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K Owledge: An Knowledge Download

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
123 views4 pages

K Owledge: An Knowledge Download

Uploaded by

RobMi10
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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elt knowledge

an eltknowledge download
www.eltknowledge.com

Pavilion Publishing and Media, Rayford House, School Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 5HX
t: 0844 880 5061; e [email protected]

© Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd 2012


All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher
M A I N F E AT U R E examination, eg Write an article giving
your opinion. Or it might involve learning
how to imitate a real text type: a scientific

Writing
report when you really are a scientist or
are training to be one, for example.
Perhaps it can be divided into two types:
1 Writing a text for a purpose
This text has some distinguishing
features of organisation, discourse or
lexis, so it might be possible to learn
how to improve.

revalued
2 Writing something to show the
teacher what you know about the
language
Whatever you write, this, as we know,
can never be good enough.

Then there is what we have grown


accustomed to calling the ‘real world’.
Does anyone really write anything much
any more? this argument goes. Shouldn’t
Michael Vince

N
obody seems to like writing.
the classroom at least reflect what people
Learners say that it is
do actually write?
examines the rites and difficult or boring, or that
they make too many
wrongs of an undervalued mistakes, or that they simply don’t know
what to write. ‘We have no imagination,’ Writing is often
educational activity. they say. Speaking seems so much more
fun. After all, what we say out loud a solitary activity;
vanishes; we can’t remember more than
a few actual spoken words, and if we do it is usually set
have difficulty expressing ourselves,
others tend to lend us a hand. Writing, for homework,
however, is often a solitary activity; it is
usually set for homework, and what we
and what we
write remains. It shows us our errors
and embarrasses us with our attempts
write remains
to explain or describe. Besides, it often
seems that there is no writing without
Here is my list of things which people
marking. How fortunate that nobody
do actually write. You might like to add
has yet invented a way of underlining
your own.
speech in red, or of drawing notes in the
air as people speak which declare 1 Educational writing: notes, papers,
Preposition! See me! To write is to be examinations, etc
punished, and perhaps this includes the
punishment of marking that teachers 2 Professional: very much depending
inflict upon themselves. on what work you do
Where writing is just a chore, we 3 Communication: letters, emails,
should not be surprised that nobody notes, post-its, etc
benefits very much. Learners copy one
another’s texts. Teachers sigh over piles 4 Personal: diary, love letter, graffiti,
of marking. The learners look at the txt msg, etc
mark in red, and throw the paper away.
Her writing has improved a lot this term. You may have had some students who
Pull the other leg, as we say. yawned and groaned when asked to
write a letter to a friend for homework,
but showed a lot of talent and interest
What to write? while they were carving their opinions
In the classroom, writing covers a very into the desk. I don’t suppose you
wide range of activities. It can be an aid awarded them extra marks for this. As
to learning, part of a test or the writing with all aspects of learning, motivation
of a particular text type for an plays its part.

4 • Issue 35 November 2004 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •


What to consider reflection on the differences between not be a totally teacher-centred activity,
speech and writing makes it clear, and can involve contributions from all
What do we need to know if we
! are to teach writing? Here are a
though, that writing is a world of its the class. You might end up with
own. Try writing down the words, something like this:
few questions to explore. You might like pauses, repetitions, etc that someone
to consider them for a moment before actually says and you’ll get the point. Hi, everyone! It’s me again.
you read on. Writing involves complex planning and
levels of organisation, and the very fact At the moment I’m staying with
1 In the coursebook you use, is ................................. . I’m having a
that it can be edited, changed,
spoken language the main medium great time.
improved, reorganised and so on, makes
of learning?
it particularly suitable as an educational ................................ has a big family.
2 If someone can ‘speak well’, does activity. There’s ............................................. .
it follow that he or she will also
They live in ........................................
‘write well’? Motivation [describe the part of town/village, etc]
3 Are speech and writing organised You can learn a lot by planning and Yesterday we .....................................
in the same way? writing and rewriting a text with a [say what you did yesterday]
4 Which is easier to plan, speech or partner. And if you have a wider reading
etc
writing? audience than just a tired teacher with
red-ink-stained fingers, then there might
5 Which is easier to repair if things be more motivation to improve your
go wrong, speech or writing? text. If you know who your audience is, Producing
6 Which is more interactive, speech and what your purpose is in writing for Everyone can use this outline as a guide
or writing? that audience, then you might approach for the writing of their own email. The
the task with more enthusiasm. readers in Australia are probably going
Like all teachers, I’m fond of answering It’s what you might call the ‘teddy to spot this, but this approach can build
my own questions, but I’ll restrict bear factor’. This is a well-known confidence. This is usually referred to as
myself to a few observations. activity in primary schools. Let’s say a ‘product-based approach’ since the
The tradition of teaching I have that your school makes a link with a teacher is in effect controlling what kind
worked in seems to assume that similar school in Australia. The kids in of text is to be produced. With this age
language is learned primarily by Australia send your kids a teddy bear, group, and with something as
speaking and listening, though it seems or maybe a koala. Each kid in the class potentially vague as a bear’s visit report,
clear that in educational contexts where takes the bear home to stay in his or her this could be appropriate.
learners are not immersed in the family, and the bear ‘reports’ its Interestingly, and you can try an
language then they are always going to experiences by email to its Australian experiment on these lines, when learners
spend more of their own time reading friends. A reason for writing if ever are asked to restrict themselves to an
and writing, especially reading. there was one, and we should never outline of this kind, two things often
Writing is very much linked to underestimate the influence of happen. Either they find the outline
thinking, or if we extend it into a more enjoyment and achievement. restrictive and soon overflow its limits
sociable setting, it can be linked to very so that the text flows into open water, as
purposeful talking. Of course I am not Opportunity it were, where well-organised teachers,
saying that speaking is unimportant, who would like to see their learners just
Of course, this doesn’t get around the
rather that while we have developed paddling in sight of land, suddenly start
biggest issue of all. A learner can be as
learning-through-speaking-and- panicking about sharks and sea-
motivated as it is possible to be, to
listening, it is tempting to let writing monsters. Or in their efforts to force
really want to write well, but still make
take care of itself. A moment’s what they want to say into the limits
no progress if … well, it’s obvious, isn’t
it? There have to be opportunities for established by the outline, the learners
learning how to write well. It might be find themselves getting into more
A learner can worth comparing the two extremes in difficulties than they might otherwise
have had. It is that familiar experience
the tradition of teaching writing, and
be as motivated looking at what these opportunities of filling in a form, and getting annoyed
could be. These don’t exhaust all the with the categories it imposes upon you.
as it is possible possibilities of teaching writing, but So the best opportunities for
they are a start. learning in this kind of approach would
to be, to really seem to be either in the preparation
session, when everyone contributes
want to write well, Modelling ideas to what will be the agreed model;
First, there is the use of models. Let’s or in the efforts made to escape from it
but still make suppose that the teacher wrote on the later, when the learner really has
blackboard an all-purpose email outline something he or she wants to say.
no progress for the aforementioned bear’s message More sophisticated product-based
home. The creation of this model need approaches have essentially the same 

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 35 November 2004 • 5


Writing
4 Choice of words for clarity, Ah, I can hear you say, there’s only
persuasion, etc one problem. How are we going to find
the time for all this stuff ? It’s hard
5 I haven’t mentioned grammar,
enough just getting through the course.
spelling or punctuation yet … It works much better just to say, Now go


revalued
problems. However, if the text has a
6 Add more issues of your own …

This is proof enough that there are a lot


of things going on when we write.
Interestingly, most learners worry far
home and write 350 words about your
holiday. Well, you could even start off
that way. It might be interesting
afterwards, though, to have a class
session in which learners have to revise
more about grammar, spelling or and improve their 350-word texts,
totally predictable structure and is to be
punctuation. After all, they might say, maybe in pairs. Ask them to focus on
completed with a limited amount of
we’re only learning the language, not organisation and expression, rather than
information, then it works well enough.
training to be writers. But we might error, which is after all what they
Here is another example:
disagree with this. experience from the teacher most of the
time! Try telling them to rewrite their
1 Read a text about a famous
Processing 350-word text as a 50-word text. Then
person. Underline the verbs; look as 150 words. Or start them off in class
at the way the paragraphs begin Try this old teaching joke:
writing the opening paragraph as a
(noticing activities). A What do you teach? cooperative pairwork task, which will at
2 Read some notes about another B ELT. least give opportunities for learners to
famous person. Compare these A Oh, really? I teach people. generate ideas together. In this context,
with the text in 1. To put it another way, we might ask they can learn how to use dictionaries
ourselves whether our language learning and reference grammars effectively.
3 Produce a new text based on the Word-processing is obviously an ideal
lessons also have educational value. Using
notes. medium for cooperative writing,
a process-based approach to writing seems
to offer more opportunities in this because revising is built into the
respect than a product-based approach. medium. Perhaps different versions of
Thinking the text could be distributed by email,
Of course there is the question as to which would bring us back to the ‘real
whether anyone would really ever want world’ argument.
to write a two-paragraph biography of a Writing and thinking
famous person unless their teacher had 
told them to do it. There are other are linked, but it’s
objections to this kind of activity, From the point of view of time, it seems
familiar to those of us who have
not linking we have odd that teachers always feel so
wondered why the learners who pressured to complete the syllabus,
performed so well in their classwork
to do first, but rather which usually means a grammar-based
syllabus, that writing tasks are often
and homework, and had no problems
with the writing activities neatly linked
uncoupling, if we skipped. What is the point of learning a
language if you don’t have anything
to other skills in their communicative
coursebook, have suddenly done so
are to understand interesting to use it for, or any time to
learn how to do this?
badly in The Test. This problem strikes what learning to In the same spirit, I think we should
right at the heart of what we mean by
learning to write. As I mentioned earlier, write involves be questioning why and how we ask our
learners to write. Maybe they should be
writing and thinking are linked. But it’s
not linking we have to do first, but producing less product, and getting
rather uncoupling, if we are to more out of the discussion, planning
understand what learning to write If we consider writing as a process, and revision stages of writing. ETp
involves. By this I mean that when we during which we develop the text
say writing, we throw together under through a series of plans, drafts and
one term a number of separate issues: revisions; or in a classroom context,
Michael Vince has taught
through a series of discussions, English in Italy, Greece
1 Organisation of ideas. Where to pairwork sessions and passing-all-the- and the UK. He is the
texts-round-the-class sessions, then author of Highlight,
start? How to finish? Jackpot, Smart, the
perhaps we can revalue writing as a Language Practice Series
2 Organisation of sentences into and other material for
truly educational activity involving
paragraphs, then into text Heinemann and
thinking, cooperation with others, Macmillan. He lived in
3 Effectiveness of communication – learning how to criticise others without Greece from 1977 to 1994
but now lives in London.
making your point, signposting to offending them, etc. And truly writing
help the reader understand what for an audience of peers, not just for the
teacher and a mark in red. [email protected]
you mean

6 • Issue 35 November 2004 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

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