Real-time Capture Data in Writing Research: Roundtable in PSU (2009)

A case for incorporating real-time capture data
to writing research and pedagogy:
A Vygotskian Perspective.
SCT Working Group Meeting 2009
Sungwoo Kim (Pennsylvania State University)

Structure of presentation
1. Sungwoo’s understanding of Applied Linguistics
2. Visualizations of history and interdependence across
disciplines
3. Real-time capture in writing research
 Research gap between oral and written data analysis
 Think aloud protocols
 Real-time capture data
4. Discussion
5. Useful tech tools for visualizing history
6. Open discussion
Page  2 PSU APLNG Round Table 10/09/2009

Beyond the visible,
to meet “Mind in History”
“… the things which are seen were not made of
things which are visible…” (Hebrew 11:3, KJV)

What I see vs. What it is
 What I see is just a partial image
of given phenomena. The
apparent whole is actually just a
part of the (historical) entirety.
 For example, my presentation
here is part of my ongoing
project. My research project has
its own history of getting
feedback from several people in
my community at PSU.

Applied Linguistics in Sungwoo’s version
 Applied Linguistics can be conceptualized as a
discipline concerned with history and interdependence
of our linguistic and symbolic interactions with other
people and the world.
 From this perspective, historical is synonymous with
social. Social phenomena is contemporary manifestation
of history on different timescales.

Multiple timescales inhabit even just a sentence.
I view Applied Linguistics as a discipline for revealing
history and human interdependence.
view A as B from high school textbook
discipline from my college English
reveal from Revelation in the Bible in my first encounter with NIV (New
International Version) in middle school, thus certainly with some religious taste
history from middle school, enriched here at PSU by Vygotsky’s genetic method
and Foucault’s genealogy
interdependence from ecological perspective (against “Independentism” in the
Western culture) which has been with me since my graduate school study,
recently associated with Emmanuel Levinas
a “the thing” reminding me of a long struggle with the English article system
(more than just the shortest word in English)

Two Key words in SW’s Applied Linguistics
 Interdependence
– Human symbolic actions are socioculturally mediated.
– We mediate each other.
 History
– Human (behavior) is formed and transformed through time.

History of our physical existence
They are also fantastically durable. Because they are so long
lived, atoms really get around. Every atom you possess has
almost certainly passed through several stars and been part
of millions of organisms on its way to becoming you. We are
each so atomically numerous and so vigorously recycled at
death that a significant number of our atoms—up to a billion
for each of us, it has been suggested—probably once
belonged to Shakespeare.

History of our physical existence
A billion more each came from Buddha and Genghis Khan
and Beethoven, and any other historical figure you care to
name. (The personages have to be historical, apparently, as it
takes the atoms some decades to become thoroughly
redistributed; however much you may wish it, you are not yet
one with Elvis Presley.)
(Bryson, B (2003). History of Nearly Everything, p. 134)

Interdependence of our sociocultural existence
This is why the unique speech experience of each individual
is shaped and developed in continuous and constant
interaction with others’ individual utterances. This
experience can be characterized to some degree as the
process of assimilation – more or less creative - of “our-own-ness,”
varying degrees of awareness and detachment. These
words of others carry with them their own expression, their
own evaluative tone, which we assimilate, rework, and re-accentuate.
(Bhaktin 1986: 89)

Vygotsky on Processes & History
Vygotsky argues, "Psychological analysis of objects should
be contrasted with the analysis of processes, which require a
dynamic display of the main points making up the processes'
history” (Vygotsky, 1978: 61). Vygotsky points out that
historical or developmental approaches to human mind are
essential because "it is only in movement that a body shows
what it is" (1978:65).

One example of history/interdependence
On Twitter

intersecting
World of multiple
(but not parallel) universes

Discourse in Multiple Universes
 Heterogeneous
 Multi-layered
 Abbreviated
 Unintelligible to those outside the “discourse circle”
 Different time scales

Example: DECODING NEEDED?
royalwine 나는 조씨 RT @sungwookim: 너 박기자? RT @
royalwine 조사 완료. RT @jaystory: 뒷태 전문 기자! @
sungwookim: 누규? @sophiekkim RT 뒷조사는 박기자.
RT @royalwine: 뒷조사 시작less than a year ago

Immediate discourse
 sophiekkim @sungwookim 그러게요, 점점 짧아지는 트윗 RT 의 묘미. :D @jaystory @
royalwineless than a year from Seesmic in reply to sungwookimto KO
 sungwookim @royalwine 대화 압축 알고리듬이 무척 재미있다는 ... 140자의 압박이 다양한
압축 알고리듬을 만들어낸다는... 물론 상대가 누구냐에 따라서 알고리듬 패러미터 값이 무척 달
라진다는... ;;; @jaystory @sophiekkimless than a year from web in reply to royalwineto KO
 royalwine 나는 조씨 RT @sungwookim: 너 박기자? RT @royalwine 조사 완료. RT @
jaystory: 뒷태 전문 기자! @sungwookim: 누규? @sophiekkim RT 뒷조사는 박기자. RT @
royalwine: 뒷조사 시작less than a year from twhirlto KO
Plus offline relationship and direct messages!
 헉 박기자님? RT @royalwine 저 셜록홈즈 뺨친다는... ^ ^v RT @jaystory: 뒷태 전문 기자! @
sungwookim: 박기자 누규? @sophiekkim RT 뒷조사는 박기자. RT @royalwine: 뒷조사 시작
11:07 AM Aug 27th from web to KO
 죄송하지만 박기자님이라고 하시면 누구이시온지... @sophiekkimRT 원래 뒷조사는 박기자님
이... RT @royalwine: @sungwookim아닐 듯, 아닐 듯... 분명히 뭔가가 있다능... 뒷조사 해봐
야짐. 후후훗.. -.-+10:55 AM Aug 27th from web to KO
 @royalwine 헛 뒷조사라굽쇼? 무셔라. =3=3=3 도주중~10:46 AM Aug 27th from web
in reply to royalwineto KO
 royalwine @sungwookim 아닐 듯, 아닐 듯... 분명히 뭔가가 있다능... 뒷조사 해봐야짐. 후후
훗.. -.-+less than a year from twhirl in reply to sungwookimto

Thus the tasks are
 to visualize how the multiple universes allow an individual
or a group of people to engage in a certain linguistic
activity
 to trace the development of the activity
 to develop methodology to transform what we are doing in
a development-conducive way

Some examples
 Interdependence – Social Relationship
 History – Change over time
 Examples of making interdependence / history visible
– LCA
– Wiki
– Google Wave
– Painting Process
– Other visualizations

Life Cycle Analysis
 The goal of LCA is to compare the environmental
performance of products and services, to be able to
choose the least burdensome one. The term 'life cycle'
refers to the notion that a fair, holistic assessment requires
the assessment of raw material production, manufacture,
distribution, use and disposal including all intervening
transportation steps. This is the life cycle of the product.
The concept also can be used to optimize the
environmental performance of a single product
(ecodesign) or to optimize the environmental
performance of a company.
http://www.ecohuddle.com/wiki/life-cycle-assessments

Life Cycle Assessment
 A life cycle assessment (also known as life cycle analysis,
life cycle inventory, ecobalance, cradle-to-grave-analysis,
well-to-wheel analysis, and dust-to-dust energy cost) is
the assessment of the environmental impact of a given
product or service throughout its lifespan.
http://www.ecohuddle.com/wiki/life-cycle-assessments

Life Cycle Analysis
Source: http://ehsstrategies.com/lcm.htm

WIKI Platform
You can compare
any two of these pages.
http://esl015.pbworks.com/

Google Wave
 Google Wave
– Clip 1: http://splicd.com/xBzuuWZPaXc/1/53
– Clip 2: Playback http://splicd.com/xBzuuWZPaXc/149/163
– Clip3: Translation
– http://splicd.com/xBzuuWZPaXc/292/334

Visualization of discursive actions
Examples from Twitter-related websites
 http://beta.twittervision.com/
 http://twistori.com/#i_feel
 http://www.wordnik.com
 http://www.google.com (why am I ~_)

Visualization
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/08/31/business/31novelCA02ready.html

History of Programming Language
http://oreilly.com/news/graphics/prog_lang_poster.pdf
Visualizes genealogy of programming language
http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/visualizations?
q=language
Language-related visuals from the IBM project “Manyeyes”
http://colors.collectingsmiles.com/details/9213-
shh....._by_anastasky.php History of the painting
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/08/02/data-visualization-modern-
approaches/ Other visualization showcases

A Case for incorporating real-time capture
data to writing research

Importance of History in Sociocultural Theory
Four genetic domains for the proper study of higher mental
functions (Lantolf, 2006)
1. Phylogenetic domain: development of the human species
(mainly biological)
2. Sociocultural domain: human society and culture
3. Ontogenetic domain: human development over one's
lifespan
4. Microgenetic domain: the reorganization and
development of mediation over a relatively short span of
time

Four domains in writing research
 For example, the researcher's writing activity at this
moment should be understood as a process involving the
evolution of the human brain (phylogenesis), writing
practice in a highly literate culture with strong influence of
technology on academic writing (sociocultural domain),
the researcher's history of learning and engaging in
writing activities over his lifetime (ontogenesis), and
moment-by-moment genesis of writing vis-a-vis his
consultation with mediational tools like online dictionaries
for bilingual translation or search engines for marshalling
semiotic repertoire from academic corpora
(microgenesis).

Issue1: Gap in Research Methods
Do we have right methods for researching
the microgenesis of writing?
or
Do we have rigorous methods to properly
understand the dynamics of online (real-time)
writing practices?

Issue1: Gap in Research Methods
Spoken
– Real-time utterances
– Transcripts
– Think aloud
– etc
Written
– No real-time data
– Final drafts
– Think aloud
– etc
Analysis of written data lacks the real-time
picture of learners’ writing
performance.

Analysis of Written Data
Wolfe-Quintero, Inagaki, & Kim (1998)'s meta analysis
1. Counts of number of words, clauses, sentences, or T-units
in a text
2. Averages of the number of words per clause, per
sentence, per T-unit, per error-free clause, or per error-free
T-units in a text
-> Based on final products of writing

Issue 2: Think Aloud Protocol
But if so, it followed that all introspection is in one respect
misleading. In introspection we try to look "inside ourselves"
and see what is going on. But nearly everything that was
going on a moment before is stopped by the very act of our
turning to look at it. Unfortunately this does not mean that
introspection finds nothing. On the contrary, it finds
precisely what is left behind by the suspension of all our
normal activities; and what is left behind is mainly mental
images and physical sensations. The great error is to mistake
this mere sediment or track or byproduct for the activities
themselves. (C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy 218-219)

TAP Methodology in Writing Research
Arndt, 1987; Braaksma, Rijlaarsdam, van den Bergh & van
Hout-Wolters, 2004; Flower & Hayes, 1981; Jourdenais, 1998;
Kozma, 1991; Qi & Lapkin, 2001; Swarts, Flower & Hayes, 1984;
Wang & Wen, 2002; Witte & Cherry, 1994; Woodall, 2002;
Zamel 1983
- Based on Wurzburg proposal that "the word is nothing but
the external clothing of thought" and behaviorist's formula
that "thought is speech" (Bruner, 2004: 19).

Criticisms of TAP
Smagorinsky (1998: 163) criticizes TAP from a cultural-historical
activity theory perspective. He argues that
studies adopting TAP "has the appearance of being a
solitary act, yet from a CHAT perspective can only be
understood a social act."
Afflerbach and Johnson (1984: 311)“a crowding of the
cognitive workbench”
Hyland (2002) - TAP can cause overload of short-term
memory

Criticisms of TAP (Cont’d)
Lantolf (1990: 180) "The fact that individuals engage in inner
speech when carrying out certain mental activities is not
at all the same thing as remembering to speak aloud for
the benefit of a researcher.”
Swain (2006: 110) “Think alouds and stimulated recalls are
not, as some would have it, “brain dumps”; rather they are
a process of comprehending and reshaping experience –
they are part of what constitutes development and
learning”

real-time capture data

Real-time capture data analysis
JH’s case (Final text)
Doping, as it is often argued, as a sphere of enhancing
performance in sport has been a fascinating debate from
a philosophical standpoint mainly related to ontology
concerned the appropriateness of artificial substance
based on human nature.

A teacher’s comment on the text
 I believe 'as it is often argued' is a good attempt at hedging or
possibly putting this sentence into a context of one argument among
many but is problematic in that it does not really situate the argument,
like it would with a citation and has some grammar issues with the use
of 'as.' The writer is trying to either hedge or situate but looks like
s/he is experiencing some difficulties…
 This writer reminds me of a student I taught in Korea, who was very
highly educated and possessed an almost infinite (or so it seemed)
English vocabulary, but who could not put together an English
sentence without using two or three five syllable words that rarely
made an sense. I deeply respected this students intellect, but wanted
to move him towards writing simply so that I could actually make
sense of what he was writing. It was an interesting if frustrating
experience. (Refer to your handout)

Self Revisions Revealed
 21:53
concept -> extent -> boundary -> extent
… departing from the extent of golden mean.
the concept
the boundary
 Paradigmatic options (One’s repertoire of synonymous
lexical items)
 A glimpse of a writer’s semantic network / L1 transfer

Conclusion
1. Capture data as an methodological complementation
– Real-time capture as a window to writers’ composing process
– Simulated recall as a ‘pair tool’ to look at writers’ interpretation of
different ‘writing scenes’
-> Development of more thorough methods combining various
resources: “Thick description of writing practices”

Conclusion
2. Capture data as a strategy of pedagogical intervention
– Capturing practice as a strategy to reflect one’s own writing
– Capture data as an orienting artifact in writing conference
– Capture data as an window to look at students’ “hidden linguistic
repertoire”

Conclusion
3. Writing Process as Thinking Process
– Need to revisit the false dichotomy of “thinking inside” and
“externalizing the thought”
– Need to dialectically conceptualize thinking and speaking / thinking
and writing and ultimately
-> human mind “in society” not “in brain”
– Distributed cognition / Extended mind

Feynman’s Paper and Pencil
Consider this famous exchange between the Nobel Prize–
winning physicist Richard Feynman and the historian Charles
Weiner.1 Weiner, encountering with a historian’s glee a
batch of Feynman’s original notes and sketches, remarked
that the materials represented “a record of [Feynman’s] day-to-
day work.” But instead of simply acknowledging this
historic value, Feynman reacted with unexpected sharpness:

Feynman’s Paper and Pencil
“I actually did the work on the paper,” he said.
“Well,” Weiner said, “the work was done in your head, but
the record of it is still here.”
“No, it’s not a record, not really. It’s working. You have to work
on paper and this is the paper. Okay?” (from Gleick 1993,
409)
Feynman’s suggestion is, at the very least, that the loop into
the external medium was integral to his intellectual activity
(the “working”) itself. But I would like to go further and
suggest that Feynman was actually thinking on the paper.
(Clark 2008: xxv)

Useful tools for visualizing history/relations
 Camtasia Studio – desktop software for screen capture
http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp
 Screen Cast – web-based freeware for screen capture
http://www.screencast.com/
 Google Analytics – Data mining tool for your website and search engine
http://www.google.com/analytics/
 Many Eyes (IBM) – Visualization of data
http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/page/Tour.html
 PBWiki http://www.pbworks.com
 Zoho Creator https://creator.zoho.com/

Open discussion
1. Does the clip give insights for our understanding of
the learner's writing process?
2. How may screen capture enhance writing instruction
and evaluation?
3. How may screen capture, as methodology, inform
writing research?
4. How do these history- and relationship-visualizing
examples enhance our research as applied linguists?
5. Any other thoughts? Comments?

Thank you.
Sungwoo Kim
(Thanks to Kwanghyun Park, Steve L. Thorne, Matt Poehner, James P. Lantolf:
Names in historical order!)

Real-time Capture Data in Writing Research: Roundtable in PSU (2009)

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