HOW TO TEACH WRITING?

Kingdom of Saudi ArabiaKing Saud UniversityCollege of Education

Prepared by: Samar Al- Shareef

Introduction

Each language has four major skills . The receptive skills: listening , reading and the productive skills speaking and writing. Writing is a process that allows writers to explore thoughts and ideas, and make them visible and concrete.

writing is an act of communication suggests an interactive process between the writer and the reader via text.

WHAT IS WRITING?

We all know that writing and learning to write, especially in a foreign or second language is not simply a matter of "writing things down"; the process is very complex, and the old saying, "If you can say it, you can write it," is very simplistic. This would not be the kind of writing that students should strive to learn and teachers to teach.

IS IT A SIMPLE JOB?

WHAT DOES GOOD WRITING INVOLVE?

Good writing involves the knowledge of the conventions of written discourse in the ESL or EFL culture as well as the abilities to (1) choose from near synonyms the precise word that conveys one’s meaning, (2) select from a variety of syntactic structures . and (3) adopt a style that will have the most positive rhetorical effect .

1\Mastering the Mechanics of writing:

What do we mean when we say MECHANICS?

The first step in teaching reading and writing skills in a foreign or second language classroom center around the mechanics of these two skills .By mechanics we usually refer to letter recognition , letter discrimination , punctuation, and capitalization , as well as recognition of whole sentences and paragraphs .

A\ Early Writing Tasks:

The interaction between reading and writing has often been in focus in the methodology of language teaching. The teaching of the mechanics of reading and writing has three different goals:•To enhance letter recognition .•To practice sound-spelling correspondence via all four language skills.•To help learners move from letters and words to meaningful sentences and larger units of discourse.

How do we teach mechanics?

Tree major types of recognition tasks are used at the early stage of reading and writing ,each type has a great variety of drills: •Matching task.

•Writing tasks.•Meaningful sound-spelling correspondence practice.

B\ Advanced Writing Tasks; Developing Communication Tools:

More advanced writing activities shift their goal from the focus on mechanics of writing to accuracy and content of the message. To deal with these activities we need a set of specifications which will help the teachers and their students:

Task Description Content Description

Audience Description Format Cues

Linguistic Cues Spilling and Punctuation Cues

2\Approaches to Teaching Writing: a-The Controlled-to-Free Approach:

This method emphasized speech and writing served to achieve mastery of grammatical and syntactic forms. b-The Free-Writing Approach:

This approach stresses writing quantity rather than quality. The emphasis in this approach is on content and fluency rather than on accuracy and form.

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.

d-The Grammar-Syntax-Organization Approach;

Teachers who follow this approach maintain that writing cannot be seen as composed of separate skills which are learned sequentially. 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

Teachers were mostly concerned with the final product of writing, and what that product should ‘look’ like. The result of such approach was that even though students would do hundreds of grammar exercises and memorize many vocabulary lists, they often be surprised, frustrated and discouraged upon receiving their essays full of red marks. They could not understand how after all that hard work, they still had difficulty in writing.

f- The Product –oriented approach:

g- The Process – oriented Approach:

A new approach appeared , based on the processes that writers use when the write .

The principle features of this approach are:•A view of writing as a process that can be taught.•An emphasis on writing as a way of learning as well as communicating.•A view that writing assignment include a sense of audience ,purpose and occasion.•A procedure for feedback that encourages the teacher to aid the student to improve his first draft.•A method of evaluation that determines how well a written product adapts the goals of the writer to the needs of the reader.

ACTIVITY 1Content Process Audience Word

choice Organization Mechanics Grammar/ Syntax

Controlled- to Free

Free-Writing

Paragraph- Pattern

Grammar-Syntax- Organization

Communicative

Product- oriented approach

Process -oriented approach

•The typical writing lesson involves three phases:

Prewriting

Composing

Revision1) Prewriting: (It is defined by Oluwadiya* as "any structural

activities – oral, written or experiential -- that influence active student participation in thinking, talking, writing, and working on the topic under focus in a writing lesson, stimulating higher-level thinking as well as writing skills.)

ACTIVITY 2

Can you give three reasons for why is the pre-writing stage is important?.

We can use prewriting techniques as mental warm-ups to help them get started on their writing process: -Oral group brainstorming            - Clustering  - Dialogue writing    - Free writing- Debating                                   - Fantasizing - Outlining                                   - Oral compositions - Oral reading                              - Silent reading - Interviewing                              - Use of pictures to stimulate students - Visits to places of                      - Lecturing   interest in the school locality  

2) Composing: (focuses on organizational and mechanical considerations) •Writing preliminary outlines.•Making ongoing decisions about every aspect of writing, from vocabulary choice to syntax, style, and organization •Reviewing, rereading, and anticipating what will come next .•Reformulating and adjusting parts of the manuscript as it evolves .

3) Revision:•Contemplating the finished draft .•Revising the organizational and stylistic features of the composition •Revising the grammatical features.

•Feedback and Evaluation: 1)Feedback:

With written works , feedback may be delayed by days or weeks depending on (a)how quickly the teacher reads and corrects the work, and (b) when the class meets. Teachers should provide feedback that addresses the specific instructional needs and expectations of the various groups of student-writers.

2)correction:The teacher should give periodic and systematic feedback on the students’ writing .The teacher and the students should be familiar with the correction symbols.The teacher should review or discuss again the patterns which constitute a general mistake or most problem of most students.The teacher should firmly ask his students to do the corrections.

ACTIVITY 3

In this paper a student is trying to learn (How to write a note to her teacher) . Please correct her note and don’t forget to use symbols.

3\The Types of Writing:The teacher should inform his students with the genre they are tackling for example:

Personal letter

Business letter

Birthday Card

Advertisement

Condolences

Curriculum vitae

Story

Third Grade Intermediate

Unit : 3Lesson : 3

How to write a post card?

WritingLook at the parts of a post card.

POST CARDMay 15, 2004

Dear Noura,

Noura MadaniP.O. Box 529,Jeddah, 1291Saudi Arabia

My new school is nice. You can see how huge it is from the picture. I'm very happy because everyone is so nice and helpful. I'll tell you about my friends in my letter.

Asmaa

Date

Greeting

Message

Signature

Stamp

Address

Which post card is written correctly?

Why?

3/8/2004Dear khalid,Cairo is a very beautiful city .I'm having a great time even though it's quite hot during the day, I'll write again soon.Mazen

Khalid FadelP.o Box 323,Jizan,Saudi Arabia

13/5/2004

Dear Fatima,P.o box 158Makkah,Saudi Arabia

Hi, how are you? This is the village we're staying at. It's probably the most beautiful place in Tunisia. The people here are very nice and the food is great. I bought you a nice gift. I'm sure you will like it.See you in 3 weeks.Maha

Imagine you are a visitor in your hometown. Send a postcard to your friend in Egypt telling him / her about it.

Postcard_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________