Cette recherche vise à documenter les apprentissages d’élèves du secondaire en situation d’écriture suivant l’expérimentation d’une séquence didactique fondée sur la coopération. Vu le nombre important d’erreurs syntaxiques dans les textes des élèves du secondaire tel que rapporté par le MÉLS (2012), notre séquence didactique cible une structure syntaxique, la phrase subordonnée relative. En plus de causer des difficultés aux apprenants de français notamment dans le choix du pronom relatif, la phrase subordonnée relative est un objet d’enseignement touffu reconnu comme posant des défis nombreux aux enseignants de français à la lumière des travaux du Groupe de recherche pour l’analyse du français enseigné (e.g. Dolz et Schneuwly, 2009a, 2009b). Après avoir décrit la situation d’écriture et la phrase subordonnée relative de manière conceptuelle, nous dégageons des principes issus de la didactique de la grammaire et de la didactique de l’écriture jugés pertinents pour favoriser l’apprentissage de la relative et la mobilisation des connaissances grammaticales en situation d’écriture. Nous intégrons à ces principes un principe innovateur pour la didactique, celui fondé sur la coopération. Développé dans le courant de l’apprentissage coopératif, la coopération est une approche pédagogique visant à structurer le travail en petits groupes afin d’établir une dynamique d’interdépendance positive (Johnson et Johnson, 2009) de manière à induire le déroulement d’interactions verbales entre les élèves montrées comme étant plus fructueuses pour l’apprentissage que celles ayant cours en l’absence de cadre coopératif (e.g. Krol et al., 2004). Suivant une démarche de recherche-action menée conjointement avec une enseignante, la séquence didactique est conçue puis expérimentée auprès de 55 élèves de trois classes de 3e secondaire de Montréal (Canada) de manière à actualiser les principes didactiques retenus. Deux instruments sont utilisés pour documenter les apprentissages des élèves. Le texte vise à documenter l’évolution dans la production des phrases subordonnées relatives, alors que l’entretien métagraphique vise l’évolution des habiletés métalinguistiques en lien avec ces phrases subordonnées relatives. L’analyse des textes collectés au prétest et au posttest (n = 107) montre une diminution significative des erreurs d’emploi du pronom relatif, ainsi qu’une augmentation significative de l’emploi des pronoms relatifs complexes, tels que « dont » et « auquel ». L’analyse des entretiens métagraphiques au prétest et au posttest (n = 34) montre que les élèves recourent davantage aux critères syntaxiques pour expliquer l’emploi du pronom relatif, et qu’ils utilisent significativement plus de métalangage dans leurs explications. Les résultats de cette recherche mettent en lumière l’intérêt d’actualiser en classe de français les principes didactiques retenus, et plus spécifiquement celui innovant de la coopération en vue de réduire les erreurs syntaxiques dans les textes et de développer les habiletés métalinguistiques des élèves. / This research aims to document the learning of grade-nine students in writing situation following the testing of a didactic sequence based on cooperation. Given the large number of syntactic errors in the texts of secondary students as reported by the MELS (2012), our series of courses targets a syntactic structure, the relative clause. In addition to causing problems for learners of French regarding the choice of the relative pronoun in particular, the relative clause is a dense teaching object known for posing many challenges to French teachers according to the work of Groupe de recherche pour l’analyse du français enseigné (e.g. Dolz et Schneuwly, 2009a, 2009b). After describing the writing situation and the relative clause conceptually, we extricate principles from the fields of grammar didactics and writing didactics deemed relevant to foster the learning of the relative clause and the mobilization of grammatical knowledge in writing situation. An innovative principle for teaching is integrated, one based on cooperation. Developed in the field of cooperative learning, cooperation is an educational approach aimed at structuring work in small groups to establish a dynamic of positive interdependence (Johnson and Johnson, 2009) so as to induce the unfolding of verbal interactions between students shown to be more fruitful in terms of learning than those prevailing in the absence of cooperative framework (e.g. Krol et al., 2004). Following an action research approach conducted jointly with a teacher, the series of courses is designed and tested with 55 students from three grade-nine students classes of Montreal (Canada) in order to actualize the didactic principles extricated. Two instruments are used to document students’ learning. The text aims to document the evolution in the production of subordinate clauses, while metagraphic interviews are aiming at metalinguistic skills related to these relative clauses. The analysis of texts collected at pretest and post test (n = 107) shows a significant decrease of mistakes in the use of relative pronoun in the texts, and a significant increase in use of complex relative pronouns such as "dont" (whose) and "auquel" (which). Analysis of metagraphic interviews at pretest and post test (n = 34) shows that students rely more on syntactic criteria to explain their use of the relative pronoun, and they use significantly more metalanguage in their explanations. The results of this research highlight the interest of implementing in French class didactic principles used, and more specifically the innovative cooperation one in order to reduce the syntactic errors in the texts and to develop students’metalinguistic skills.

The present thesis aims to describe teenagers as peer reviewers and explore possible benefits of giving feedback. My study was carried out in two EFL classrooms in year eight in a Swedish lower secondary school, where the pupils were engaged with the written task to write an informative reply letter in English. The teaching unit included negotiations of a joint criteria list, feedback training, peer review, and the production of first and final drafts of the reply letter. Data were collected from multiples sources: texts produced in class, audio- and video-recordings, questionnaires and interviews. My main findings suggest that pupils can learn about writing from giving feedback. By adopting a reader perspective, the pupils raised their genre and audience awareness. Moreover, the peer-reviewed reply letters served as inspiration both in terms of transfer of structure, such as rhetorical organisation, and of ideas and content. Self-reports indicated that the pupils in my study enhanced their ability to self-assess and edit their own writing, which suggests that transferable skills were developed as a result of peer review. As regards micro-level aspects of writing, reading and commenting on peers’ reply letters seemed to influence a smaller number of pupils to transfer patterns and spelling. In their role as peer reviewers, the pupils successfully identified strengths and weaknesses in their peers’ writing, but the feedback comments did not include much specific formative information. My findings contribute to research on L2 writing and peer feedback by showing that younger learners can benefit from giving feedback. This is significant since previous research has mainly been carried out at university and college level. In addition, by combining text analyses, classroom observation and pupils’ self-reports, my study offers a comprehensive understanding of peer review. / Syftet med min licentiatuppsats är att beskriva tonåringar som kamratbedömare och undersöka möjliga fördelar med att ge feedback. Min studie genomfördes i två engelskklassrum i årskurs åtta i en svensk högstadieskola där eleverna  arbetade med att skriva svarsbrev på engelska. Arbetsområdet inkluderade diskussioner om en gemensam kriterielista, träning i att ge feedback, kamratbedömning och skriftlig produktion av utkast och slutlig version av svarsbrevet. Material samlades in från flera olika källor: de texter som skrevs i klassrummet, ljud- och videoinspelningar, enkäter och intervjuer. Mina resultat visar att elevers eget skrivande kan gynnas genom att ge feedback. Genom att de fick ett läsarperspektiv på sitt skrivande ökade elevernas medvetenhet om genre och mottagare. Dessutom fungerade de brev som eleverna läste och gav feedback på som inspiration, vilket visades genom att de överförde disposition och strukturer, samt idéer och innehåll till sitt eget skrivande. Eleverna uttryckte själva att de förbättrade sin förmåga att självbedöma och rätta sina texter, vilket indikerar att det är möjligt att utveckla överförbara färdigheter genom att bedöma andras texter. Ett mindre antal elever överförde ord och grammatiska strukturer från sina kamraters texter, men överlag påverkades skrivandets mikronivå i mindre utsträckning än makronivån (organisation och innehåll). I sin roll som kamratbedömare kunde eleverna  identifiera styrkor och svagheter i sina klasskamraters texter, men deras feedbackkommentarer innehöll relativt lite formativ information. Tidigare forskning inom området har främst utförts på högskole- och universitetsnivå  och mina resultat bidrar till forskning om skrivande i främmande språk och kamratfeedback genom att visa att också högstadieelevers skrivande kan gynnas av att ge feedback.

By combining qualitative and quantitative methods, this study investigates which writing tasks Swedish as a second language teachers use in their teaching of the different school-related text types, how they justify their choices and adaptations of the writing task, and whether any connections can be seen to the national tests in Swedish as a second language writing tasks. The material used is survey responses and previous national tests whose results are then analysed through theories, such as genre pedagogy and Ivanic writing discourses to answer these questions. Previous research shows how factors such as writing task design and real readers can contribute to writing development in students. Previous research also shows how to work with text types in a language development way and how writing instruction is influenced by teachers' writing discourses. This paper shows from the survey responses that a trend among writing tasks in the different text types can be seen and how 8 out of 10 can be linked to previous national tests in Swedish as a second language. The results show that the teachers' reasons for their choice of writing tasks could be linked to previous national tests, to their suitability in writing the text type and the teacher's writing discourse. The teachers' adaptations of the writing tasks have been more about their way of working than the design of the writing task, but adaptations such as simplified language and adapted language have been mentioned. These results are important because they indicate how established genre pedagogy and its circular model have become in Swedish as a second language teaching and how much influence the national test in Swedish as a second language has on the teachers' choice of writing tasks in the different text types.

First Year Composition (FYC) instructors are often left to puzzle out the larger meaning of the most ubiquitous course in our field for themselves; consequently, goals for the course are frequently selected by the instructor, and are not always most effective for laying a groundwork of lifelong learning and education, or paideia. This lack of clear and unifying goals for the course is illustrated by a piece of 2005 scholarship that points to multiple focuses for FYC, each different in its values and aims. FYC is an important course for students, not only because it is one of only a few writing courses students must take, but also because it is often required as part of a general education core. Because it is such an important course, it is imperative that we identify a unified set of goals for FYC—a set of goals that work toward a larger goal of paideia, or preparation for lifelong learning and citizenship. Some well-received and recently popularized approaches to the course try and fail to meet this criteria of enhancing students' pursuit of paideia, namely goals of teaching course-specific genres and general writing skills. Rather than continuing in these problematic to FYC, we must adopt a rhetorical paideia focus and seek to achieve the goals of rhetorical paideia in our courses. We must help students gain insights, through their development as writers, into their world (phronesis) and themselves (self knowledge), and FYC is the vehicle through which we can accomplish these goals.

A growing body of writing research suggests college students’ and teachers’ conceptualizations of writing play an important role in learning to write and making the transition from secondary to post-secondary academic composition. First-year college writers are not blank slates; rather, they bring many assumptions and beliefs about academic writing to the first-year writing classroom from exposure to a wide range of literate practices throughout their lives. Metaphor acts as a way for scholars to trace students’ as well as their instructors’ assumptions and beliefs about writing. In this study, I contend that metaphor is a pathway to meta-cognitive awareness, mindfulness, and reflection. This multi-method descriptive study applies metaphor analysis to a corpus of more than a dozen first-year composition students’ endof-semester writing portfolios; the study also employs an auto-ethnographic approach to examining this author’s texts composed as a graduate student and novice teacher. In several cases writing students in this study appeared to reconfigure their metaphors for writing and subsequently reconsider their assumptions about writing. My literature review and analysis suggests that metaphor remains an underutilized inventive and reflective strategy in composition pedagogy. Based on these results, I suggest that instructors consider how metaphoric competence might offer writers and writing instructors an alternate means for operationalizing key habits of mind such as meta-cognitive awareness, reflection, openness to learning, and creativity as recommended in the Framework for Success in Post-Secondary Writing. Ultimately, I argue that writers and teachers might benefit from adopting a more flexible attitude towards metaphor. As a rhetorical trope, metaphors are contextual and, thus, writers need to learn to mix, discard, create, and obscure metaphors as required by the situation.

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The teaching of writing is a central task for teachers of Swedish and it is a complex activity which requires knowledge of different areas such as language, communication, and text. The aim of this licentiate’s dissertation is to investigate when and how the knowledge needed for the teaching of writing is developed in teacher education as well as during the first years of teaching. The study is based on semi-structured qualitative interviews with prospective and novice upper secondary school teachers of Swedish. The data obtained from the interviews were analyzed in two ways. The first analysis focused on the way in which the prospective and novice teachers talked about text, writing, and the teaching of writing. The result shows that, at the beginning of the teacher education, prospective teachers focus on concrete aspects of text – such as syntax, punctuation and spelling – when they speak about text, writing, writing instruction, and assessment of student writings. In other words, they pay special attention to local text levels. At the end of the teacher education  programme, prospective teachers focus on aspects of text structure such as outline, the structure of paragraphs, coherence and cohesion. Certain aspects that the students pay special attention to are mentioned by the novice teachers, but these aspects are not central to them. Instead, novice teachers give special attention to the global text levels such as context, receivers and the purpose of the text, i.e. abstract aspects of text and writing. The pattern discerned shows a development that starts with a focus on the details at a local text level and expands into a more comprehensive view with a focus at a global level. The second analysis concerns the development of the knowledge base for the teaching of writing. This analysis focuses on two of the knowledge categories described by Lee S. Shulman (1986, 1987), namely subject matter knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), both of which can be seen as central for the teaching of writing. The knowledge base manifested in the prospective teachers’ utterances mainly consists of subject matter knowledge, whereas the greater part of the knowledge base manifested in the teachers’ utterances consists of pedagogical content knowledge for the teaching of writing. The teachers also manifest a more complex subject matter knowledge and speak about writing instruction in a way which is characterized by conscious choices, reflection and metacognition. The analysis thus shows that the PCK for the teaching of writing is mainly developed in the teaching profession; in other words, after the teacher education programme is finished.

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