L1-educational Studies in Language and Literature 

About: L1-educational Studies in Language and Literature is an academic journal published by Springer Science+Business Media. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Reading (process) & Language education. It has an ISSN identifier of 1567-6617. It is also open access. Over the lifetime, 364 publications have been published receiving 2530 citations.

Writing from Sources: The Effect of Explicit Instruction on College Students' Processes and Products

Abstract: Writing from sources, or “discourse synthesis”, is a common but cognitively demanding reading-writing task requiring students to select, organize, and connect content from source texts as they compose their own new texts. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of explicit instruction of relevant strategies and assessment criteria on the subjects' discourse synthesis processes and products. The subjects, 24 in-service teachers enrolled in the researcher's 1999–2000 course on “Reading and writing to learn”, were assigned the same discourse synthesis task – a review of the literature – at the beginning and at the end of the course. They were required to document their two performances of the task by means of a process log, to assess their pre and post instruction processes and products, and to discuss the differences between these. The findings obtained from a content analysis of the subjects' process log summaries and criterial self-assessments of products indicated significant improvement in the subjects' post instruction discourse synthesis processes and products.

The structure of writing processes as revealed by secondary task demands

Abstract: This study investigates how working memory capacity may account for why better writers are able to coordinate mutliple subprocesses more easily than poor writers. Writing, while distracted by secondary task demands, offers one way to explore the importance of working memory to the structure inherent in the writing subprocesses. For the study, the author chose experiments based on the finding that good writers manage the simultaneous demands of writing subprocesses better than poor writers(Levy & Ransdell, 1995, pp. 767–779). Students composed essays while distracted by concurrent loads on working memory. The author found that when relatively minor demands were made on working memory, i.e., unattended and attended background speech, these variables caused a decrease in fluency, but had no effect on quality. Attended, but not unattended, speech reliably reduced average sentence length. A concurrent task of remembering six digits reduced fluency by nearly 50% also reliably decreased quality and sentence length. Resources which are relatively stable in the face of dual-task demands were allocated for the regulation of writing quality, sentence length, pause duration and location. The author found that better writers write longer sentences, pause for shorter durations and at clause boundaries more often than poorer writers. Competing tasks first disrupt the timing of writing and only impact quality when larger secondary task demands in working memory are required.

Students’ Note-Taking as a Knowledge-Construction Tool

Abstract: Note-taking is the hegemonic study activity at university and, in many cases, the main ground for educational interaction between teacher and students. This observation has given rise to an increasing interest in studying students’ note-taking and its impact on learning. In broad terms, three lines of research have been developed in the last 40 years: the effects of note-taking and note-rewriting on some cognitive variables (attention, memory, comprehension, and so on); the relationship between quality of notes and significance of learning; and the changes in the teaching methodology which may enhance note-taking. However, the consideration of notes as a symbolic mediator which in certain educational conditions may promote knowledge construction and transformation and, ultimately, cognitive change has received much less attention.

The Contribution of Different Components of Working Memory to Knowledge Transformation During Writing

Abstract: Outlining probably represents the most common strategy recommended to help novice writers improve their writing. However, although good evidence exists that it has beneficial effects, much less is known about how it achieves these effects. In this paper, we examine how ideas are developed during outlining and how this is related to the quality of the text that is subsequently produced. We focus particularly on how the different processes are coordinated in working memory and on the differences between more and less experienced writers, and consider the implications for educational practice. Two groups of writers, differing in educational level, were asked to write argumentative essays about a discussion topic. In order to investigate the contribution of different components of working memory to outlining, secondary tasks designed to load on the central executive and visual-spatial sketchpad components of working memory were imposed during outlining. Effects of educational level and secondary tasks on the ways novice writers generated and organized their ideas during outlining, and on the resulting quality of the text, were measured. The results suggest that the beneficial effects of planning on text content depend on the extent to which new ideas are introduced during the organizational phase of planning and on the extent to which rhetorical goals are incorporated in planning. However, less experienced writers showed much less evidence of this kind of knowledge-transforming activity during outlining, and we suggest that this aspect of outlining should be the target of educational interventions. Secondary-task effects suggested that the central executive and the spatial component of the visuo-spatial sketchpad play significant, but different roles in the transformation of knowledge, with the spatial component having a specific effect on the generation of new ideas during the organizational phase of planning. We suggest that teaching interventions with novice writers should therefore include attention to the spatial properties of outlines. Finally, some evidence indicates that, although outlining has a beneficial effect on content for all writers, it may reduce the quality of verbal expression for less experienced writers. We suggest that this aspect of their writing needs to be closely monitored. Furthermore, more research into the detailed nature of the processes involved in turning plans into text needs to be conducted.

E-Credibility: Building Common Ground in Web Environments

Abstract: The Internet has done much tofacilitate research and information gatheringin terms of speed and ease of use. It has,however, introduced a new problem for students,educators and others: how best to assess thecredibility of Web-based information(e-credibility). This article reviews theliterature on credibility from such fields ascommunication and media studies; explorestechnological, social, and psychological factorsthat contribute to e-credibility difficulties;and uses vignettes to ground these discussions. It also examines some common responses toe-credibility difficulties and discusses thelimitations of each. It concludes bydiscussing how linguist Herb Clark's notion of``common ground'' [Using language (pp. 92–121), Cambridge, UK:Cambridge University Press 1996]can provide a basis forfurther examination of e-credibility.