Gaining Successful Writing in the Foreign Language Classroom

Kenneth Tabor Ludington High School

ABSTRACT While helping students achieve a variety of goals, many foreign language teachers want their students to write well, to enjoy the ex- perience, and to demonstrate a willingness to write again. This article relates a process which can be used to help students write successfully in the target language and leaves them willing to write again. Pre-writing stages of the process concurrently develop reading, listening, and speaking skills while preparing students to write well. As the article il- lustrates, successful student writing is not acciden- tal, but reqr!ires specific teacher responsibility. It points out several specific activities which the teacher can use in order to elicit desired results.

Foreign language teachers share a common bond with their colleagues across the curriculum of our schools. Every teacher is pleased when good stu- dent writing is generated, regardless of the subject matter or language in which it is written. However, good writing is not accidental or coincidental, nor is there any mystical force which brings it to the teacher’s desk.

Teachers must realize that quality student writing can occur, assuming they are willing to insure that several steps of a process or series of processes take place. To illustrate, I will relate the events of a re- cent writing assignment in my Spanish IV class.

While satisfied with the results of the writing assign- ment, I will share my perceptions of its success and how I intend to make the assignment even more successful in the future.

Pre-writing Activities Each year my class uses Reflejos,‘ an in-

termediate reader designed to stimulate com- munication in Spanish. At one point the class reads an article on Levi Strauss and the success of blue jeans over a period of many years. Recently several pre-writing activities took place prior to the writing of the main paper based on the lesson.

Besides answering comprehension questions in Spanish, students first explained and defended their positions regarding some general questions in the article. Thus, as a class they categorized on paper various aspects of cultural interchange, discussing in Spanish which ones they most and least liked.

The following day small groups brainstormed imaginative uses for common objects, such as the umbrella, paper clip, light bulb, and others. We related this process to Levi Strauss’ having decided to make blue jeans out of fabric originally destin- ed for making tents. As the pre-writing activities continued, students shared the results of their small group brainstorming with the entire class.

Again 1 divided them into different small groups to discuss in Spanish which objects they would place in a time capsule. The purpose was to decide which items best represent contemporary society. Then the class as a whole attempted to reach a con-

Foreign Language Annals, 17, No. 2 , 1984 123

124 FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS

Writing Assignment Following the already mentioned activities and

a class discussion in Spanish about major changes in everyday living, including those already ex- perienced and others contemplated for the future, I finally gave the actual writing assignment, ask- ing the students to write in Spanish a third-person biography of themselves as it might be written for publication in the year 2080. Thus, students had a form to work with, and their audience was to be someone who had never known them. A time limit for completing the assignment was also specified to the class.

Improving Writing When the deadline arrived, I asked the students

to discuss their writing with others and to make any necessary corrections before turning in their papers. Obviously they enjoyed sharing the accomplish- ments of their ‘‘lifetimes’’ as they read their classmates’ papers, causing me to be concern- ed about the quality of student writing I was to receive. At the time, had I been more experienced in the writing process, I would have insured that further rewriting take place. In this case, little ac- tual revision occurred in the peer evaluation pro- cess. Instead, changes were the result of editing or proofreading only.

My greatest lesson as a foreign language and/or writing teacher came that evening when it was time to correct papers. For once something made me not pull out my favorite red pen. I read each paper to its conclusion, having no intention of marking it. Mentally I made a few notes of possible im- provements. However, I was pleased with the think- ing and expressiveness demonstrated in the writing and with the overall mechanics displayed in Spanish. Even the poorest students had written a product much better than their usual efforts.

The following day as I put my students to another task, I called each one individually to sit alongside me with his paper. In the assignment I had clearly indicated that I would be looking for correct usage of the imperfect and preterite tenses as well as third-person verb forms, since the paper was to be in biographical form. As students look- ed at their unmarked papers, I was amazed at the improvements they suggested for $heir own writing. For the weak students I occasionally pointed to cer- tain areas whereby often they would exclaim, “Oh, that should be changed to ....”

Student responsiveness to reviewing and rework- ing their own writing delighted me. Each student accomplished the stated goals of the assignment in addition to exhibiting a level of sophistication in his

writing. Those who improved their writing as they conferenced with me continued to learn just as they had been doing while writing earlier. My positive verbal and written comments during the conference reinforced their willingness to write again in Spanish.

Conclusions As one can see from this experience, little of its

success can be termed accidental. Teachers of writing in any language are obligated during each assignment to see that a number of steps are follow- ed. Pre-writing activities, for example, can be critical in the ultimate success of a writing assign- ment. Oftentimes verbalization, group interaction, brainstorming, or other techniques allow students the opportunity to gain confidence and knowledge regarding a topic. The assignment can then become meaningful to the writer.

When the actual writing assignment is made, the instructor must be clear as to the purpose of the assignment, its form, and who the audience will be. Additionally, any deadlines and evaluation criteria must be specified. Developing a willing attitude to take part in peer evaluation and revision can lead only to better student writing. As teachers we must elicit more second and third drafts in our students’ writing. Not surprisingly, the harder the foreign language teacher, or any teacher, works to teach students to be willing to write, the easier the task becomes when the final copy reaches the teacher’s desk.

NOTE ‘Patricia Boylan et aI. Ref/ejos (New York: Holt,

Rinehart, and Winston, 1979).