Topic: Developing Writing SkillsTopic: Developing Writing Skills

General objectives:Trainees will be able to give a lesson in dev

eloping writing skills. Trainees will be able to integrate writing wi

th listening, speaking and reading.

Lesson OneLesson OneGiving a Lesson in Developing Reading SkillsGiving a Lesson in Developing Reading Skills

Pre-task activities Step One: elicit kinds and reasons of real-life

writing. Step Two: elicit the difference between spoken

and written text. Step Three: discuss the skills of writing. Step Four: suggested activities in developing

writing skills. Step Five: tips in design a writing task. While-task activities Step Six: trainees giving lessons in developing

reading skills. Post-task activities Step Eight: trainees evaluate the lessons.

What do we write?Why do we write?

The differences between The differences between spoken and written textsspoken and written texts

Written language is complex at the level of clause while spoken language is complex in the way clauses are linked together

Written language is also reinforced by the tendency of create nouns from verbs

Writing is often decontextualised

Two Versions of a Texts Two Versions of a Texts

The use of this method of control unquestionably leads to safer and faster trains running in the most adverse weather conditions

You can control the trains this way and if you do that you can be quite sure that they’ll be able to run more safely and more

quickly than they would otherwise no matter how bad the weather gets

Verbs to NounsVerbs to Nouns

Spoken

Good writers reflect on what they write

Written

Reflection is a characteristic of good writers

Skills of writingSkills of writing Ability to put sounds down on graphic form

according to the conventional sound-spelling rules. Ability to spell English words correctly, including

using correct punctuation and capitalization. Ability to do writing practice, such as dictation,

grammar exercises, constructing dialogues according to the model, simple translation exercises.

Ability to write short compositions, including functional writing skills, such as writing simple letters, taking notes, writing outlines and summaries.

Major types of writingMajor types of writing 1. Explanation and analysis

(a) a process (b) an opinion or point of view (c) event(s) and phenomena (d) instructions and directions 2. Argument (a) persuasion (b) refutation (c) examining both sides of a point 3. Description and summary (a) a thing (b) a person (c) a place (d) an event (e) concepts 4. Narration (a) a series of events; a report (b) biography or autobiography (c) historical events (d) fiction or nonfiction

How do we design writing How do we design writing taskstasks

Product and process Information gap Recursive activity involving revision of successive

drafts Three-stage process: pre-writing,writing, revision Interesting Co-operative Purpose Linking different skills Various

Product-oriented ApproachProduct-oriented Approach

Focusing on the end result of the learning process Students producing texts for teachers to evaluate , not

to communicate meaningfully with another person Classroom activities in which the learner is engaged in

imitating, copying and transforming models of correct language.

At the level of sentence Students are passive Individual work Quality rather than quantity

Process-oriented ApproachProcess-oriented Approach

Focusing on the various classroom activities which promote the development of skilled language use

At the discourse level Focusing on quantity rather than quality Collaborative group work between learners as a

way of enhancing motivation and developing positive attitudes towards writing.

Linking with other skills

Writing ActivitiesWriting Activities

Written practice Written communicative activities

Written PracticeWritten Practice

Sentence writing

Parallel writing

Cohesion and coherence

Oral composition

Sentence writingSentence writing

(a) Sentence completion:look at a picture and then complete the sentences. The _____is on the shell above the stereo.(b) What are they doing? Write four sentences about what the

people in the picture are doing.(c) Time clauses: write four sentences using

‘after’, ‘before’and ‘while’

Parallel writingParallel writing

(1) Read the symbols and their meanings

Good hotelSimple hotel

Tel. number

City centreTime of opening

bedroom

Central heating

B breakfast

lunch

dinner

shower

bathroom

-------Swimming pool

Parallel writingParallel writing2. Here is the entry for the hotel Concorde 2. Here is the entry for the hotel Concorde

Good hotel

Tel. number8866

City centreAll year

40

Central heating

B 7---9

11---3

dinner

15

25

------- 1

Parallel writingParallel writing

The Hotel Concorde in Paris is a good hotel. The telephone number is 8866. It is in the city centre. The hotel is open all year, and there are forty bedrooms .There is central heating in the hotel. Breakfast is from seven to nine. Lunch is from eleven to three, and dinner is from eight until eleven.There are twenty-five bathrooms and fifteen showers. There is also a swimming pool in the hotel.

Parallel writingParallel writing3, Read these symbols and describe the hotel3, Read these symbols and describe the hotel

s in the same ways in the same way

Simple hotel

4578

City centreAll year

200

B 6---10

7---9

200

-------Swimming pool

Cohesion and coherenceCohesion and coherence

(a) Join the following pairs of sentences using ‘and’ or ‘but’

1. Concorde is an ideal way to travel. Concorde is expensive.

2. Concorde is fast. Concorde is comfortable.

3. Travellers like Concorde. People living near airports don’t like Concorde

Written Communicative Written Communicative ActivitiesActivities

Relaying instructions

Exchanging letters

Writing games

Fluency writing

Story construction

Writing reports and advertisements

Relaying InstructionsRelaying Instructions

(a) Making models

(b) Giving direction

(c) Writing commands

(d) Writing message

Exchanging LettersExchanging Letters

InvitingThe complaining customersThe job application

Writing GamesWriting Games

(a) Describe people and identify(guess people)

(b) Describe events and identify

Fluency WritingFluency Writing(a) The picture story(a) The picture story

Students are given a series of pictures just as they were for oral composition. They are given a time limit and told to write as much as they can about the pictures.

Stage 1 Students are told that they are going to do some free writing, and that the objective is to write as much as they can within a certain time limit.

Stage 2 Students are shown a picture sequence and told to write about it.

Stage 3 When the time limit expires the teacher stops the students and collects the work.

Story constructionStory construction

Stage 1 Students are put into groups of six.Stage 2 Each member of the group is given a letter (A-F). Stage 3 Each group is given one of the pictures from the sequence . All the members

of the group should write two sentences about their picture together, using past tenses. Each member of the group now has the same two sentences.

Stage 4 The teacher now collects the four pictures, and re-forms groups so that all the A’s are together, all the B’s and so on. The new groups must now put their sentences together to form a coherent story. They should be reminded that they will probably have to make changes from the original sentences, especially in terms of tense and the use of cohesive devices ,etc.

Stage 5 The groups now read out their stories and the class compares them. In the event of any confusion the teacher can show the original picture sequence.

..

Writing reports and advertisements Writing reports and advertisements (a)The news broadcast(a)The news broadcast

Stage 1 The teacher asks all the students in the class to write two news items on a piece of paper.

Stage 2 The teacher then collects all the pieces of paper and forms the class into small groups.

Stage 3 The teacher then distributes the pieces of paper equally between the groups in no special order. The students are asked to combine the items to make up a complete news broadcast.

Stage 4 Each group then reads its broadcast to the rest of the class. Ideally, of course, each group could record their broadcast to make it more realistic.

Writing reports and advertisementsWriting reports and advertisements(b)The advertisement(b)The advertisement

Stage 1 The class discusses what makes a successful advertisement.

Stage 2 The class is divided into groups. They are told that their task is to select a product and write an advertisement for it which will appear in a magazine.

Stage 3 When they have completed their advertisements they can pass them round the class. Alternatively they can be given a period of time to design the artwork for their text. The advertisements can then be pinned to the class notice board.