Didactics of academic writing in a BA in foreign language teaching

This article presents the results of an exploratory study on the teaching of writing and the training in writing didactics in a foreign language teaching training program at a university. The proposal sits at the intersection of writing studies at university with teacher training and language didactics, axes of the curriculum of the BA. The objective was to characterize the didactics of writing in the first phase of the study program,. To this end, the teaching of writing in foreign languages (English and French) in semesters 1 to 4 was examined. The methodology consisted of a collective case study and collaborative work with fellow teachers. The semi-structured interview, the focus group and the observations provided the data and content analysis and triangulation were used for its processing. We found that teachers have a strong sense of responsibility with the teaching of writing, oriented from the didactics of foreign languages. Teaching is configured in different ways, not always consciously or intentionally to serve as a didactic model for teacher training and there was no evidence of structured and shared knowledge about the didactics of writing in the specific subjects. The question of training in the didactics of writing as part of the professional competencies of foreign language teachers remains open.