A pedagogical intervention experience to improve the disciplinary and ESL academic writing abilities of applied linguistics students

Abstract

This article presents the characteristics and results of a pedagogical intervention experience intended to improve the academic writing abilities in English of a group of university students of applied linguistics. The intervention adopted a socio literacy approach. It consisted in giving students a variety of opportunities for oral and written interaction to help them develop their abilities to write argumentative essays. To determine the impact of the intervention, we examined the interactive linguistic resources used in the essays and we conducted an open discussion session at the end of the experience. The interactive linguistic resources were not always useful for the students, although in combination with other learning aids, they raised the students' awareness of the dialogic nature of argumentative discourse. Students learned academic English expressions that they used in their oral classroom communication, although they were not always able to incorporate them into their essays. Through reading and writing students participated for the first time in the periphery of the social and discursive practices of expert members of applied linguistics. At the end, the article presents the limitations of the interventional study.