C – Writing in and across Disciplines
Project Meeting IS IT POSSIBLE FOR NON-WRITING SPECIALISTS TO REVIEW WRITING SKILLS OF FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS Tonnie van Genugten, Renate Suzanne Ouwendijk The Hague University of Applied Sciences, The Hague, The Netherlands Is it possible for disciplinary faculty to review writing skills of first-year students? It is a great effort for content teachers to give feedback on writing skills and to review texts, even in L1. However, that is exactly what they have been doing in the Faculty of Health, Nutrition & Sport at The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS) this past year. Hebbrecht & van der Westen (2009) state that in the most narrow vision on language policy in higher education the language classes are focused on fixing deficiencies of a target group and are carried out by a writing specialist. These classes exist as an extra-curricular part in the total educational programme. In the most elaborated version of language policy the aim is communicative competency for all the students, requiring a collective effort of all faculty staff. They should all work together to stimulate students in developing their language skills, both oral and written. Every content teacher should pay attention to the specific requirements of any linguistic task they assign and should be able to give feedback on linguistic features of texts. In the bachelor education programmes of THUAS, this elaborate type of language policy is the objective. This means that writing is being implemented throughout the entire curriculum. All content teachers are informed about their responsibility to contribute to the development of students’ language skills and trained to determine the CEF-level (B1, B2 or C1) of the first-year students’ writing skills. This raises the question to which extent the reviews of the disciplinary specialists and their feedback are similar to those of the language teachers. Do they agree upon the CEF-level showed in the texts students provide? At this moment, both authors are reviewing 25 texts to compare their findings with those of the disciplinary faculty. During the EATAW Conference we would like to present the results of this comparison and discuss the consequences of it.
References
Hebbrecht, J. & Westen, W. van der (2009) Drie typen taalbeleid. Drieëntwintigste conferentie Het Schoolvak Nederlands, 152–157.
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