Remedial and Support Teachers'
Association
of Queensland
›› Reviews
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›› Reviews |
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Coordinating transcription and text generation in working
memory during composing: automatic and constructive processes One
element of an ‘old-fashioned’ literacy program was the expectation
that students needed to transcribe regularly. This belief was probably
based on the understanding that the education system needed to produce
large numbers of employees for public service who were capable of copying
large numbers of documents accurately. By the 1960’s, transcription
was viewed as a low-level skill that had no place in an English curriculum. However, in this article which owes a lot to Berninger’s understanding of information processing, the author argues ‘that a viable model of how children learn to compose must include a transcription component and an expanded view of working memory. In this expanded view, working memory is not only capacity limited but also temporally constrained: low-level transcription and high-level constructive processes must be orchestrated in real time during composing. The degree to which transcription is automatized affects the temporal coordination process and the allocation of limited capacity resources.’ The
author’s sophisticated analysis of how a writer needs to coordinate
the different aspects of composition is worth examining closely. She
describes the writing process as a complex piece of ‘architecture’
where the modules in the writing process need to interact effectively
with minimal disruption from the load of lower-level processes. She
suggests that one instructional implication in her model is to encourage
the ‘production and use and notes’. In this way, she believes
transcription and composition can be coordinated in time more effectively.
In terms of the total process of writing, handwriting and spelling are
two of the processes she discusses. This is a highly sophisticated article with considerable detail on the workings of the various elements during the composition process. It has much to say to teachers working to develop the right emphases in their writing curriculum for students with learning difficulties. |