JSET ejournal
Page 2 I can do it better on the computer
Cope and Kalantzis (1993) and others (Kamberelis, 1999; Englert et al., 1989; Freedman & Medway, 1994; Graham & Harris, 1989) suggested that the development of students' writing abilities can be enhanced through instruction on the text structures or the organizational patterns that underlie written language. Halliday and Martin (1992) proposed that a frequently-occurring text structure consists of an overarching introduction to a theme or purpose of the text that sets the direction and tone of the text; followed by supporting subtopics signaled by introductory or preparatory statements, as well as embellished with relevant details that elaborate on each subtopic by adding topical breadth and depth. Recursively, written text contains concluding or summary statements that, together, offer a wave-like function through the text; simultaneously, setting up and wrapping-up the subtopical presentations of information for the readers (Halliday & Martin, 1992). In this way, genres refer to a relatively stable set of discursive conventions associated with and partly constitutive of particular kinds of texts, text structures, and cultural practices. Since some have proposed that mastery of academic genres can provide access to realms of social influence and power (Cope & Kalantzis, 1993; Callaghan, Knapp, & Noble, 1993), effective writing curricula should offer instruction that makes explicit the way language works and reveals its underlying organizational structure (Cope & Kalantzis, 1993). Such instruction can make visible to students the underlying relational content, structure and functions of discourse, and the sequence of the steps that the learner goes through to comprehend and communicate knowledge in a formal writing setting (Cope & Kalantzis, 1993, p.1).
There are at least three ways in which technology can be used to support the written language performance of young writers. First, technology can highlight the properties and features of a particular text structure, making it more directly available for inspection. Through visual displays and prompts, technology can provide access to the text structures or sequence of steps that satisfy the requirements of a specific written language genre, thereby furthering the use of such knowledge by less experienced writers. When individuals operate with such mediational means, they might be expected to perform in a qualitatively different way, through their incorporation of genre-related features and sophisticated writing practices that otherwise might not be employed.
Second, technology can support communication by stretching the coordination of challenging writing processes and structures among the participants. Written texts are inherently responsive and dialogic. Writers and readers participate in a broader system of relations in which individuals' mastery of the language forms becomes the means by which they participate in the community, as well as the dialogic means by which they interpret the responses of preceding texts and utterances. By providing young writers with access to language structures and rhetorical forms that are functionally relevant to the writing task, technology offers conversational anchors and toolkits that enable individuals to communicate and participate in a language game based upon shared understandings and mutual collaborations (Wells, 1999; 2000). These conversational anchors can bind the writer, respondent, and the technology as collaborating partners engaged in a joint, goal-directed communication activity. Technology scaffolds, thus, can legitimate and further the user's participation in and mastery of the language game.
