This document discusses conducting a study to observe a Chinese university student's real-time digital writing process in English. The student will be given a writing prompt on whether ambition is socially useful and their writing will be screen recorded and keystrokes logged to analyze how they write digitally without intrusion. Observing students' natural writing processes can help teachers understand students' needs and improve writing instruction.

1. “Watch me writing!”
A real-time digital L2 writing process
Filipe W. de Souza
Product Manager | EF eLab
EF Digital Learning for Schools
www.filipedesouza.com

2. I hope you will…
1. Understand the context and
experience that digital
native L2 students in China
bring to the language
classroom.
2. Appreciate the complexity
involved in L2 digital writing.

3. Our students today are
digital natives,
multi-taskers, and
efficient problem
solvers.

4. We need to understand
their world when we
teach writing and
especially when we
assess writing.

5. Communication tools of digital natives

6. However…
We often ask students to
‘prove’ themselves (their
learned knowledge) in
ways that can be
completely strange to
them.

8. How many times have
you, as a
teacher, assessed a
student’s writing based
on a snapshot of the
writing process?

9. A snapshot of writing
• What is the development
story this essay has to tell?
• What problems did the
writer have to solve in the
process?
• What issues did the writer
raise in the process?
• What contradictions and
conflicts did the writer
experience when writing?

10. Writing is a process;
learning how to write
means learning a process.

11. If we teach writing as a
process, why do we
assess it as a product?

12. Writing…
is informed,
is connected,
is a process,
is a problem-solving activity,
is reflective,
is highly recursive (not linear),
…

13. Why research the writing process?
“Studying what it is our students do in their writing,
we can learn from them what they still need to be
taught.” V. Zamel (1983)
“Writing process research can inform us … about the
difficulties students may encounter while
composing; thus [allowing teachers to] adapt our
teaching methods to meet student’s writing needs.”
M. A. Latif (2008)

14. Then, how does digital writing happen?
How do students inform their writing?
How do they use connected resources?
What does the process look like?
What type of problems do students face?
How are problems solved?
What issues prompt reflection?
How do students revise?

15. If we want to teach
writing to digital natives,
then wouldn’t it be
helpful to observe a
digital writing process in
real-time?

16. Preliminary study
– L2 (+ language learning)
– Writing (+ reading)
– Digital
– Connected
– Real-time
– Academic (+ argumentative)
– Qualitative

17. Preliminary study
– Participant
•
•
•
•
•
University student (in South China)
High-intermediate English skills course.
Sophomore (2nd year)
Learning English for 10 years (since 3rd grade)
Speaks: Chaoshan dialect, Cantonese, Mandarin, and English
• Exposed to reading news articles, stories, blogs, micro-blogs
(Weibo), emails daily and 3-4 academic articles a year in
English.

18. Preliminary study
– Preliminary interview
What do you enjoy about writing in English?
– “I enjoy writing in English itself because it
brings me sense of satisfaction, if I write well.”
• What problems do you have when writing in English?
– “Lacking of contents maybe. I think I don’t have
creative or valuable ideas in my writing, which
is also the problem that exists in my writing in
Chinese. Vocabulary is another problem, I
usually, I think, most of us (Chinese students)
usually can’t finish an essay assigned by teacher
without looking up the dictionary.”

19. Preliminary study
– Writing task
• According to one writer, “Ambition is socially
useful. It sustains economic vitality. It prods people
to take risks and exert themselves. The Internet is
the offspring of workaholics spending long hours to
invent a new world and make a fortune … Ambition
and its creative powers permeate the arts, the
professions, academia, science.” Using logical
reasons, and specific examples, explain whether
you agree or disagree with the author’s claim
about the usefulness of ambition.

20. Preliminary study
– Traditional writing research employed
highly intrusive research methods:
• Direct observation
• Think aloud protocols
• Sanitized environment

21. Preliminary study
– Current study
• Qualitative – as natural as possible (in dorm room;
participants own device)
• Screen recording software (web cam + audio)
• Inputlog – key-stroke logging software
• Minimally-intrusive methods

22. Real-time L2 digital writing research
“Studying what it is our students do in their
writing, we can learn from them what they still need
to be taught.” V. Zamel (1983)
“Writing process research can inform us … about the
difficulties students may encounter while
composing; thus [allowing teachers to] adapt our
teaching methods to meet student’s writing needs.”
M. A. Latif (2008)

23. Digital writing
How does the nature of L2 digital writing impact the
writing process, the learning process, and the final
product?
• The “connected-ness”
• The unlimited access to information
• The range of digital tools available

24. “Watch me writing!”
A real-time digital L2 writing process
Filipe W. de Souza
Product Manager | EF eLab
EF Digital Learning for Schools
www.filipedesouza.com