Acquiring written language is a complex process that spans an entire school year. And the omnipresence of digital tools requires rethinking how we learn, as screens require a different way of processing information. From notebooks to computers or smartphones, the logic is no longer the same. Here are some ideas for reflection.

“Writing is not progressing; it even seems to be in decline.” If you think you’re reading an excerpt from François Bayrou’s announcement last March, on the occasion of the announcement of a plan for writing in schools , you’re mistaken. It’s a quote from the school inspector Irénée Carré, in 1889.

The mastery of writing and its teaching have always been the subject of political discourse , reflecting the social issues surrounding writing which, in addition to being a powerful cognitive transformer, is an essential tool for social integration . Whether in a mother tongue or a foreign language, on paper or on a screen, to write is to think .

As a social need, writing catalyzes inequalities. Added to other factors, its mastery allows access to greater academic, professional, and social success . And this success is more likely to lead to situations in which we continue to reflect and enrich ourselves intellectually.

We therefore understand the need to teach writing in schools , and even at university. Moreover, while the issues of teaching writing have long been a concern for professionals, the omnipresence of digital writing raises new questions. What are the differences between writing on paper and writing on a screen? What does digital writing imply, both socially and in terms of its acquisition?

The specificities of digital writing

Writing is a complex and cognitively expensive activity . To write, you need to implement a large number of processes simultaneously: retrieving information from long-term memory, transforming this semantic information into text, producing the text by hand or typing it , checking the result against the initial goals, taking your reader into account, respecting a number of linguistic and discursive norms, etc.

If you’re writing in a foreign language, there are additional challenges  : you may not have access to all the necessary vocabulary, operations take longer, you have your native language in mind, etc

When writing in a digital space, other specificities must also be taken into account. A distinction must be made between digitized writing, which is a type of paper writing on a different medium, and digital writing, which involves an understanding of the computer environment. Mastering digital writing does not mean learning to write or read on a screen. It requires being able to both process information and construct meaning while taking the machine into account.

Activating or following hyperlinks, commenting on an article, interacting with content using emojis, likes, or reactions, using instant messaging or generative AI, designing slideshows, and collaborating on the same document are examples of situations that fall under digital writing. These actions involve processes that cannot be implemented when writing a digitized text on paper.

From an attention perspective, learning in a digital space can be facilitated by precise and appropriate use of certain tools, such as platforms that allow you to regulate the independent listening of an audio document, for example, links that allow you to access additional information, and correctors. But it can also be hindered when you are faced with too much information at once, or when you constantly navigate from one tab to another.

An example of a study on the use of online translation

As part of my research, I was particularly interested in the contribution of automatic neural translation , with tools like DeepL, to teaching written production in French as a foreign language.

The goal is to understand the extent to which using DeepL improves writers’ performance. To this end, I conducted an experimental study with Chinese university students in France. The students first wrote an essay without assistance, then a second essay for which they could freely use DeepL.

Students’ screens were recorded while they were writing. This technique allows for the observation and comparison of writing activities  : typing time, time spent translating, pauses between each step, cursor movements, etc.

The results of this study highlighted varied writer profiles. When they can use DeepL, some students use their native language a lot and thus take more breaks, which is a good sign since pauses allow them to focus on the overall appearance of the text, its coherence, and the ideas it contains. Other students spend more time writing in French, which could be in line with teachers’ objectives. Future studies may make it possible to make connections between these writer profiles and student progress.

We also noticed that when a student switches between tasks quickly and repeatedly, their writing performance tends to decline. This is consistent with other research findings that suggest frequent activity switching increases cognitive load and can negatively impact student performance.

What strategies for rethinking teaching?

These analyses also made it possible to show how learners use the tool and to identify different strategies, which can be discussed with the students:

• translating sentences or expressions from the mother tongue into the foreign language can be used to initiate or complete production;
• alternating languages ​​can help build complex ideas;
• translating the text entirely can be used to obtain a corrected version, to recover certain elements, to write only in the mother tongue;
• Comparing the native language version and the foreign language version can help us reflect on language.

Students can delegate certain operations, which facilitates the writing process. Be careful, however, it is also possible to avoid operations. However, in a cognitive approach to language learning , we do not seek to avoid operations that lead to problem solving, but to support them. This is what leads students to solve increasingly complex problems on their own.

Online translators are writing aids that can be used in teaching foreign language writing. Considering how the translator helps students process information and construct meaning is essential for teaching digital writing.

Author Bio: Maëlle Ochoa is a Doctoral student in second language teaching at the University of Bordeaux