Even though teachers of the language of schooling and of foreign languages all teach writing in their respective language classrooms, research has shown that few cross-curricular connections are made in their teaching practices (Forbes, 2020; Haukås, 2016; Vikøy & Haukås, 2023). The present PhD project attends to this gap, aiming at (1) showcasing and explaining the complexity of teaching writing in different languages taught at school, and (2) exploring whether and how teachers of different languages may align their teaching approaches to writing. Data were collected at two secondary schools in Berlin, Germany, where German is the language of schooling, English the first foreign language and French or Spanish the second foreign language. 

Nexus analysis (Scollon & Scollon, 2004) served as the theoretical and methodological framework for this study. Theoretically, nexus analysis provided an understanding of teachers’ social actions as mediated by circulating discourses, among which were the Discourses of Writing (DoW) (Ivanič, 2004). Methodologically, nexus analysis provided concepts to divide the research design into two phases: an ethnographic and a design phase. 

The ethnographic observation phase revealed that teachers of German, English, French and Spanish had divergent teaching approaches: the Genre DoW was foregrounded in most German classrooms while writing tasks in the foreign language classrooms were predominantly motivated by the Skills DoW. In both cases, assessment and upcoming examinations often motivated writing tasks. Multilingual teaching practices happened in the form of grammar and vocabulary comparisons while cross-curricular practices meant that teachers drew on or even coordinated teaching content from other language subjects. However, such practices were few and far between and were more opportunistic than systematic. 

In an attempt to systematize these practices, the design phase involved the development of teaching materials. The materials incorporated already circulating discourses (Genre, Skills, assessment among others) but additionally foregrounded the Social Practice DoW. This discourse promotes writing as a social practice with a communicative purpose and encouraged cross-curricular teaching practices because the same or similar materials were used in all language subjects. The materials were multilingual in German, English, French and Spanish and, where appropriate, left space for any additional languages that students might know. This dissertation discusses to what extent teacher–researcher collaborations can foster change in teaching approaches to writing from autonomous to multilingual and cross-curricular ones. 

Keywords: writing, multilingualism, teaching practice, cross-curricular collaboration, nexus analysis, discourse, educational linguistics