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Helping Intermediate learners write formal job application letters

using a process-genre approach.

Word Count: 2068

Contents Page Number

Introduction

1

Analysis of Features

2

Learning Problems and Teaching Issues 4

Suggestions for Teaching

6

Bibliography

17

Appendices

18

The Assignment Title Your Name and Candidate Number (if known)

Introduction

Letter writing is one of the most practical writing activities in class, because it is what learners

will likely be required to do in real life. Writing a cover letter is a good choice for my

intermediate class of adult professionals who may be applying for posts outside France.

Because of the relatively rigid form of formal job application letters, I chose the process-genre

approach to use in the lesson, as it combines a focus on skills as well as on form.

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Analysis of Features

In teaching writing, there are now several approaches for teachers to choose from or combine as they seem most useful for the particular writing task. This essay argues for using a combination of product, process and genre approaches in the teaching of writing formal letters.

The following diagram from Raimes (1983: 6) shows the issues that are involved in producing an effective piece of writing. It helps to illustrate how the approaches to teaching writing discussed below differ from each other, as each emphasizes these issues to a varying degree.

The product approach, which was the dominant approach to teaching writing until the 1980’s emphasises accuracy of vocabulary, grammar and syntax and adherence to the model over writers’ creativity. The basic procedure involves ‘controlled-to-free’ writing, in which learners become familiar with a model sentence or text, practice it in a controlled and guided context and then independently reproduce the model.

Donald B. Murray introduced the process approach as early as 1972 in his article “Teach writing as a process not product”. In it he states that “Instead of teaching finished writing, we should teach unfinished writing, and glory in its unfinishedness.” (Newkirk and Miller 2009: 2) As opposed to the product approach, planning is not restricted to the pre-writing stage, but appears throughout the task in the form of continual reconsidering and revising.

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While Murray worked in the context of L1 writing, process approaches become popular in EFL in the 1990’s. They focus on the context, the audience, and focus on form is temporarily suspended in favour of fluency. Primarily though they are concerned with the writer’s process, which is characterised by constant re-writing of drafts. The typical sequence of tasks features prewriting, drafting, revising (reformulation), and editing. Nation (2009: 114) identifies seven stages – or “subprocesses” – of the writing process: considering the goals of the writer; having a model of the reader; gathering ideas; organising ideas; turning ideas into written text; reviewing and editing, and he points out that they do not necessarily appear in a fixed order “For some writers, organising ideas may occur after they have been written.”

Relying strictly on the process approach can be appropriate for creative essay writing, but for other types of texts a combination with elements from other approaches may be necessary. I chose to focus on teaching formal letters, specifically on writing a job application letter (or ‘cover letter’) with an Intermediate class of adult French learners. Most students in the class are currently looking for work in international companies and a cover letter in English is now a common requirement in the job-application process.

Genre approaches emphasise the purpose of the text and also its context.

“Like product approaches, genre approaches regard writing as predominantly linguistic but, unlike product approaches, they emphasize that writing varies with the social context in which it is produced.” (Badger and White 2000: 155)

As in the product approach, the stages of the genre approach involve a model, exercises, and production of text. The examination of the social context of the text adds authenticity and relevance to the task of writing.

A combination of product, genre and process approaches seems the most suitable for teaching formal job-application letters because the strict genre conventions of this type of text require a model. Badger and White (2000) term this the “process genre approach”, and their position is that

“[…] writing development happens by drawing out the learners’ potential (as in process approaches) and by providing input to which the learners respond (as in product and genre approaches).” (2000: 158)

The teaching procedure features these six steps:

preparation (staging the situation for the text in a relevant context to activate learners’ schemata);

modelling (considering the purpose of the text and modelling the genre); planning (brainstorming, discussing); joint constructing (collaborative drafting and construction of a model by the

students/groups and the teacher); independent constructing (this can be set as a homework); revising and editing (peer evaluation is possible, as well as publication in the

classroom).

There are several aspects which should always feature in a process-type writing lesson. These include pre-writing stages (preparation, modelling and planning), a focus on the process of

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writing in terms of drafting, helpful peer-feedback and teacher feedback in-between drafts, and revising. The additional factors from the genre and product approaches include using a correct model of the genre in pre-writing stages, and stressing the importance of the communicative purpose of the genre. Therefore the text should not be written as if in a vacuum, but with a specific reader in mind (eg. the human resources manager of an international company).

Learning Problems and Solutions

Affective – Writing is a difficult process in any language, as it involves a combination of skills. Most learners will find writing difficult partly based on their experience with writing in their L1, and this will be true especially in the case of writing formal letters. Therefore in order to prepare students for writing, a lot of time should be devoted to pre-writing activities to generate schemata and provide scaffolding in the form of correct models. A supportive setting is one of the aims of process-type approaches and it is meant to be achieved through student cooperation and feedback as well as the teacher’s commentary rather than strict correction.

Motivation – Setting the stage for the writing task is crucial for the students’ engagement with the task. Even though writing a job application letter is probably relevant to the students’ needs, enough time should be spent on creating a meaningful situation for writing. Rather than asking students to write a letter to an anonymous company from an unknown person, the company and the post should be authentic, and some information about the applicant should be given. I am not sure about students writing from their own position, but an alternative to giving the students profiles of applicants is to ask them to invent the applicant themselves.

Genre conventions, language – Learners may not have the vocabulary to express their ideas or may have problems with organising their ideas into a text. Although learners may be familiar with the general stylistic conventions of formal letters, they will probably have difficulties with the complex organisational structure of the job application letter, which will furthermore differ in some aspects from an equivalent in their L1. All these issues should be dealt with appropriate pre-writing activities, including an analysis of a correct model and examples of appropriate formulae. Intermediate-level learners will be skilled in using some linking devices, but a pre-writing activity could include a revision of some of the more uncommon linking expressions as well as highlighting forms of reference.

Time – As a supportive environment has been emphasised here, time is one of the factors that needs to be considered. Learners must be given enough time to plan, draft, revise and re-write. In the case of a formal letter, it is not realistic to expect the final product by the end of a 60- minute lesson, and ideally the task should stretch over two consecutive lessons, with learners writing their final draft in between. The second class could be devoted to the teacher’s feedback to individual students and publication of texts in the classroom.

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Suggestions for Teaching

An example procedure:

- Preparation – Situation: finding a new job. Students discuss how they or others may look for and find and get new jobs. Discussion of the role of the cover letter – teacher elicits a description, purpose and form of a cover letter.

- Modelling – A comparison of a bad and a good sample letter is used to elicit the genre conventions and content organization of cover letters, as well as standard formulae. OR – only a bad sample letter is provided and teacher elicits what is wrong with the letter.

- Planning – Teacher sets the task of either correcting the bad sample letter or writing a completely different one for the given situation. Brainstorming and discussion to generate possible content.

- Joint constructing – Students in pairs write the first draft, joint revising with teacher, redrafting. Final draft used as a model.

- Independent constructing –Students write their drafts independently

- Revising and editing- Students exchange letters and comment on each other’s work – peer evaluation. Teacher provides helpful commentary.

The examples of activities and tasks that follow can be used at an appropriate stage with slight modifications.You need to cover these point under criteria 4

a) evaluate how the selected procedures, techniques, resources and or materials might be used effectively in classroom practice

b) demonstrate how the procedures, techniques, resources and/or materials address points raised under 'Analysis and issues'.

1.- The activity below from Raimes (1983) features a communicative task of exchanging

letters and role-play. The material can be adapted to allow for learner engagement: instead of giving students the correct model, an example of a badly written letter could be given to students for analysis, and the genre conventions would then be elicited. A joint drafting of a correct model would follow, before the individual writing of letters stage.

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2.

- A sentence linking and sequencing activity (Byrne 1988: 55). There are many activities for revising linking expressions and this is one example. If the exercise is not necessary, the list of the linkers can still be written on board to provide support for learners during writing. A language focus such as this can be a part of the pre-writing stage, but it should not be too long.

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3.- Appendix 1 features a game which can be used as a pre-writing activity to activate

students’ schemata and introduce relevant vocabulary. It is a communicative activity and it involves reading and writing job ads and cover letters.

4.- The example reproduced below is an authentic material for writing cover letters, it

includes a cover letter with instructions, published on the Purdue OWL website. Is a good reference for the teacher, and the material can be used in various stages of the process. It contains a model letter and the teacher can use different parts of it. It can be given to students as a hand-out at the end of the lesson for reference, especially if the composition of the final draft is set as a homework.

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- Appendix 2 is a brief overview of the cover letter genre conventions, and something similar to that should emerge from the class and be written on the board during the modelling stage.

- Although the original task from Market Leader Intermediate (2000:74-75) reproduced below does not involve writing a job application letter, the situation and the profiles of the job candidates can be used as material. Students can choose the most suitable applicant, and based on his/her profile write a cover letter. If students chose different candidates it would be even more engaging for them to read each other’s drafts and evaluate their effectiveness.

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- Appendix 3 is a “peer evaluation form” which is I think really helpful for guiding the students when evaluating each other’s work.

Say why you think it is useful

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Conclusion

Teaching writing is often avoided by English teachers because it is thought to be boring and difficult by students and teachers alike, and it has been the case with me as well. If it is not ignored altogether it is often relegated as homework, which students then often fail to complete. The research for this essay has showed me that writing as a composite of sub-skills can be practiced in the classroom as an engaging and meaningful set of activities. The consequence of presenting writing as a process made up of stages of recurring revisions is that the perceived pressure of having to produce a text is diminished and that allows the students to employ their creativity with more freedom. I believe I now have a sufficient background knowledge to construct an effective writing lesson for my class.

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Bibliography:

Research materials

Raimes, A Techniques in Teaching Writing. Oxford: OUP, 1983.

Byrne, D. Teaching Writing Skills. London: Longman, 1988.

Nation, I.S.P. Teaching ESL/EFL Reading and Writing. New York: Routledge, 2009.

Richard Badger and Goodith White. "A process genre approach to teaching writing." ELT

Journal Volume 54/2. (2000): 153-160.

Thomas Newkirk and Lisa C. Miller (eds.). The Essential Don Murray: lessons from

America’s greatest writing teacher. Portsmouth: Boynton/Cook Publishers, 2009.

Resource materials

Hadfield, Charles and Jill Hadfield. Writing Games. London: Longman, 2005.

Raimes, A. Techniques in Teaching Writing. Oxford: OUP, 1983.

Byrne, D. Teaching Writing Skills. London: Longman, 1988.

Cotton, David, David Falvey, and Max Catto. Market Leader: Intermediate Business

English : Course Book Cassettes. Harlow, UK. Longman, 2000.

TE Editor. A Business Letter. Teaching English at British Council/BBC, 2006. Web. 24.

Apr.2013

Cover Letter Workshop – Formatting and Organization. The Writing Lab and OWL

at Purdue and Purdue U. Web. 23 Apr. 2013.

Formal Letter Writing. UsingEnglish.com. Web 23 Apr. 2013.

Appendices:

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Appendix 1 (3 pages) “Job Applications” activity from Hadfield and Hadfield (2005)

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Appendix 2 (Adapted from the Using English website)

Rules for Writing Formal Letters in English

In English there are a number of conventions that should be used when writing a formal or business letter. Furthermore, you try to write as simply and as clearly as possible, and not to make the letter longer than necessary. Remember not to use informal language like contractions.

Addresses:

1) Your AddressThe return address should be written in the top right-hand corner of the letter.

2) The Address of the person you are writing toThe inside address should be written on the left, starting below your address.

Date:

Different people put the date on different sides of the page. You can write this on the right or the left on the line after the address you are writing to. Write the month as a word.

Salutation or greeting:

1) Dear Sir or Madam,If you do not know the name of the person you are writing to, use this. It is always advisable to try to find out a name.

2) Dear Mr Jenkins,If you know the name, use the title (Mr, Mrs, Miss or Ms, Dr, etc.) and the surname only. If you are writing to a woman and do not know if she uses Mrs or Miss, you can use Ms, which is for married and single women.

Ending a letter :

1) Yours faithfullyIf you do not know the name of the person, end the letter this way.

2) Yours sincerelyIf you know the name of the person, end the letter this way.

3) Your signatureSign your name, then print it underneath the signature. If you think the person you are writing to might not know whether you are male of female, put you title in brackets after your name.

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Outline: A Covering Letter - CONTENT

Opening ParagraphBriefly identify yourself and the position you are applying for. Add how you found out about the vacancy.

Paragraph 2Give the reasons why you are interested in working for the company and why you wish to be considered for that particular post. State your relevant qualifications and experience, as well as your personal qualities that make you a suitable candidate.

Paragraph 3Inform them that you have enclosed your current CV and add any further information that you think could help your case.

Closing ParagraphGive your availability for interview, thank them for their consideration, restate your interest and close the letter.

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Appendix 3

(from the British Council/BBC Teaching English website)

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Documents

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