Den (schweren) Weg zum professionellen Schreiben mittels Scaffolding erleichtern. Ein Bericht zu einem Online-Tool der angewandten Sprachwissenschaft

Abstract

www.WRILAB2.eu/ is an online tool of Applied Linguistics to promote professional and literacy competences in German, Italian, Slovenian and Czech as second and foreign languages. According to the Scaffolding Theory, WRILAB2 provides learners with materials and strategies to support a self-regulated learning process based on their level of knowledge and competence; it thus creates a framework and offers tools for developing professional writing skills. This contribution focuses on some crucial aspects of the EU-project, particularly regarding its technical implementation by means of the Moodle-platform. More specifically, it discusses how the resources of this open-source learning management system were exploited to carry out the project, moving from Linguistic and Writing Research Theory to the adoption of the Scaffolding approach. Special attention is paid to the conception and impact of instruction and mediation texts, the so-called prompts, on the basis of the twelve German-language Moodle units. Finally, the positive and critical aspects of the tool are compared.