Joint Construction in the SLATE project

Authors

Shoshana J. Dreyfus, University of SydneyFollow
Lucy Macnaught, University of Sydney

RIS ID

112492

Publication Details

Dreyfus, S. & Macnaught, L. (2011). Joint Construction in the SLATE project. Linguistics and the Human Sciences, 7 (1-3), 77-99.

Abstract

This paper concerns pedagogical approaches to literacy implemented in the Scaffolding Literacy in Academic and Tertiary Environments (SLATE) project. In particular, this paper focuses on the Joint Construction step of the Teaching Learning Cycle (Rothery, 1994; Martin this volume). Through whole-text genre analysis (Martin and Rose, 2008), we will describe how the step of Joint Construction was adapted to an online learning context, in order to support the writing development of undergraduate applied linguistics students at the City University of Hong Kong. Our findings highlight that during online Joint Construction lessons, students were given explicit feedback and encouraged to seek clarification, raise queries, recast original contributions and respond to each other's suggestions. These findings contribute to our understanding of interaction that targets the shared negotiation of meaning, and address the on-going challenge of developing pedagogic exchanges which offer explicit and effective support to students' writing development.