Working with a real writing project: Enhancing the professional development of student teachers

LAURA MARINA COLOMBO; GRISEL FRANCHI; ANDREA BRITTES; MARIA VICTORIA SARTOR

Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires

Jornada; IV Jornada de Educación y Traducción E.N.S.L.V. S.B. de Spangenberg: Traductores y Docentes de Lenguas Extranjeras: Su Formación, Saberes y Prácticas; 2015

Escuela Normal Superior en Lenguas Vivas ?Sofía E. B. de Spangenberg?

In our increasingly challenging work as language teachers we need to become involved in professional activities not only as consumers but also as producers of knowledge. Based on the assumption that academic writing is central to the latter as well as to the development of the profession, this presentation discusses how future English language teachers can benefit from being mentored to write and disseminate academic works. Departing from a critical standpoint of literacy practices in second language, we first discuss the place of writing for publishing in teacher education. Then, informed in the situated learning theory, we advocate for pedagogical initiatives that help students acquire academic literacy practices through their participation in academic and professional communities. We illustrate our claims by making explicit the pedagogical rationale of a writing course offered to English language teaching students. In addition, we share our own experience in being part of a curricular space where working with a real writing project allowed teacher and students to work collaboratively and not only discuss but also enact the literacy practices that surround writing for publication. We conclude that initiatives like the one described are central to form professionals who defy the solitude of the classroom and actually participate in their disciplinary communities aligning themselves as practitioners and knowledge producers. Finally, we propose some institutional and classroom initiatives that could be implemented to facilitate student participation in academic and professional circles through writing and, thus, promote their lifelong development.