Reenseñar la escritura a estudiantes universitarios

Resumen

Debido a que en Argentina acceden a algunas carreras universitarias alumnos con dificultades importantes en el uso de la lengua escrita, en el plan de estudios en Educación Física del Centro Regional Bariloche de la Universidad Nacional del Comahue se incluyó la asignatura “Usos y Formas de la Lengua Escrita”. El proyecto didáctico que presentamos se desarrolló a partir de un primer examen diagnóstico y un curso intensivo para algunos alumnos cuyas dificultades eran menores; los reprobados (aplazados) debieron cursar la asignatura regularmente en un cuatrimestre.

La propuesta consistió en integrar actividades de lectura y escritura de complejidad creciente, aplicando el modelo “Transformar el conocimiento” de Bereiter y Scardamalia. De disciplinas como la Lingüística Textual, la Pragmática y la Psicología Sociohistórica, tomamos categorías que funcionaron como organizadores del proceso de comprensión y producción del texto como objeto y espacio semiótico. El recorrido fue del uso al sentido y de allí a la organización formal, problematizando el trayecto de los mecanismos de construcción del sujeto discursivo. Se incluyeron ademáas actividades metacognitivas que operaron como instancias de autoevaluación. Los resultados de los exámenes parciales y final brindan información relevante acerca de las relaciones entre adquisición de conciencia lingüística y habilidad discursiva, así como de otros aspectos específicos. Se plantean, por otra parte, nuevos problemas didácticos

Abstract

In Argentina students with important difficulties on the use of written language have access to some university careers. For this reason, it was decided to include «Uses and Forms of Written Language» in the Physical Education curriculum at the Universidad Nacional del Comahue (Bariloche Regional Centre). The present didactic project was based on an initial diagnostic exam and an intensive course given to students who were found to have minor difficulties. Those who did not successfully complete the course were required to take the subject during a four-month period

The proposal involved integrating reading and writing activities of increasing complexity using Bereiter and Scardamalia's “Knowledge transforming” model. Different categories, acting as organizers of text comprehension and production processes both as object and semiotic space, were taken from disciplines such as Textual Linguistic, Pragmatics, and Socio-historical Psychology. The process progressed from learning its use to its meaning and from there to its formal organization; the problem space involved constructing mechanisms of the discursive subject. Metacognitive activities aimed at self-evaluation were also included. Test results have provided important information on the relationship between acquisition of linguistic conscience and discursive skills. Didactic problems are also discussed

Extended Summary

The article describes the didactic proposal underlining a course on the «Uses and Forms of Written Language» at the Physical Education Bariloche Regional Centre, Comahue National University in Argentina. The proposal was elaborated to meet the needs of fist-year university students with reading and writing difficulties.

A pragmatic perspective of discursive gender (Baktin) was adopted to address written text as an external object which is internalized through usage, i.e., with respect to both reading and writing activities. Categories were taken from Textual Linguistics in order to approach the space of mental constrution. Socio-historic Psychology served as framework to define students' didactic sequence, which progressed from understanding a text's use, its meaning, and its decontextualized form.

The proposal thus covers the following phases: 1) how we use texts, 2) how we recognize them; and 3) how we construct them. Reading activities were organized following Luria's concept of semantic nucleus, used as a comprehension tool. Writing activities were based on textual gender in specific communicative practices. Textual cohesion mechanisms were regulated through intentions and mental actions as a function of pragmatic and thematic coherence. Therefore, lexical-syntactical exercises were carried to achieve local coherence. Bereiter and Scardamalia's (1992) «knowledge transformation» model was used to problematize the production of texts by including in the instructions the interaction between content space and rhetorical space. Specifically the task required students to carry out an interview, then to write a report about it and to describe the content of the inerview by means of indirect statements.

At the end of the course some students had reached a self-regulatory level. This was demonstrated by the fact that they were able to plan contextualized texts with a discursive organization and an acceptable paratextual disposition. Overall, students who did not pass the final test were considered to be those who were not able acknowledge their difficulties and so they tended to repeat their errors. The acquisition of discursive skills as a product of linguistic awareness is linked to students who recognize, control, and evaluate -through meta-cognitive activities- reading and writing as mental processes.

Palabras clave:

• Propuesta didáctica
• composición escrita
• estrategias de enseñanza

Keywords:

• Didactic proposal
• written composition
• teaching strategies