Writing processes with word processing in teaching English as a foreign language

Abstract The project aimed at describing and analysing word processing integrated into the students' writing of school compositions using a process-oriented approach in the teaching of English at intermediate level in the classroom. The project may be characterised as an exploratory, qualitatively-oriented study with a pyramid-structured design in which various layers of information are collected. Initial analysis of 3 years of data has started and some preliminary conclusions have been arrived at. In general, the students did little planning and frequently changed from one process level to another. Formulation was done at clause, phrase or word level if possible, or a switch into Danish took place and reversion to English did not occur until the formulation had been agreed. The spell checker trapped about 80% of spelling mistakes but students did not always use the correct form suggested, and if a correct solution was not offered, students rarely tried to solve the problem in other ways. In an examination, the spell checker would have been able to trap about half of the errors, but no reliable generalisations can be made at this stage.