Unit 12 Teaching Writing
Aims of the Unit
- to understand the nature of writing in reality to learn a communicative approach to writing
- to be aware of the problems in writing tasks in existing textbooks to understand the process approach to writing Writing through e-mail
12.1 What, why and how do we write? What do we write? Writing is a real-life reality. Whether it is in social, work or study situations, we write to get things done and to form and maintain social relationships. In reality there is a great variety of things we write for example, letters, journals, notes, instructions, posters, essays, reports, menus. We fill in forms, answer questionnaires and similar tasks.
Why do we write?
We write for various reasons, such as to convey messages or just to keep a record of what is in our mind.
Reasons why we should get students involved in writing in a foreign language: Writing can give a voice to shy students as writing can serve as a medium through which less confident students can communicate with their teacher. Writing can be less threatening for anxious students as it gives them time to think about their meaning and purpose (Morgan, 2005). Writing can also raise awareness of how language works. Through writing, students will become more familiar with the linguistic and social conventions of writing in English. A contrast between writing in ELT classroom and writing in reality writing in ELT writing in classroom reality Purpose To consolidate To convey language message or recently learned for self (writing as creation language learning) Way to Students write We may write according to the have some topic and ideas long requirements before we given by the put them teacher in on paper. limited period of And we time; the focus often plan, is on the final draft, and product while rewrite. the process That is, we which the focus on students go the writing through while process. do the writing task is virtually ignored.
Principles for teaching writing
Choose the proper model for teaching.
Make the writing tasks for real communication. Focus on the process rather than the product. Instruct clearly for each stage.
Integrate writing with reading, listening, and speaking.
Pay attention to both product assessment and process assessment.
Basically, in teaching writing the teacher of English needs to give equal weight to clarity of expression, preciseness, conciseness, frequency, accuracy, and the ability to organize and
summarize ideas.
12. 2. A communicative approach to writing
Mechanical writing activities that are done in traditional ELT classroom do not by themselves motivate students. To motivate students, it is necessary to engage them in some act of communication. This means writing for a specific recipient or engaging in an act of creative writing where their work is intended to be read by an intended audience.
In short, students can be motivated by authentic writing tasks that have some communicative elements.
Some writing activities can be between “writing for learning” and “writing for communication”. 12. 3 Problems in writing tasks
Many writing tasks, both in existing textbooks and in classroom teaching, fail to have a communicative element due to the following deficiencies: 1. They are mainly accuracy-based.
2. They are designed to practice a certain target structures.
3. There is insufficient preparation before the writing stage. 4. There is no sense of audience or authenticity.
5. Students are given ideas to express rather than invited to invent their own.
6. There is no opportunity for creative writing, particularly for expressing unusual or original ideas.
7. Many of them are test-oriented. 12.4 A Process Approach to Writing 1. What is process approach to writing? The teacher provides some help to guide the students through the process that they undergo when they are writing. Of course this kind of guidance should be gradually withdrawn so that the students finally become independent writers. 2. What are the features of process writing?
Features of the process approach to writing summarized by Brown (1994:320-321): Focus on the process of writing that leads to the final written product; Help students writers to understand their own composing process;
Help them to build repertoires of strategies for prewriting, drafting, and rewriting; Give students time to write and rewrite;
Place central importance on the process of revision;
Let students discover what they want to say as they write;
Give students feedback throughout the composing process; (not just on the final product) to consider as they attempt to bring their expression closer and closer to intention; Encourage feedback both from the instructor and peers;
Include individual conferences between teacher and student during the process of composition. Suggestions on the Process Approach to Writing
Before writing, students work together to brainstorm topics and ideas. While writing, students should finish it by themselves.
After writing, there are a lot of options for the teacher to decide what to do next, e.g. peer reading,
discussion, rewriting.
The teacher could provide the students with a checklist to guide their peer reading and feedback. In other words, writing activities should serve to encourage a process of brainstorming, drafting, writing, feedback, revising and editing, which proceeds in a cyclical fashion resembling the writing process of a real writer. These types of activities should ‘encourage the idea that learning to write is more important than creating a final product; it is the learning of a series skills leading to the product.’ (Sokolik, 2003:96) Process-oriented Approach Pre-writing Drafting Revising Second draft
Teacher’s feedback
1) The Process of Writing
Drafting Organize
Explore the new idea Edit
Check idea and organization Correcting
Correct mistakes, such as spelling, usage, punctuation Publishing
Share it with others Pre- writing activities
Collect material,Choose object and audience
The process approach pays attention to pre-writing, while-writing and post-writing activities. Creating a motivation to write Brainstorming Mapping Freewriting Outlining Drafting Editing Revising Proofreading Conferencing
Creating a motivation to write Purpose or reason to write Interest
Brainstorming
Students’ thoughts can be inspired by each other’s sparkling points.
The more important is to get the students to think freely and put down all possible ideas that come to their mind.
Mapping
Mapping will give students the opportunity to select from the list these useful ideas to be included in their writing and also to see how these ideas can be put together in a coherent and logical way to present a convincing argument.
As pointed by Morgan (2005), when students see their ideas emerge visually on the page, it can stimulate more ideas. Free writing
Students are required to write anything that comes to their minds as quickly as possible without caring much about spelling and grammar.
Free writing can help students develop fluency in writing. Outlining
An outline usually illustrates the main organising structure and the most important points of the essay.
Main idea of each paragraph; Notes for supporting details;
An introduction and a conclusion.
It can be changed as the writer has better ideas. Drafting
At this stage, students should be given more time to write the first draft and developing ideas is more important than getting grammatical structures, punctuations or spelling correct. Editing
Editing is the stage when students read through their writings and check the clarity of ideas or the logical development of their arguments. Self-editing and peer-editing (what’s the benefit in editing?)
Exchange of ideas between editors and writers and justification of ideas. Revising
Revising is the stage when teachers guide students to make necessary improvements in both organization and contents based either self-editing or peer editing, eg. adding new points or deleting irrelevant facts, and correcting errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar or choice of words.
Revising can take several rounds, so students need to be prepared to write a second or third draft before they submit the final draft. Proofreading(校对)
The final stage in writing
To read the writing for mistakes in grammar, spelling, punctuation, or capitalization. Independent proofreading is encouraged.
Teachers should limit their involvement in making corrections for the students. They do not need to present all the correct forms. They can underline those problematic items and leave them for the students to do the correction themselves.
In order to keep tract of how students do self-correction, a form can be used so that both teachers and students can check from time to time to see if the same mistakes/errors are repeated.
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