Investigating writing development in secondary school learners of French

Abstract

Much of second language (L2) class time, particularly in school and university classes, is devoted to the teaching of writing, and written assignments form an important component of assessed work. We assume that learners' L2 writing develops over time, in response to instruction, feedback, and practice. However, to date there has been very little research to show whether all skills involved in producing a well-structured and grammatically accurate text develop uniformly and respond equally to pedagogy. Our longitudinal study explored development in writing among a group of secondary school learners of French (n= 15), in their final year of high school. Data for the study were three in-class ..