‘Book in a Week’ - Can Creative Writing Enhance Language Learning and Learner Confidence in Students?

Yuka, M. and Skipper, Y. (2021) ‘Book in a Week’ - Can Creative Writing Enhance Language Learning and Learner Confidence in Students? In: Third JAAL in JACET Conference (JAAL in JACET 2020), 5-6 Dec 2020, pp. 50-56.

Abstract

We report the process and outcome of the first English fiction writing camp organised for students in Japan during the summer following the coronavirus induced state of emergency. ‘White Water Writers’ is an intensive course giving a group of participants the opportunity to co-author a work of fiction and publish it in 5 days. The 7 Japanese participants wrote 97 pages, approximately 7000 words in English, their second language, about university students fighting a pandemic. All the text and ideas they produced were entirely their own and they even designed the cover. The camp was facilitated by a group of researchers from universities in the UK and Japan. The project focuses on learner autonomy, with the participants planning, writing and proofreading the novel themselves. In this camp, which was the first to be conducted online and with writers producing text in a second language, we encouraged the target language use through fluency activities and meaning-focused input and output rather than language focused learning. Based on the data we collected from participants and our own observations we argue that this approach effectively developed participants’ language skills, improved intrinsic motivation and self-perceived efficacy, especially in their commandof English.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Skipper, Dr Yvonne
• Authors: Yuka, M., and Skipper, Y.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Education; College of Social Sciences > School of Education > People, Place & Social Change
• ISSN: 2434-8821
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 JACET
• First Published: First published in Proceedings of the Third JAAL in JACET Conference (JAAL in JACET 2020), 5-6 December 2020, Online, Vol.3, pp 50-56

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