Teaching writing

Prepared by

Hanan safadi Supervised by:

Dr. Suzan Arafat

Introduction 

Writing is a process of discovery as well as a process of productivity. In contrast to oral-aural skills, writing can provide students with a chance to work at their own pace, especially if it is done at home or without any

limited time assigned by teachers and allows them to think the task over before producing language.

Writing is less stressful since it releases students from the pressure of being anxious when they are called

upon to speak facing others; the matter which effectively blocks their ability.

Writing is helpful for teachers in many ways :

1.To reinforce what students have learnt; either vocabulary, structures or idioms.

2.To go beyond what students have just learnt. 3.To involve students in the new language.

4.To make decisions of students' success or failure.

Writing enables students to1.Discover something new.

2.Express ideas freely .3.Master new learning.

4.Relate the language into their own interests or environment. 5.Communicate with a reader. 6.Familiarize him/herself with the conversations of written English.7.Check and correct what they have written before it is shown to other

Writing definitions:(1) The series of overlapping steps that most writers follow in composing texts. Before the 1980s, writing was often treated as an orderly sequence of discrete activities.

By(  Richard Nordquist)  Scott and Vitale (2003) [13] highlight the recursively of the writing process by breaking the writing process down into five commonly referenced stages prewriting, drafting, revising, editing and publishing.

Differences between writing and speech

Permanence:Written discourse is fixed and stable so the reading can be done at whatever time ,speed and level of thoroughness the individual reader wishes.Spoken text in contrast is fleeting, and moves on in real time. The listener- through he or she may occasionally interrupt to request clarification- must in general follow what is said at the speed set by the speaker.

Explicitness:The written text is explicit; it has to make clear the context and all references. The written text may be clarified by a diagram in speech, however the written time situation and knowledge shared between speaker and listener means that some information can be assumed and need not to be Made explicit.

3.Density:The contrast is presented much more densely in writing. In speech, the information is diluted and conveyed through many more words: there are a lot of repetitions, glosses, fillers, producing a text that is noticeably longer and with more redundant passages.

4.detachment:

The writing of a text is detached in time and space from its reading; the writer normally works alone, and may not be acquainted with his or her readers; speaking usually takes place in immediate interaction with known listeners, with the availability of immediate feedback.

Organization:A written text is usually organized and carefully formulated, since its composer has time and opportunity to edit it before making it available for reading. A speaker is improvising as he or she speaks; ongoing alterations, in the shape of glosses, self-corrections and so on produce an apparently disorganized stream-of-consciousness kind of discourse. Thus a written text conforms more to conventional rules of grammar and its vocabulary is more precise and formal.

Slowness of production, speed of reception:

Writing is much slower than speaking. On the other hand, we can usually read a piece of text and understand it much faster than we can take in the same text if we listen while someone reads aloud to us.

Standard language :Writing normally uses a generally acceptable standard variety of the language, whereas speech may sometimes be in regional or other limited –context dialect.

A learnt skill Most people acquire the spoken language (at least of

their own mother tongue) intuitively, whereas the written form is in most cases deliberately taught and learned.

.Sheer amount and importance:Spoken texts are far longer, normally (in the sense that they contain more words), than a representation of the same information in writing; this is largely because of the phenomenon caused redundancy, It is true to say that most people speak far more than they write. Associated with this point : speech is more important for survival and effective functioning in society than writing is.

Classifying writing activities :Writing as a means or as an end

Writing as a means :Writing is widely used within foreign language courses as a convenient means for engaging with aspects of language other than the writing itself, for example: learners note down new vocabulary, copy out grammar rules.

Writing as an end

Other activities take as their main objective the writing itself at the micro level they practice specific written forms at the level of word or sentence (handwriting or typing, spelling, punctuation); at the macro level the emphasis is on content and organization, tasks invite learners to express themselves using their own words.

As both means and end

A third kind of activity combines purposeful and original writing with the learning or practice of some other skill or content. Example: a written response to

the reading of a controversial newspaper article (combines writing with reading).

writing for content and or form The purpose of writing , in principle, the expression of ideas, the conveying of a message to the reader; so the ideas themselves should arguably be seen as the most important aspect of the writing. On the other hand, the writers needs also to pay some attention to formal aspects : neat writing correct spelling and punctuation, as well as acceptable grammar and careful selection of vocabulary.

Tasks that stimulate writing: *the activity should be motivating, stimulating and interesting to do.*it should be of an appropriate level for the students.*the tasks relevant to the student's needs.*the teacher should do some preliminary teaching in preparation for the activity…

Various types of writing activities:1.book report:Can be a fairly routine, rather boring , exercise; usually done in order to check that students have read a book, rather than for the sake of writing. Some preliminary guidance is sometimes needed on content and organization.2.book review:A bout the same level as 1, also needing some preliminary guidance; but the writing is more purposeful, audience-oriented and interesting to do.3.instruction sheet:Students usually find this interesting to do , and a little easier than 1 and 2 . you may wish to give some advice on the layout of instructions.

4.narrative:A fairly interesting task that can be adapted for most levels. It depends on preparation of suitable pictures, perhaps cut from magazines.5.personal story:On the whole students are motivated to write(and read) about personal experiences; also, each can write at her own level of proficiency. Preparation: perhaps a brief sample of a personal story contributed by teacher or a volunteer student.6.describe a view:This can be interesting, but should be kept fairly short; it can be done at various levels of proficiency. If no window with a view is available, students can be asked to recall and describe a view they are familiar with.

7.describe someone:Fairly easy to do and straightforward to present; can be interesting both to write and read.8.describe people:Of about the same level as (7) can also be interesting, because of the stimulus to the imagination- but of course demands more preparation. 9.answer a letter:Usually a high motivating tasks, fairly advanced, with a clear audience and purpose. As it stands, you need to prepare the original letter; an alternative is to ask all the students to write letters of complaint, and later answer each other's letters. Some pre-teaching of conventional letter formalities and layout in the target language is necessary.

10.jop application:Again, some conventions about letters like this will need to be taught, and perhaps some details about the exact job being applied for. 11.propose change:Advanced writing, involving the organized and convincing presentation of an argument. You may or may not feel it necessary to read a similar piece of writing with the students in advance, to supply a model.12.news report:This is clear model-imitation writing, which is perhaps useful, but not very interesting to do. It may be more interesting if it is a report of a genuine local event. In preparation, you may need to draw learners' attention to the typical features of this genre of written discourse.

13.ideal school:A task which is interesting and relevant for schoolchildren. Little preparation is necessary, apart from, perhaps, some preliminary brainstorming of the kinds of topics they may wish to include.14.describe process:A more sophisticated task, requiring precise and orderly representation of facts: suitable particularly for learners in science or technology.15.film music:A stimulating, fun task for imaginative students, but it may take time to select and prepare a suitable piece of music.

Types of Writing Styles

Narrative: Narrative writing is the type of writing that tells a story. Though it’s most commonly used when your child is asked to write a personal essay

Descriptive: Descriptive writing is used to create a vivid picture of an idea, place or person. It is much like painting with words.

Expository: Expository writing is to-the-point and factual. This category of writing includes definitions, instructions, directions and other basic comparisons and clarifications.

 Persuasive: Persuasive writing is a more sophisticated type of writing It can be thought of as a debate in writing. The idea is to express an opinion and then to support that opinion in a way that convinces the reader

Problem (1)

If the immediate objective of the students in a specific class is to pass a school-leaving exam which does not include any extended writing, and if after leaving school very few of them will need to do much writing in the foreign language –how much writing should be taught, if any?

With a class such as that described we would do less writing than with other classes, but we would still do some, for two main reasons. First, neither we nor our students can be quite sure about the future, and some of the students might find themselves in a situation where they do need to write.Second, learning how to write effectively has value in itself as part of the long-term immediately profitable or not.

Problem 2

If not-very-proficient students are asked to write freely, they produce work that is of language mistakes. What should be done about this?

We can certainly decide to correct only the more basic or serious mistakes in order to lessen the discouraging effect of too many corrections. And we can partially control student writing. Free writing, even if it is full of mistakes, can mitigate discouragement and encourage learning: we can, for example, draw students' attention in our feedback to things they have got right as well as things they have got wrong; and we can explain frankly that writing-with- mistakes is not something to be ashamed of but rather a helpful and important stage in learning- mainly.

What should feedback be on: language? Content? Organization?Many teachers are aware that content and organization are important, but find themselves relating mainly to language forms in their feedback, conveying the implicit message that these are what matters. This is for various reasons:

1.mistakes in spelling or grammar catch the eye and seem to demand to be corrected; they are very difficult to ignore.2.students also want their language mistakes to be corrected.3.language mistakes are far more easily and quickly diagnosed and corrected than ones of content and organization.

Should all mistakes be corrected ?The correcting of mistakes is part of the language instruction, but too much of it can be discouraging and demoralizing. Also, over emphasis on language mistakes can distract both learners' and teachers' attention from the equally important aspects of content and organization.it would seem reasonable to say that language mistakes should be ignored if there is a danger that to correct them would hinder learning than help it. We might correct only mistakes that actually affect meaning.

Thank you for listening