. 2.
Ortega, L. (2012). Epilogue: Exploring L2 Writing–SLA Interfaces. Journal of Second Language Writing, 21.4, pp. 404-415.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society. Development of higher psychological functions. Cambridge, Harvard University Press.
West, M. P. (1937). The ‘Reading Approach’ and the ‘New Method System’. Modern Language Journal. 22.3. pp.220-222. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-4781.1937.tb00591.x
Widdowson, H. G. (1978). Teaching Language as Communication. Oxford, Oxford
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Dr. P. Bhaskaran Nair
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
You are free to:
- Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
- Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material
- for any purpose, even commercially.
-
Under the following terms:
-
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
- No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
-