| The objective of this study was to document the state of practice in the teaching of writing within secondary foreign language classrooms and to compare these findings to theory. The setting for this investigation was the rural Midwest.;This qualitative study met three objectives in its investigation. First, it documented the professional literature's recommendations for writing instruction. Secondly, three focus groups in which selected teachers shared how they provide writing instruction were audio and videotaped. Thirdly, it was determined to what extent practice incorporates or conflicts with theory.;In this study the recommendations of the professional literature served as the basis of an outline that guided the focus group conversations. Data were collected and analyzed with Symbolic Convergence Theory's primary evaluative concept; fantasy theme analysis (FTA). FTA consisted of collecting the evidence and then describing and defining the narrative of the participants who symbolically converged to create a shared group consciousness. This was followed by identification and categorization of the recurrent themes for redundancy, intensity, and creativity. After this, the participants' rhetorical vision was reconstructed (Cragan, 2000, in press; Bormann, 1981).;The visions were pure or mixed; righteous, social, and/or pragmatic. They identified factors of relevance to understanding practice such as dramatis personnae, facts, chained and unchained statements, symbolic cues, and fantasy themes.;Conclusions of this study revealed challenges, limits and problems in instruction, and the areas where theory and practice meet or conflict. Recommendations were (1) that teachers develop a wider theory base in areas of relevance to second language writing instruction, (2) that reasons for teacher burnout be addressed, (3) that all shortcomings of the educational system be identified and (4) that professional development consist of long range collaborative research and weekly seminars. |
