Text Manipulation Techniques and Foreign Language Composition

Abstract

The approach to foreign language composition presented here has been developed over a period of several years and is in current use in an advanced German composition and conversation course at the fourth-year level at Colorado State University. Considerable success with these techniques has allowed the instructor to demand much more of students in matters of style, cohesion and coherence, as well as in the development of ideas, than was true prior to their institution. This approach to teaching foreign language composition on an advanced level relies upon 1) the careful analysis of model texts from a limited but well defined perspective and 2) the application to student compositions of the text manipulation techniques developed by the word processing industry. Word processing evolved as a response to the information explosion which permeates almost every aspect of our lives.' It is designed to manage more efficiently the accumulation, organization, and distribution of information. A word processing operator can electronically rearrange textual elements in a given context: words, phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs, even whole chapters or sections. Any of these syntactic elements may be replaced by parallelisms or synonyms to improve the logic, cohesion, or style of the composition. There is then a lexical function to text manipulation, i.e., word choice, and a syntactic function, i.e., word order. These two instructional processes-analysis of model texts and the use of text manipulation techniques-lead students from the mere stringing together of sentences to writing with regard for the purpose and intended effect of their composition. Before students can write, they must be able to read. Before they can arrange the elements of their own compositions to produce a desired effect, they must be able to recognize the perceived or intended effect of the elements in a model text. In the first stage of this approach the students read a text or texts, study various elements, and become aware of the intention of the author in selecting a given word or idiom from among possible alternatives. By suggesting these alternatives, the student reaches an understanding of the importance of word choice and word order. The model text needs to be short, but may be one of several types: literary, journalistic, explanatory, or narrative. The process begins with an analytical reading of the model text in class. The students read the selection prior to class and are expected to understand the basic information contained in the selection.