Presenter: Heather Willis Allen, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Title: Scaffolding L2 writing instruction using a Design approach

Time: 3:30 PM-5:00 PM, Wednesday, October 20 

Zoom link: https://virginia.zoom.us/j/95883849039(link is external) Password: IWL

Abstract: Although writing is a critical 21st century skill in personal, educational, and professional domains, it is often seen by collegiate language instructors as the most challenging linguistic modality to teach and by students as less valuable than other modes of expression. This workshop will begin with an exploration of participants’ experiences and perceptions of teaching L2 writing followed by a discussion of an integrated pedagogy for L2 writing instruction, i.e., a Design approach, based on writing research and multiliteracies pedagogy. The workshop will conclude with examples of implementing Design writing pedagogy and with opportunities for participants to reflect on how they might integrate elements of this approach into their own teaching practices.

Heather Willis Allen is Associate Professor of French in the Department of French and Italian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a core faculty member of her university’s second language acquisition doctoral program. She teaches undergraduate French culture and writing courses and graduate courses in applied linguistics and serves as Course Chair for Elementary and Intermediate French. Her research has appeared in the ADFL Bulletin, CALICO Journal, Foreign Language Annals, the French Review, Language Teaching Research, L2 Journal, and the Modern Language Journal.  Her collaborative projects have included co-authoring A Multiliteracies Framework for Collegiate Foreign Language Teaching (2016 with Kate Paesani and Beatrice Dupuy) and Alliages Cultures: La Société Française en Transformation (2013 with Sebastien Dubreil) and co-editing the 2011 AAUSC volume Educating the Future Foreign Language Professoriate for the 21st Century with Hiram Maxim. Her current project is a book-length monograph on the use of Design pedagogy for teaching L2 writing.