Teaching writing

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TABLE OF CONTENT

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays teaching to express correctly own thoughts in written and oral form became very important. Writing and written speech is a basis for further teaching (learning) development. Bad development of writing influences on the understanding of other school subjects and pupils social adaptation in general.

              From the point of view of Professor Levina R.E. the successful learning of writing process is conditioned by the condition of suppositions of this kind of activity, in other words that means forming of pronouns skills, certain level of auding, enough volume of linguistical knowledge.

              During the analysis of writing activity and in particular during the studying of readiness for learning (development) skills of writing activity, it is necessary to keep in mind some aspects of this issue. First of all writing activity is a part of language phenomenon. That is why it is necessary to consider factors, which define this kind of speech activity from linguistical and psycolinguistical (writing activity is a system of connected writing expressions producing) positions. At the same time writing activity is a special kind of human activity where it is important to define psychological (writing activity is a component of other kinds of activity (epistolary, educational, activity of management and etc.), inside of which it has a certain structural place and functionality) and physiological (writing activity is a process of realization producing productive speech signals and providing them with higher psychological functions) aspects. As a result of this it is necessary to keep in mind not only doctrine about psychical operations but also psyco – physiological structure of each operation.

              Because of that fact that writing activity in the framework of educational process is a subject of teaching it is important to consider the methodical aspect of this issue as well.[1]

              In my course work I tried to consider different points of view and different methods in solving this issue.

Chapter I

The nature of writing process and approaches of teaching writing

1.1    The nature of writing process

Writing is a complex process that allows writers to explore thoughts and ideas, and make them visible and concrete. Writing encourages thinking and learning for it motivates communication and makes thought available for reflection. When thought is written down, ideas can be examined, reconsidered, added to, rearranged, and changed.

Writing is most likely to encourage thinking and learning when students view writing as a process. By recognizing that writing is a recursive process, and that every writer uses the process in a different way, students experience less pressure to "get it right the first time" and are more willing to experiment, explore, revise, and edit. Yet, novice writers need to practice “writing” or exercises that involve copying or reproduction of learned material in order to learn the conventions of spelling, punctuation, grammatical agreement, and the like. Furthermore, students need to “write in the language” through engaging in a variety of grammar practice activities of controlled nature. Finally, they need to begin to write within a framework “flexibility measures” that include: transformation exercises, sentence combining, expansion, embellishments, idea frames, and similar activities).[2]

Obviously, not all students of the same age or grade level write in the same way; students pass through several developmental writing stages:

 Stage 1

Novice Writer (unskilled, unaware, teacher-dependent writer)
- has little, if any, individual style

- has little awareness of writing process

- has undeveloped skills and techniques

- seeks approval from teacher

- is reluctant to revise any writing

- believes good writing comes easily

Stage 2

Transitional Writer  (transitional, self-involved, self-delineating writer)

- needs support and coaching in order to develop

- learns from modeled behaviors

- is developing a degree of comfort with the craft

- is anxious to stand alone, yet is uncomfortable with peer collaboration

- is developing an awareness of personal needs, interests, and preoccupations

Stage 3

Willing Writer  (peer-involved, willing writer)

- is able to collaborate well with others

- requires external feedback to shape progress

- is able to profit from criticism

- is developing objectivity concerning work

- enjoys practicing craft

- is developing a sensitivity to audience

Stage 4

Independent Writer (independent, autonomous writer)

- makes highly objective self-assessments

- has developed a sophisticated personal style

- has developed a writer's voice

- takes risks and experiments

- is self-motivating and self-aware as a writer

- is a craftsperson

Task 1: Define the notions of writing down, writing in the language, and flexibility measures and give examples based on what you have read.

Task 2: Write an essay to describe the nature and the stages of development of the writing process.

Read the passage below and do the task that follows:

Passage 2:

1.2    Approaches of Teaching Writing

There are several approaches to teaching writing that are presented by (Raimes, 1983) as follows:

a-The Controlled-to-Free Approach

In the 1950s and early 1960, the audio-lingual method dominated second-language learning. This method emphasized speech and writing served to achieve mastery of grammatical and syntactic forms. Hence teachers developed and used techniques to enable student to achieve this mastery.[3] The controlled-to-free approach in is sequential: students are first given sentence exercises, then paragraphs to copy or manipulate grammatically by changing questions to statements, present to past, or plural to singular. They might also change words to clauses or combine sentences. With these controlled compositions, it is relatively easy to for students write and yet avoid errors, which makes error correction easy. Students are allowed to try some free composition after they have reached an intermediate level of proficiency. As such, this approach stress on grammar, syntax, and mechanics. It emphasizes accuracy rather than fluency or originality.

b-The Free-Writing Approach

This approach stresses writing quantity rather than quality. Teachers who use this approach assign vast amounts of free writing on given topics with only minimal correction. The emphasis in this approach is on content and fluency rather than on accuracy and form. Once ideas are down on the page, grammatical accuracy and organization follow. Thus, teachers may begin their classes by asking students to write freely on any topic without worrying about grammar and spelling for five or ten minutes. The teachers does not correct these pieces of free writing. They simply read them and may comment on the ideas the writer expressed. Alternatively, some students may volunteer to read their own writing aloud to the class. Concern for “audience” and “content” are seen as important in this approach.

c-The Paragraph-Pattern Approach

Instead of accuracy of grammar or fluency of content, the Paragraph-Pattern-Approach stresses on organization. Students copy paragraphs and imitate model passages. They put scrambled sentences into paragraph order. They identify general and specific statements and choose to invent an appropriate topic sentence or insert or delete sentences. This approach is based on the principle that in different cultures people construct and organize communication with each other in different ways.

d-The Grammar-Syntax-Organization Approach

This approach stresses on simultaneous work on more than one composition feature. Teachers who follow this approach maintain that writing can not be seen as composed of separate skills which are learned sequentially. Therefore, student should be trained to pay attention to organization while they also work on the necessary grammar and syntax. This approach links the purpose of writing to the forms that are needed to convey message.

e-The Communicative Approach

This approach stresses the purpose of writing and the audience for it. Student writers are encouraged to behave like writers in real life and ask themselves the crucial questions about purpose and audience:

Why am I writing this?

Who will read it?

Traditionally, the teacher alone has been the audience for student writing. But some feel that writers do their best when writing is truly a communicative act, with a writer writing for a real reader. As such, the readership may be extended to classmate and pen pals.

f-The Process Approach

Recently, the teaching of writing has moved away from a concentration on written product to an emphasis on the process of writing. Thus, writers ask themselves:

How do I write this?

How do I get started?

In this approach, students are trained to generate ideas for writing, think of the purpose and audience, write multiple drafts in order to present written products that communicate their own ideas. Teachers who use this approach give students time to tray ideas and feedback on the content of what they write in their drafts. As such, writing becomes a process of discovery for the students as they discover new ideas and new language forms to express them. Furthermore, learning to write is seen as a developmental process that helps students to write as professional authors do, choosing their own topics and genres, and writing from their own experiences or observations. A writing process approach requires that teachers give students greater responsibility for, and ownership of, their own learning. Students make decisions about genre and choice of topics, and collaborate as they write.

During the writing process, students engage in pre-writing, planning, drafting, and post-writing activities. However, as the writing process is recursive in nature, they do not necessarily engage in these activities in that order.

Task 2:

The production of a clear and communicative piece of writing requires attention to the elements of writing tabulated below. Put check mark in the appropriate columns to indicate whether the different approaches address the elements of writing based on what you have read.

Chapter II Practical side of developing writing process

2.1 Models of activities

Activity 1: Simple Description with Visuals.  (For cycles I & II only)

Have students examine a picture and ask them to name the objects in it. Then ask students to write a paragraph to describe the picture. The procedure for the activity may be as follows:

Provide the class with a picture of a room such as the one below. Ask students to label the objects in the picture and have them write a paragraph to describe the picture. Provide students with expressions and language structure if needed such as: “In the classroom there is “ and have students complete the paragraph.

Activity 2: Completing a Description Paragraph.  (For cycles I & II only)

Have students examine a picture and complete a description paragraph. The procedure for this activity may be as follows:

Examine the picture in Activity 1 and complete the following paragraph:
Paragraph:

Mary lives in a very nice room. In her room, there is a ———, ———, and a ———. There are also several———. There are no ———, but Mary does have some ———. She wants to get a ——— for her wall and a ——— for the desk this afternoon when she goes shopping.

Activity 3: Completing a Description Paragraph:  (For cycles I & II only) Function Words

Give students a picture and have them complete a description by supplying the prepositions and expressions required by the context. The procedure for this activity may be as follows: Have students examine the picture in Activity 1 and complete the following paragraph:

This is a picture of Mary’s room. Her bed is ——— the window. ——— the bed and the window is a small chest of drawers. There is a bookcase ——— her bed on the ———. She has a radio that is ——— the book case, and she puts her books ——— the book case ——— three shelves. ——— the room. She has a very nice desk where she prepares her work for school.

Activity 4: Writing a Description from Questions.  (For cycles I & II only)

Have students examine a picture and use a set of questions as a guide to write a short description of the picture.

The procedure for this activity may be as follows:

Examine the picture in Activity 1 and write a description of it, using the questions below as guide lines.

Questions:

1.Does Mary have a nice room?

2.What kind of things does she have in the room?

3.What do you like in Mary’s room?

4. Do you have a room like Mary’s room? Describe your room in a few sentences.

Activity 5: Slash Sentences (For cycles I & II only)[4]

Give students a set of sentence cues and have them write a short narrative paragraph.

The procedure for this activity may be as follows:

Make comlete sentences according to the model.

Model: The Smiths / Summer / in the country/ spend

The Smiths spend Summer in the country.

1. all / family / In the morning / to get up / arround / 8’oclock.

2. Mr. Smith / the kitchen / coffee / to prepare / to go down strairs.

3. his / wife / then / breakfast / to go outside / in / the garden.