Chapter 14
Setting up a coding scheme for the analysis of the dynamics of children’s
engagement with written corrective feedback
Triangulating data sources
This chapter describes the development of a coding
scheme for the analysis of young English as a foreign language learners’
engagement with model texts. After outlining the theoretical rationale
underlying our analytical procedure, and the methodological problems we
experienced when attempting to apply constructs developed in research with
adults to a younger and less proficient group of learners, I go on to
explain the multiple steps involved in our process-product analysis. Careful
triangulation of different measures including the children’s written texts,
handwritten notes, and transcripts of their collaborative dialogue across
two multi-stage tasks, enabled us to identify a series of trajectories
involving diverse combinations of noticing, strategic problem-solving, and
degrees of uptake. The coding categories and methodological decisions are
illustrated with examples from the children’s data. Limitations in the
procedure are also highlighted.
Article outline
- Introduction
- Overview of the research programme
- Coding scheme of children’s writing and WCF trajectories
- Uncovering children’s strategic problem-solving while writing
- Coding the written texts of very low proficiency learners
- Accounting for children’s noticing from model texts
- Tracing children’s problem-solving trajectories across the
multi-stage task
- Determining the language learning potential of the
trajectories
- Verifying the connection between the trajectories and L2 writing
development
- Conclusion
-
References